North Carolina at Ohio State

It was a fast moving game, but nowhere near as high scoring or entertaining as the one last year. Without Tywon Lawson, North Carolina was playing at a "slower pace", but was able to grab the deal and hold it while the young Ohio State team was looking for an offensive identity.

The good news for the young Buckeyes was that their touted scorer Diebler (shooter, not dribbler) finally found the net as he hit a barrage of three pointers (but he took a lot of them too). The bad news was that their touted freshman center Kosta Koufas had a second bad game in a row. Was it the competition, the size of the opponents, or an early freshman wall, or all of the above?

The initial burst that got the Ohio State team out of the team looks like it's waning off, and now the freshmen and youth of the team is perhaps starting to surface. But the raw talent is there, and they have one of the best current coaches in Thad Matta, so you can bet they'll figure it out.

Carolina is starting to "like" the "win ugly" approach to games as they get their second win in the 60s. What? Carolina in the 60s? Well, they were without Lawson baby! Once again, for whatever strange reason, the Carolina coaches played Quinton Thomas and Marcus Ginyard at the same time. While that may be great on defense, neither one of those guys is an offensive thread. Having two of them on the floor at the same time is an ealry XMas present for the defense as it allows them to focus on the other three UNC players.

So what did we learn from this game? Ohio State is young, and North Carolina can win ugly.