ShareThisLost amid all the talk about North Carolina's occasional lack of intensity, with even coach Roy Williams admitting his team doesn't have the kind of "wacko" who can unfailingly fire up his teammates, is the grim reality that the Tar Heels will not often need to summon that kind of fire in the ACC this season.
Tuesday offered the Tar Heels the choice of letting Miami hang around after a few mental lapses let an early spurt go to waste, or putting the Hurricanes away.
North Carolina chose to make a statement. Miami took a one-point lead midway through the first half; over the next 14 minutes, the Tar Heels outscored Miami 32-8 to blow the game open on their way to a 73-56 win -- on a night when they didn't even shoot that well.
It was the kind of prolonged focus and intensity, particularly on defense, that fans and coaches alike have been demanding from the Tar Heels this season and the Tar Heels have all too often failed to produce.
Not that anyone could be blamed for losing focus -- falling asleep, even -- thanks to yet another of the ridiculous television-fueled 9 p.m. tip-offs that have infected college basketball like the avian flu. Fans hate them, players and coaches hate them and the deadline-shackled media definitely hate them.
Blame the people who brought you the BCS. Television money drives the bus, even if everyone aboard is dozing off.
That has at times included the Tar Heels, who haven't always shown the kind of single-minded killer instinct typically expected of the No. 3 team in the country. After the Tar Heels took an early seven-point lead, they let the Hurricanes right back into the game and Miami led 17-16.
So it was decision time. What kind of night was it going to be?
North Carolina went on a grinding 8-0 run that was more about defense than offense to regain the lead, then went on a 17-0 run to end the first half and begin the second to put the Hurricanes away. That one was very much about offense.
At one point, the Tar Heels scored on eight-straight possessions. The Hurricanes looked utterly bewildered.
"We did a great job matching their intensity at the beginning of the game," guard Dexter Strickland said. "Everyone came out aggressive. It was very important not to slack off (in the second half), not to give them any confidence. We had to continue to go after them."
So that's the challenge now: In a year when the ACC is likely to generate only a handful of real challenges, can the Tar Heels play with the kind of focused, sustained intensity necessary to not only generate a 20-point lead early in the second half but build on it? Can they do that on a regular basis against teams that aren't ranked in the top 25?
That's what the really good teams do, whether they have a "wacko" on the roster or not, whether they're playing Duke or someone else, even on nights when Harrison Barnes and John Henson combine to miss almost as many shots (18) as the entire opposing team makes (23).
North Carolina hasn't always done it this season, and it clearly doesn't come naturally to the Tar Heels. But this time, they at least showed signs that they understand what it takes.
(Contact Luke Decock at luke.decock(at)newsobserver.com.)
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
Must credit The News and Observer of Raleigh, N.C.
