Hey, I told the Seminoles fans that Ty Lawson was the guy to watch out for.
This game, where UNC lapsed back into its bad habits of turnovers (21), poor perimeter shooting (7-19) and a kind of confusion when Tyler Hansbrough is overdefended, is most notable for its comparison to the other nail-biter of the night, Wake's two point win over Duke. It also shows how better the Heels are at managing late game situations than the Deacons; UNC missed only one free throw in the final six minutes and generated crucial turnovers by controlling the passing lanes, while Wake was miserable from the line down the stretch and almost gave the game away when James Johnson completely failed to box out Jon Scheyer after the later missed a potential winning three.
All three teams contending for the ACC crown had horrible nights shooting from the arc, and none did a good job of handling the ball, in UNC's case through its own incompetence more than anything else. Both the Heels and Duke seem to be much more flummoxed when they lose the ball - the Blue Devils looking practically stunned when they turn it over despite so often doing the same to the other team. Don't they at least experience this in practice? I think you'll be able to point to last night come the end of the season and see exactly where the conference champion separated themselves from the rest of the pack; just who that champion is (and I'm going with the Heels or Wake) remains to be seen though.
And speaking of Wake, SBNation has signed up a blog for our Winston-Salem friends; check out their take on the game over at Blogger So Dear.