North Carolina Comes Out On Top Over Ohio State

The CBS Sports classic came with an electric game between the Buckeyes of Ohio State and the Tar Heels of North Carolina.

North Carolina's defense came out with an incredible sense of urgency, holding Ohio State to 30 percent shooting and holding them to only two costless throws in the first half. That effort definitely put Ohio State on their heels, and we saw that in their style of play in the second half. For some reason, Ohio State decided to play zone defense, which was absurd when you have guys like Sam Thompson and Shannon Scott who are two extremely athletic defenders. If they were going to play zone, the least they could have done was come out and guard somebody. While playing zone defense in the first half, Ohio State gave up 10 offensive rebounds and enabled the Tar Heels to shoot 53 percent from the field.

North Carolina really found success by attacking the basket and on the offensive glass, when asked how you do a better job in protecting the rim in that zone, Ohio State head coach Thad Matta replied, "They (North Carolina) shot the ball well early, and we got a little to extend and they camped out down there. We finally got the three second call which was a good thing, but we have to get a little bit tougher and we got to score at the other end. We had some good looks that we didn’t knock down and that will help our cause on the defensive end."

Ohio State, however, did come out the second half looking a lot more focused and their game speed was increased. The Buckeyes eventually brought the Tar Heel lead down to single digits with about 1:30 left to play, but the strength and athleticism of the Tar Heels was just too much for Ohio State to handle.

Another thing that was notable today was that North Carolina corrected a lot of things that they haven't done well this season. Their biggest problems up until now have been not taking care of the back board and not utilizing the costless throw line, as they were plus-14 on the glass today and plus-seven on the foul line. The Tar Heels outscored Ohio State by seven on the foul line and by 10 on the scoreboard. Another thing that was really surprising was that North Carolina only hit six jump shots the entire game.

What happens when you’re Ohio State and you come out to start the season playing "zone" and you play it against two really good teams? The answer, you get absolutely dominated on the glass against both. Ohio State needs to go back to the drawing board. They have gone through this entire non-conference slate, and they still don't know what type of team they are. As an athletic team, they should come out and guard somebody and get up and down and play. Ohio State let North Carolina do whatever they wanted today. (North Carolina had 23 assists on 29 field goals)

Though the Tar Heels got the win, they made some critical turnovers and missed costless throws at the end which made the game a lot closer than it needed to be. When asked what do you think is causing the mental errors we saw out of your guys at the end of the game, Tar Heels head coach Roy Williams responded, "I have no clue, but we cured them and we are happy as can be. We made a couple of plays and then down the stretch we were ugly as you could possibly be, but we got the win."

The Tar Heels have improved to 8-3 on the season with the win, while the Buckeyes drop only their second loss of the season, putting them at 9-2.

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