Thursday Morning Shootaround

So the ACC wins, 6-5. Here's what happened last night:

• North Carolina 98, Michigan State 63: I've watched a lot of college basketball in my time, but as I am only 23 years old, my "time" probably consists of about the last ten years. Regardless, I can honestly say that UNC is the best team I have ever seen play. I'm sure the UCLA teams of the 70's or the Georgetown/UNC/Houston teams of the early-to-mid 80's would give these Heels a run for there money, but I never saw them play.
  
  I have seen this team play, and I can tell you that they have absolutely no weakness. None. Zero. They are a juggernaut offensively. There is pretty much nothing you can do against them in transition. Any steal, turnover, or long defensive rebound turns into a lay-up or open three at the other end quicker than you can say "stress reaction". They even push the ball on makes. If you somehow manage to stop their fast break, they are a much improved team in the half court. It isn't because of any set offense (as far as I can tell they barely have one), but more a result of having five guys on the floor, pretty much at all times, that can create their own shot.
  
  If they have a weakness, if comes on the defensive side of the ball. They have a tendency to lose focus on that end. They do make a lot of steals and block a lot of shots, but they sometimes gamble a bit too much. But, like I said, it seems to be mostly a focus thing, because there were a couple times last night when the Heels absolutely clamped down. At the end of the first half, UNC was up 12 with about a minute left. If Michigan State can score and cut the lead to ten or nine at the half, that would have been a huge confidence boost. Instead, UNC played 35 seconds of tough defense, forcing the Spartans into a shot clock violation. They came down and scored at the other end, giving themselves to 53-39 halftime advantage.
  
  One of the things that impressed me so much was how UNC absolutely demoralized a very good and very proud Spartans team. Watching them walk off the court, you could see they were all thinking the same thing, "Did that really just happen?" If anyone is going to beat this UNC team this year, not only are they going to have to play a near perfect game, they are going to need the Heels to play a bad game.
  
  Ty Lawson looked fantastic last night, as he went for 17, 8 dimes, and 7 steals. Defensively, he was everywhere. He must have had five breakaway lay-ups during the game. But he was also his usual self pushing the rock and distributing the ball. The biggest thing I noticed was the fact that Lawson hit two NBA range three pointers. As if they weren't good enough already, now Lawson is hitting them from Steph Curry range. Tyler Hansbrough played and went for 25 and 11. Danny Green looked very good, making a ton of play on both ends of the floor. He can really do a lot of things on a basketball court - defend, pass, shoot - and I think he is going to be a good pro. Ed Davis impressed me a lot as well.
  
  For the Spartans, it was terrible game but there were some good signs. Delvon Roe is going to be a player. He is not quite there yet physically - he still looks a little out of shape and he doesn't have his legs underneath him - but he just had a presence out there. That's the best way to describe it. He was always in the right spot - defensively and rebounding - he made a couple nice passes, and he blocked some shots. Raymar Morgan also ended up with 21 and 6 boards.
• Penn State 85, Georgia Tech 83: Penn State tried to do their best Wisconsin impression as they kept missing free throws which allowed the Yellow Jackets to cut the lead to two with under five seconds left. But Tech missed a 25 foot runner at the buzzer. Tech did not look very good at all, especially defensively, where the Nittany Lions routinely got open looks for their shooters. The Jackets are similar to the Virginia Tech Hokies in that they really only have three players - Gani Lawal (who went for 34 and 10 last night), Alade Aminu (12 and 10), and Iman Shumpert (14 and 12 dimes). PSU was led by Stanley Pringle with 22 points and Talor Battle with 18 and 7 assists.
• Maryland 75, Michigan 70: Greivis Vazquez had 23, 12 boards, 6 assists, and 3 steals to lead Maryland to a tough win at home against the Wolverines. Manny Harris had 15 for Michigan, but he was just 5-15 from the floor. 
• Wake Forest 83, Indiana 58: It was a dunk fest for Wake Forest. These are the two best. First, Jeff Teague abuses ... no one because there is no help defense.
  
  
  
  Like the effort trying to take a charge. Jimmy Dykes tried to give the kid a heads up, but he still got posterized. My favorite part of the clip is Johnson's reaction.
  
  
• Northwestern 73, Florida State 59: Florida State had all sorts of problems with the Northwestern 1-3-1 zone. They had 22 turnovers and shot just 6-23 from deep. The big run came during the second half when Northwestern held the Seminoles scoreless for four minutes during a 20-2 run. Craig Moore had 20 for the Wildcats, while Kevin Coble added 15, 8 and 7 dimes.

The rest of the night's action:

• Rhode Island 85, Northeastern 72
• Pitt 78, Duquense 51: DeJuan Blair has 17 boards, 10 on the offensive end.
• Syracuse 88, Cornell 78: Cornell was up as much as 16 in the first half, but Syracuse eventually came back to win. Ryan Wittman had 33 points on 9 three's for the Big Red.
• Tennessee 87, Asheville 69: Tyler Smith had the first triple double in school history, going for 12, 10 and 10.
• Miami OH 68, Temple 52
• Nebraska 80, Alabama State 51
• Illinois-Chicago 74, Vanderbilt 55: Really?
• Kansas 100, New Mexico State 79
• Xavier 81, Auburn 74: BJ Raymond has 32 points on just 13 shots, including shooting 7-9 from deep.
• Texas Tech 72, Wichita State 69
• UAB 78, South Florida 77 OT: South Florida was up 13 points with 6:00 minutes, but UAB used a 18-5 run to send the game into overtime. Lawrence Kinnard, who ended up with 20 points and 12 boards, hit two free throws with 14.5 seconds left to give the Blazers the win.
• West Virginia 80, Mississippi 78: The Mountaineers won a back and forth game on a pair of Alex Ruoff free throws. Da'Sean Butler led WVU with 22, 10, and 4 steals. Tough loss for a gritty Mississippi team that has lost two back court starters for the season to injury. This week is huge for West Virginia, as they now get Cleveland State on Saturday and Davidson on Tuesday. For a team that is going to be in the middle of the Big Eat standings, any and all non-conference wins are so important.
• UNLV 82, Fresno State 76
• Cal 77, DePaul 67