Greatest Carolina Players in the ACC Era: A Summary

Now that the top 100 list is complete, I figured I’d do some quick post-game analysis.

Which state has produced the most top 100 Heels? It’s actually a tie at the top:

1. North Carolina: 22
1. New York: 22
3. Pennsylvania: 12
4. Virginia: 9
5: International: 5
6. Maryland: 4
6. New Jersey: 4
8. Indiana: 3
8. Ohio: 3
10. South Carolina: 2
10. Florida: 2
10. California: 2
10. Tennessee: 2
14. 8 tied with 1

And what is the distribution by decade (using peak seasons)?

1950s: 8
1960s: 14
1970s: 18
1980s: 18
1990s: 22
2000s: 20

Only the 1982 Tar Heels have had three of our top 10 on the same roster (Worthy, Perkins, and Jordan). 1968, 1981, 1983, and 1984 each had a pair of top 10s. As for top 25s, only the 1984 team can boast four such players (Perkins, Jordan, Smith, Daugherty). Nine other Carolina squads have had three. 1972 (Wuycik, Jones, McAdoo, Karl, Chamberlain), 1991 (Fox, H. Davis, Lynch, Montross, Phelps), 1992 (H. Davis, Lynch, Montross, Phelps, D. Williams), and 1998 (Jamison, Cater, Cota, Sh. Williams, Haywood) are the four Carolina teams with five top 50 players.

Most Top 100 Players on a Single Roster:

1. 1991: 10
1. 1986: 10
3. 1988: 9
3. 1989: 9
3. 1994: 9

But teams like the ’88 and ’89 were middle-heavy (8 or 9 players between 30 and 70; no one in the top 30). Which teams had the best top-end talent according to our list?

Average Ranking of 3 Top-Ranked Players:

1. 1982: 7.7 (Worthy, Perkins, Jordan)
2. 1983, 1984: 9.0 (Perkins, Jordan, Daugherty)
4. 1981: 10.7 (Wood, Worthy, Perkins)
5. 1978: 12.0 (Ford, Wood, O’Koren)

Extending that analysis out to include the 5 top-ranked players yields the following list:

1. 1984: 19.8 (Perkins, Jordan, Daugherty, Smith, Wolf)
2. 1982: 28.4 (Worthy, Perkins, Jordan, Black, Doherty)
3. 1983: 28.8 (Jordan, Perkins, Daugherty, Hale, Doherty)
4. 1981: 30.2 (Wood, Worthy, Perkins, Black, Doherty)
5. 1991: 31.8 (Lynch, Montross, Fox, H. Davis, Phelps)

To look at overall roster talent, let’s assign 100 points for the #1 ranked player (Hansbrough), 99 for #2 (Ford), …, 1 for #100 (Ginyard). Summing these total points for each ACC-era roster, the “most talented” Carolina teams (at least by this metric) were:

1. 1984: 499 points
2. 1991: 466
3. 1989: 439
4. 1986: 419
5. 1994: 418
6. 1972: 398
7. 1974: 388
8. 1982: 387
9. 1983: 385
10. 1988: 383

The ’09 champs are currently at 360 points and, once Tyler Zeller’s career concludes (and he is placed in the top 100), they’ll move onto this list.

The ten least-talented UNC teams:

1. 1954: 41 points
2. 1962: 88
3. 2002: 99
4. 1964: 119
5. 1955: 139
6. 1963: 172
7. 1966: 182
8. 2001: 183
9. 2006: 188
10. 1965: 193

These rankings are just for fun, of course, and don’t represent any type of rigorous analysis. But this post helps to put a bow on the Carolina top 100 list. With the Heels tipping off this Friday, we’ll be transitioning towards analysis of the 2011-12 season. Thanks for reading!