Tale of the Tape: McKie vs. Barnes
by SamuraiFoochs on Jan 31, 2012 12:38 PM EST
in Wake Forest Basketball
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PrintComing into Wake's big time game against UNC tonight, I decided I'd run a special feature matching up 2 players, one from each team, and comparing and contrasting them. The most natural matchup that occurred to me was Wake's Travis McKie vs. UNC's Harrison Barnes, so that's the matchup we're going to look at in this feature. Everything from size to stats will be looked at in this feature.
That said, check out the comparisons after the jump...
HEIGHT/WEIGHT
McKie: 6'7"/210
Barnes: 6'8"/215
Edge: Barnes, but barely. There's not much of a difference here.
PPG
McKie: 16.3
Barnes: 17.5
Edge: Again, Barnes, but barely, and this is particularly interesting given another stat I'll get into later.
RPG
McKie: 7.1
Barnes: 4.6
Edge: McKie by a healthy margin on the boards. Of course, UNC has more of a front line so it might be deceptive, but it is indeed possible that McKie is more of a board-crasher in general than Barnes.
DEFENSIVE REBOUND PERCENTAGE
McKie: 14.5%
Barnes: 10.1%
Edge: Healthy edge to McKie percentage-wise, as well.
OFFENSIVE REBOUND PERCENTAGE
McKie: 8.9%
Barnes: 7.2%
Edge: Again, the edge goes to McKie.
APG
McKie: 1.1
Barnes: 1.0
Edge: Virtually even, though McKie has the smallest edge possible here.
BLOCKS (TOTAL)
McKie: 14
Barnes: 8
Edge: McKie
FG%
McKie: 47.5% on 261 attempts
Barnes: 49.1% on 271 attempts
Edge: Slight edge to Barnes here.
3 POINT SHOOTING
McKie: 34,9% on 63 attempts
Barnes: 45% on 60 attempts
Edge: Healthy edge to Barnes on this one.
eFG%
McKie: 51.7%
Barnes: 54.1%
Edge: Slight edge to Barnes here. Without that 1-13 game, the edge would probably go to Travis.
FT%
McKie: 70.6% on 102 attempts
Barnes: 73,5% on 102 attempts
Edge: Barnes by a little, though it's fascinating to me that they've taken exactly the same number of free throws. For the record, the difference in percentage is a measly 3 makes.
MPG
McKie; 34.7 minutes
Barnes: 26.3 minutes
Edge: McKie gets significantly more minutes. This is worth considering when you factor things like number of shot attempts, but I'll get to that.
% OF POSSESSIONS USED
McKie: 25.5%
Barnes: 26.5%
Edge: Barnes gets used even more than McKie, which is interesting to me particularly because McKie gets significantly more minutes, so you'd think it would be the other way around. However, it's a very slight difference regardless.
BOTTOM LINE
Statistically, when you put everything together and factor it all in, it's almost eerie. McKie and Barnes are, in most ways, virtually identical players. McKie seems to be a more "blue-collar" player with more rebounds (by a large margin) and blocks, while Barnes is significantly more of a threat outside. All considered, though, everything is so close in most other categories, they're virtually interchangeable. If we were in bizarro world and Barnes was a Deac and McKie was a Tar Heel, if the pure stats are anything to go by, there probably wouldn't be a particularly significant difference in the standings of the teams.
I was actually surprised how similar these two are. We've seen it before, but it'll definitely be cool to see these two amazing players battle again on the court.
As always, comments encouraged and appreciated. Go Deacs.
--SF
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Great breakdown
I think need has a lot to do with how each performs for their respective team though.
Barnes is definitely the more skilled player, but Travis gets it back with hustle and lack of other rebounder/big men on our team.
I think if you switched them Barnes would put up much better numbers. Not a slam on Travis, but just an objective look at each of them.
Wake Forest '12
Mother So Dear
by RAJohnston on Jan 31, 2012 1:35 PM EST via Android app reply actions
That's a fair observation.
But it’s still surprising to me how close they are. I mean really, other than outside shooting, there’s no more than like, a 3% difference in any given category which, while not negligible, isn’t super significant. Also worth keeping in mind, objectively speaking, that Travis’s 1-13 game probably skews several of the categories slightly.
Contributing Writer for Blogger So Dear, SBN's Wake Forest Blog
by SamuraiFoochs on Jan 31, 2012 1:39 PM EST up reply actions
Barnes is the most talented player on the second most talented team in the country.
And while he can be verrrrrrrry good, Carolina is so much better when they’re feeding the ball inside.
I’m a lot less worried about Barnes going off tonight than I am about Zeller going for 30 and 20 and Henson blocking 18 shots.
I would argue that Barnes is the best player in the ACC (yes, I see you over there in the corner Mike Scott) and that his team is actually worse the more assertive he becomes.
In a related story...
I think we’re a borderline NCAA team with Tyler Zeller on our team this year. He would fill SO many of our holes – overall offensive effectiveness, interior presence, rebounding, depth – that I think we’d see a disproportionate improvement compared to what his stats indicate.
Agreed.
His Offensive Rating and OR% would help us astronomically.
It would also provide an inside threat that teams would have to watch out for, which would allow the drive and kick to me much more effective.
Wake Forest '12
Mother So Dear
Nice breakdown!
But yeah McKie is good
Blogger So Dear
"Meet me on the Quad at midnight" Skip Prosser
Great breakdown!! Can I say one thing? Nikita can't guard Zeller or Henson.
Hope we pack the house.
I will be there.
I have been to all the home games against duke since 2007.
But, never seen UNC play
Can’t wait!!!
Better be tons of students.
What about Ty Walker and John Henson?
Wait who would ty match up against henson or zeller?
nikita will struggle if he has to guard one of them.
Honestly...
Here’s how I would align us defensively:
McKie on Henson
Nikita on Barnes
Walker/Derosiers on Zeller
Henson is limited offensively – any time we let him take a perimeter shot is a win for us defensively, as it 1) is unlikely to go in and 2) removes one of the offensive rebounding players from the equation. I think that Travis has the strength to muscle Henson off the low block, where he could be a bigger nuisance.
Barnes likes to float around the perimeter more, so putting Nikita on him makes sense. As I said in the other thread, I’m okay with Barnes beating us, particularly if it’s from the perimeter. I think that Barnes will be more likely to 1) take shots and 2) take perimeter shots if Nikita’s guarding him.
Regardless of how we line up at forward defensively, we have to have our big on Zeller. He’s the guy who is good enough on the low block and aggressive rebounding to cause us major headaches.
Outside of that, the same keys as always apply when playing a Roy-coached team:
1) Defend in transition, either by sending no one to the offensive glass or sending enough people to the offensive glass to keep Carolina honest in breaking out in transition (I call this the Izzo special). Here’s guessing we do the former.
2) Limit their offensive rebounding opportunities. We’re pretty much boned with this one.
3) Exploit their guards. Kendall Marshall’s not the quickest guard laterally, and their best perimeter defender and backup PG is now done. The real way to exploit Carolina the rest of the season will be to pressure Marshall defensively, to both wear him out and possibly force the Heels to use Stilman White for prolonged stretches. Marshall, like Lawson and Felton before him, is what makes that offense go. Without him, they become decidedly less than the sum of their parts. Gonna need Tony to play aggressively but under control tonight to have a chance.
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