Damn.
Knowing my place in the ACC media, if you reading this you already know the story. UNC loses two players (Wright and Ginyard) to the stomach flu. Arizona has a big home court advantage. It's the Pac-10 versus the ACC for best the best conference in the land. The end result?
Arizona suffers its worse loss at home under Lute Olsen. 16 points worse than the previous mark.
Luke Winn has in-depth coverage, even citing those efficiency numbers we were tossing around before the game. The victory was impressive enough to earn plaudits from State fans. Practically every aspect of Carolina's play showed improvement, especially turnovers - the Heels had 12 overall and only three from the backcourt of Lawson and Ellington. The three-point shooting remained suspect, but if you can drive at will (21 layups!) as well as pass inside, it's not particularly necessary. This was a great game to have in the midst this stretch of the ACC schedule, and UNC took full advantage of it.
My favorite Arizona quotes:
"I just told the guys, 'This is a nightmare. Forget it.' We're not even going to look at the tapes." --Lute Olson
"There's nothing to say other than that North Carolina was great and we were awful." --Lute Olson
"North Carolina is out of our conference. And we won't play another team like that in conference." --Jawann McClellan