Any questions?
By far the best game of the season for this team. Oregon, I think is a decent team, who when hitting their shots, would have made this game much closer. Still UNC gets huge swaths of credit for playing some tough defense and for their execution on the offensive end.
Tyler Hansbrough returned to action and has 16 points, 12 of them from the FT line. It is obvious he is still working through the rust since some of his moves around the basket were not as smooth as they normally would be. He was also basically hacked to death by the Oregon interior defenders but as the game wore on Hansbrough stepped his game up a bit more. It was also nice to see him get aggressive with the Oregon'sp Michael Dunigan who had accidentally elbowed him in the chin on the prior play. Hansbrough tangled with Dunigan on a later offensive possession for the Ducks and drew an offensive foul on Dunigan.
The star of the game was Danny Green who was on fire. Green went 4-5 from three point range to start the game and ended up hitting a career best five threes on the game. Green was also very active on defense collecting two blocks to go along with his eight boards and four assists. If he continues to play at this level he is making a fairly loud argument to be the starter even when Marcus Ginyard is healthy.
Deon Thompson had another solid game as did Ed Davis who scored 11 and pulled 13 rebounds in only 23 minutes of play. Ty Lawson and Wayne Ellington were fairly quiet but picked their moments. Lawson only had seven points and five assists but more importantly only had one turnover. Lawson's A/TO is a ridiculous 4.0 so far this season. Ellington had zero turnovers and four assists to go along with his 13 points. Ellington is doing a much better job taking care of the basketball than he was a year ago which is a significant improvement in his game since it gives UNC another reliable ball handler at one of the guard slots.
Overall, a very satisfying performance and exactly the way the #1 team in the nation is expected to play when face an inferior opponent. Now the Heels get Notre Dame which will be a war and Hansbrough's status(because of the ankle) is questionable.