The Ways ACC Teams Scored Their Points Last Season Reveals Strengths And Weaknesses

Ball goes in basket, points awarded: A simple equation familiar to every player and fan. (Unless the officials find a reason to wave off the score, but that’s another story.)

Looking at the ways ACC teams derived points in 2021 tells you a lot about what they tried to do, and how well they succeeded.

Consider, for instance, that two of the top teams in points via 3-pointer were laggards during the regular season, paddling desperately to keep pace with the team that fared best by cashing in most heavily from the bonusphere.

Wake and BC finished at the bottom of the standings, trailing the field in accuracy from floor and foul line. BC had one player in the top 20 in rebounding (Steffon Mitchell), bespeaking a weak interior game, and Wake had none.

Clearly the teams tried to compensate from beyond the arc.

Two Eagles, Jay Heath and Rich Kelly, were among the ACC’s top 10 in threes made per game. (Both are gone this year.) BC also had a player in the ACC’s top 15 in field goal percentage (Heath) and assists (Makai Ashton-Langford). The Demon Deacons had none.

BC finished last and fired its coach before the season ended. Wake had a new coach and finished next-to-last, its struggles surprising no one.

Virginia, on the other hand, settled atop the ACC standings with the league’s second-best scoring margin, field goal and 3-point accuracy, and its top free throw acuity. In fact, the Cavs’ .816 foul shooting was best in ACC history.

UVa also paced the conference in the portion of its points derived from long range (41.3 percent), a significant jump from 2020 (29.8).

Those ’21 strengths compensated for the next-to-worst offensive rebounding in the league. Conservatism (or was it ineffectiveness, or both?) in crashing the boards contributed to Virginia’s getting only 13.8 percent of its points via free throw.

That line conversion rate was second-worst in the ACC and a decided underuse of the Cavs’ record-setting foul shooting. Unfortunately no team attempted fewer foul shots overall than UVa (288, 11.5 per game).

Duke also departed from program custom by deriving a mere 13.1 percent of its points via free throw. That trailed everyone in the ACC including UVa.