UNC Basketball: Takeaways from best win of season over Virginia Cavaliers

1) Coming out strong early

In far too many games this season, Carolina has found themselves desperately fighting back after falling behind early. Quite frankly, it’s no way to live. On Saturday night, though, UNC came out on fire and put the Cavaliers on their, uh, heels (sorry). The crowd was rocking as the Heels buried shot after shot, and though they weren’t exactly running the fast break (if you find a way to run on Virginia, you’d be the first), Carolina pushed the pace and found good looks early in the shot clock on its way to 42 first-half points. That’s like 60 against any other team.

Carolina got contributions from the entire starting five as they built their lead, with some additional quality minutes from Puff Johnson. It’s this kind of team effort they need going forward. It’s never been a question of talent on this team, but the chemistry has never seemed to be there. The whole team and sellout crowd all seemed to be feeding off each other from the second Jump Around concluded and Pete Nance won the opening tip.

It was encouraging to see Carolina overcome a halftime deficit against Notre Dame, but the next step is putting together a complete game. On Saturday night, they did just that. This group has been Jekyll and Hyde not only from game to game but from half to half. To make the tournament and keep this season going, they need more complete efforts like this one.