Memo to Toney Douglas. If you are going to tell an ESPN.com writer that FSU will "shock the world" you might want to do more than score 11 points on 3-12 shooting with a nice 1-9 from the three point line.
This was an ugly game and UNC did not play good defense in general. The offense was off as well with Ellington not scoring until the second half, Hansbrough getting off to a slow start and everyone acting like the weather outside had them depressed. Danny Green was once again there picking his spots to his key shots when asked to do it. Sparked by Green, UNC picked their game up finishing the first half on a run and allowed FSU no closer than six points the rest of the way. As for QT and Lawson, I would venture to say Lawson looked better though it is obvious his speed is not there like it was before. However his court vision is still very good and he did hit the jump shots available to him which might make him better down the road. QT still looked to struggle a tad, got into some foul trouble but capped off his Dean Dome career with a nice dunk on a drive down the lane.
The odd thing is this game is very similar to the UNC-FSU game in 2005 which was played on March 3rd in Chapel Hill and UNC won 91-76. The other similarity, besides the closeness of the score and date, was UNC struggling in that game and actually trailing at the half and with 13 minutes left in the game. From there UNC turned it on and pulled away for the win. The game this evening was similar to the degree in which the Heels struggled to put a consistent effort together on both ends but they seemingly figured out enough to get ahead by 12 at the half and never really were threatened after that point. What is striking about this it is easy to worry about how UNC played tonight but then you realize that the 2005 team had similar struggles at the same point in the season versus an FSU team that was at the bottom of the conference.
The ultimate point is you are getting to a juncture in the season where winning is the only thing that matters, how it happens is a secondary issue.