Challenge Answered

Well, I was proven wrong and boy, am I happy to be wrong! This was easily the statement game of the young season.

I look at this game as a tale of two halves and two teams: potential team vs inexperienced team. The first half was amazing and proves that this team can hang with anyone in the country. Michigan State was picked to win the Big Ten and was supposed to be one of the front runners for the national title in April. But after a Dexter Strickland dagger at the end of the half, there stood the young Heels up 16 points, proving that North Carolina has the potential and ability to play with anyone. This game was especially encouraging with some big games looming against Kentucky and Texas. Neither one of these is a guaranteed win, because we have the second half to talk about.

The second half represented the inexperienced team. I say inexperienced because of the silly mistakes like not getting back on transition defense, missing free throws, and Deon Thompson for three?!?! Part of this inexperienced is the fact that MUS is a good team as noted above and you knew they would make a run at some point and North Carolina could not shoot 64% for the whole game. The whole half wasn't awful, just a little sloppy because UNC started off strong, pushing the lead up to 19 points before the sloppiness began.

Things I didn't like:
1. Transition defense. I can't recall a team beating North Carolina down the court for easy buckets. Sure, a team will get an occasional basket, but MSU was doing more times in this game than I can recall all last year.

2. Turnovers. Yes, shocking, but it wasn't the number of turnovers, but it was the fact that of the 17 turnovers, 14 were from the starters, the more experienced of the team, but also Michigan State had 15 steals off of those 17 turnovers. I can handle the turnovers, but lets not give up the ball off steals.

Things I liked:
1. Freshman domination. If the freshman were waiting to show up, they picked a good time. I was very pleased with all of them. Even if Dexter Strickland was the only one who scored over two points, they all contributed in some way, with John Henson blocking 4 shots - all coming out of nowhere, and The Wear Twins chipping in with solid defense. Dexter Strickland was awesome. He was aggressive, poised, and played some solid defense.

2. Super Sophomores. The freshman were good, but the sophomores were outstanding. Larry Drew II, in his last two games has almost made me forget about Ty Lawson. Ok, not quite, but he has been pretty Ty Lawson-like. He is shooting the ball with confidence and finding open teammates for easy buckets. Ed Davis played how every major broadcaster thought he would and showed more of his potential and why he was projected as a top 5 pick in the draft. I still think Deon Thompson is the man for this team, but Ed Davis is a pretty good sidekick.

Overall, great game for the Heels and we see what they can be. Hopefully, they can keep up the pace.