Low Post Monster

Almost as amazing as Carolina's comeback was Sean May's stat line.

Twenty-six points and 24 rebounds? In one game? Against Duke?!

Thanks to May's awesome rebounding, the Heels had an O-Reb Rate of 48.8%. So out of all of the available rebounds at its offensive end, North Carolina grabbed almost half of them.

With May's offensive rebounds (12) alone, the Heels still posted a respectable O-Reb Rate of 35.3% (which happens to be higher than NC State's season average...).

Perhaps nothing speaks to May's performance on the glass better than Shelden Williams's rebounding numbers: Williams had 4 rebounds in 36 minutes, and for a guy averaging 10+ per game, that's difficult to imagine. Heck, Lee "Every Shot I Make Is Huge And I Must Illustrate This With Appropriately Significant Facial Expressions" Melchionni grabbed 5.

Also interesting is that despite this:

AdjFG%

Duke: 56.3%
UNC: 41%

...Carolina was still more efficient than Duke at the offensive end. UNC had a sub-standard Offensive Efficiency of 111.1 for the game, but Duke's OFF EFF was just 108.1. How did that happen? Second chances and free throws.

Duke shot 10-19 from the FT line compared to UNC's 20-26 shooting.

Carolina also edged Duke in FGM (27-26) thanks largely to second chances...the Heels required 11 more attempts to squeak past Duke in the FGM category. Duke made 10 more three-pointers than Carolina, but even so, that was only good enough for an 8-point Blue Devil edge based on field goals alone, so the free throw discrepancy (barely) made up the difference for the Heels.