Aside from Duke’s comeback win over Florida, the only other ACC game Sunday night was also in Portland as UNC cratered against Michigan State in the finals of the Victory Bracket in the PK80 event.
The final score of 63-45 doesn’t begin to reflect how badly UNC played.
Here’s another measure: the Spartans had 24 turnovers...and still won by 18.
And here’s one more: UNC had the worst shooting night in the Roy Williams era and perhaps of any recorded game, hitting just 24.6%. Only Theo Pinson was remotely respectable, shooting 6-13, which kind of made him the Mississippi of the game as in thank god for Pinson...because the rest were dreadful.
Luke Maye? 3-13. Joel Berry? 2-11. Kenny Williams? 1-7.
Bill Walton summed it up by saying that UNC looked physically intimidated and that could explain the dozen or more missed layups and perhaps even shooting 5.6% from three point range.
Coach Roy Williams summed it up like this: “Well, it was about as bad an exhibition as I've ever seen.”
He was being kind and in a typical Williams move was much harsher on himself than his players. DBR readers will know to expect suicide jokes from Ol’ Roy this week.
UNC gets a few days to think about it before the ACC/Big Ten Challenge starts up.
Here are the days and pairings. Check ACC At A Glance for more particulars:
Maryland at Syracuse
Wisconsin at Virginia
Northwestern at Georgia Tech
Florida State at Rutgers
Louisville at Purdue
Illinois at Wake Forest
Iowa at Virginia Tech
Penn State at NC State
Clemson at Ohio State
Michigan at North Carolina
Duke at Indiana
Notre Dame at Michigan State
Miami at Minnesota
Boston College at Nebraska
On Monday we think Syracuse will have a tough time with Maryland because of youth and also because Tyus Battle hurt his back the other night. But Wisconsin will have to work hard to beat Virginia at Virginia.
