Yeah, I have no idea.
About the defense that is. I think there were some positive signs like the way they played defense out on the perimeter. The intensity seemed to be there from guys like Wayne Ellington who quite frankly worked his rear end off on both ends of the court and only drew Roy's ire for allowing Miami defenders to tap the ball away from behind on the break. Marcus Ginyard did a great job on Jack McClinton holding him to only 11 points on 4-12 shooting. In general everyone seemed to step up the energy. However you look at the boxscore and Miami shoots nearly 50% and scores 82 points. It is pretty much a headscratcher because in some instances it looked as though no matter how well UNC defended the Hurricanes or contested a shot they went in anyway. It was also baffling that UM guard Lance Hurdle came in averaging 6.5 ppg but pleft with a probable career high 20 points or Brian Asbury, owner of a 12% shooting percentage from behind the arc, somehow hits 2 of 5 despite the fact he had not hit one since ACC play began. So it was a mixed bag. At times it seemed very good or at least Miami had to work for the shots but on the other hand the Hurricanes got some good looks, especially in transition. Of course when you talk about 96-82 score, if you do better on five possessions you end up winning the game by 26 and no one questions the defense so much. Overall I think the defense was improved but it is also a work in progress. Eight days off will hopefully help with it some.
On offense, the shots just were not falling at points in the first half with only the play of Ty Lawson and Ellington keeping the Heels rolling. In the second half, it was an incredible performance from Tyler Hansbrough scoring 27 of his 35 points. It was a fairly impressive outing because of the mix of shots he scored on as well as the 15-16 FT shooting. Not many big men in the country can get to the line that many times and knock down all but one free throw. Lawson was equally impressive with 23 points and 10 assists while turning the ball over once. Lawson is very effective when he is aggressive and looks for his shot or at least acts like he might shoot because it baits the defender a bit. The ten assists might be the bigger deal since his numbers in that area had been a little down. Ellington was hot early but cooled which appears to be a pattern with him of late. He still work exceptionally hard on offense in attempting to get his shots. Danny Green continues to be real quiet pretty much everywhere with only seven points and Deon Thompson had 10 on 5-10 shooting which really was not that memorable despite it being a decent effort.
One other concern, aside from the defense, is the fact Hansbrough, Lawson and Ellington all clocked over 30 mins. In fact Hansbrough had 35 mins and I figure the best way to resolve some of this is starting blowing some teams out so these guys can limit the minutes from time to time. Of course Roy was well aware he had eight days off ahead so he might have been less concerned with the minutes as he might be at other points in the season. The little over a week off will be helpful since some of the players are banged up a bit and UNC hosts Boston College next Thursday which promises to be a physical game.
So in short, it was a move in the right direction and no one should be complaining about a sixteen point win on the road against a decent Miami team.