Coming into Wednesday night’s showdown with North Carolina, it was clear that the Longhorns had a very tough match-up on their hands. The Tar Heels had the size advantage at every position, much more experience, a roster full of future NBA players, and a rowdy home crowd of nearly 22,000 thirsty for revenge.

Even with that deck of cards stacked against the Longhorns, it was tough to see this kind of destruction coming. A seven-minute field goal drought in the first half put Texas in a big hole, and North Carolina just kept shoveling more dirt on top of them. The Tar Heels built a lead as big as 24 points in the second half, toying with the Longhorns all night as they repeatedly added footage to the team highlight reel, cruising to an 82-63 win.

What looked good

In a game as one-sided as this, it can be tough to find the bright spots. Coach Rick Barnes was frustrated from the opening tip, as the Longhorns failed to even run their scripted first play correctly. Regardless, there were still some brief moments of success, giving fans something to take away from the beating.

Although the Longhorns gave up 42 points in the paint, they actually did remarkably good defensive work on Carolina big man Tyler Zeller in post-up situations. Alexis Wangmene and Clint Chapman held him to 2-of-7 shooting in the first half and 3-of-11 overall. When the Longhorns didn’t completely lose Zeller in the half-court, his offense was mostly limited to turnaround jumpers and his trademark hook shot, which simply wasn’t falling last night.

Texas also turned in a good effort on the offensive glass, but had very little to show for it. The Longhorns reclaimed 38.6% of their missed shots, a very good mark against a sizable Carolina squad that has only allowed opponents a 30.5% offensive rebounding percentage this season. Unfortunately, Texas shot just 13-of-31 from the paint, missing far too many easy ones.

Freshman Jaylen Bond was a big reason why the Longhorns were able to succeed on the offensive glass, as he put in his third-straight solid effort off the bench. Bond grabbed 22.7% of his offensive rebounding opportunities, pushing his season mark up to 13.7%, sixth-best in the Big 12, and just outside of the Top 100 nationally. In his last three games, Jaylen has grabbed 29 total boards while averaging just over 20 minutes per game. One can only hope that his relentless work on the glass will translate into even more playing time as conference play begins.

What needed work

While there were a few bright spots, there were far too many problem areas that could be addressed. Rather than try to beat Tolstoy in a word-count battle, we’ll focus on some of the most egregious ones.

As previously mentioned, the Longhorns were incredibly ineffective in the paint, only turning their extended possessions into more missed shots. For all of the good things Chapman had done defensively, his ineptitude from within two feet was infuriating. His final line was 1-of-6 shooting, with all of those misses coming from within spitting distance of the rim.

The Longhorns also did a terrible job protecting the basketball, a stat that is even more troubling considering how infrequently Carolina had turned its opponents over prior to this game. Texas gave it up 13 times, resulting in 17 Tar Heel points, but also had numerous bad bounces go against them. Time after time, Longhorn players bobbled loose balls or batted rebounds out of bounds or to the other team. If the Dean Dome weren’t so loud and bathed in powder blue, it would have felt like being in a Buster Keaton film.

The worst results, however, came on the defensive glass. While the Longhorns did a great job defending Zeller in the post, it seemed like every one of his missed shots resulted in a weak-side rebound and putback. The Tar Heels grabbed 56.4% of their missed shots, a number that is practically unheard of. In fact, the 43.6% of the defensive rebounds that Texas did manage to grab added up to the worst performance for a Longhorn team in at least 12 years. Unfortunately, that’s as far back as the tempo-free stats at KenPom and Stat Sheet go, so there’s no telling just how historically awful that number actually is.

Finally, Longhorn fans might also start worrying about the point guard situation. Myck Kabongo once again had a terrible start to the game, leading Coach Barnes to openly voice his frustrations with the freshman guard in the post-game presser. “We’re going to get guys in here that want to play,” the coach told the media. “I’ve been doing this a long time. I’ve never seen a guy who wouldn’t want to be in this atmosphere.”

Kabongo was dealing with a bad back in this game, and his playing time was limited to an ineffective 15 minutes. There’s no telling how much of that was due to injury and how much was due to Barnes’ frustration. Fans have to hope it was the former, and that the injury can heal quickly. While Myck has started slowly in nearly every game, there’s no question that the Longhorn offense is infinitely better when he’s on the floor and clicking.

With Kabongo on the bench for a majority of the game, Texas handed the reins to freshman guard Sterling Gibbs. While he has proven himself to be mostly serviceable as the backup point, Gibbs still has major issues with any hard traps. Carolina took advantage of this on a few second half possessions, bull-rushing the guard with two lengthy bigs well beyond the perimeter. By the time conference play starts on January 4th, opponents will have picked up on this fact and are sure to put added pressure on Gibbs when he’s running the point.

The big picture

In the grand scheme of things, this doesn’t change much. While the game was tough to watch and the result was more lopsided than some may have expected, only the certifiably insane believed that such a young Texas team had a strong chance to knock off this Carolina team on the road.

The Longhorns will likely enter conference play at 10-3, as only Rice remains on the non-con docket. Twenty wins is often pointed to as a magic number for making the NCAA field, but Texas lacks quality victories in their non-league slate. Last weekend’s win over Temple will hold weight, but outside of that, the Horns can only hang their hat on a road win against a UCLA team that was unraveling at the time.

Texas is going to have to defend its home court once Big 12 play begins, stealing a few wins against the likes of Baylor, Kansas, Missouri, or A&M. The Big 12 is definitely down this year, so anything short of 10-8 in conference play could mean the end of the school’s 13-year NCAA tournament appearance streak.

Up next: vs. Rice (7-4); 1 P.M., Saturday, Dec. 31st

On April 6th, John Henson and Tyler Zeller announced their intentions to return and chase a national championship at North Carolina. It was just the first in a series of announcements by high-profile players, all surefire NBA picks, who were spurning the allure of the League for another year as Big Man on Campus.

Jared Sullinger of Ohio State and Perry Jones III of Baylor also elected to return to school, while Kentucky’s Terrence Jones withdrew his name after testing the waters. And then, just less than two weeks after Henson and Zeller made their joint announcement, Harrison Barnes made the Tar Heels the prohibitive preseason No. 1 when he passed on the NBA and returned to Chapel Hill.

Texas had their own trio of stars mulling their draft fate, but with the wave of big-name players returning elsewhere, Longhorn fans had reason to be optimistic. If Jordan Hamilton, Tristan Thompson, and Cory Joseph made the same three-man pact that Barnes, Zeller, and Henson had made, there was no doubt that tonight’s match-up between the two teams would be a titanic clash of teams in the Top 10.

It was not to be. Instead, the Longhorns enter tonight’s game at Chapel Hill with a young, rebuilding squad. Texas is unranked as they head into the Dean E. Smith Center, a place where the Tar Heels have knocked off the last 71 unranked non-conference opponents they’ve faced. Although the Longhorns have won the last four meetings between these two schools — a streak dating back to 1995 — the odds of that success continuing tonight are very, very slim.

By the numbers

The Tar Heels are an imposing bunch, not just in person, but also on paper. Their offense is seventh-best in the country when measured by adjusted efficiency, putting in 1.155 points each time down the floor. Lest opponents think they can simply get into a shootout with the Tar Heels, it must also be noted that the defense is nearly top-ten caliber, as well. The UNC defense is 11th-best in the country in adjusted defensive efficiency, allowing just 0.872 points per possession.

The Tar Heels love to get out and run, playing at an adjusted tempo that is currently third-fastest in the nation. UNC averages 74.5 possessions per game, and the team has played two games this season with more than 85 possessions. The Longhorns have proven that they will engage in a track meet against other up-tempo squads, so the points should come quickly and often in tonight’s contest.

Although North Carolina runs at a high pace, the team takes excellent care of the basketball. The Tar Heels are 14th in the country in turnover percentage, giving it up on just 16.7% of their possessions. In addition to valuing the ball, the Tar Heels also extend possessions with an offensive rebounding mark of 38.8%, a percentage that ranks in the top 30 of D-I hoops.

On defense, North Carolina’s imposing front line makes it incredibly difficult to score. Henson and Zeller block and alter numerous shots from the Tar Heel opponents, but most importantly they do it without fouling. UNC has the best defensive free-throw rate in the nation, allowing less than one free throw for every five opponent field goals.

The only one of Dean Oliver’s Four Factors that the Tar Heels don’t excel in is their defensive turnover percentage. North Carolina is one of the worst 100 teams in D-I hoops when it comes to forcing opponent miscues, a stat that makes their up-tempo success even more impressive. The Tar Heels simply run the floor better than their opponents, and are always looking to immediately move the ball up the court after both makes and misses.

Meet the Tar Heels

A big reason why that North Carolina transition game is so effective is lefty point guard Kendall Marshall (No. 5). When Texas faced the Heels in Greensboro last December, North Carolina still had Larry Drew at the point. Following his sudden departure for UCLA, Coach Roy Williams was forced to up Marshall’s minutes, and the Tar Heels immediately improved, starting a run that would end in the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament.

Marshall is averaging more than 10 assists per game and is the catalyst for an offense fueled by future NBA talent. While he often dishes dimes that are eye-popping, he typically just makes the smart, simple pass while putting the ball right in the shooting pocket of his teammates. He also has an incredible ability to make the lengthy pass up-court in transition, a skill that comes in handy with a teammate like Zeller who runs the floor so well.

Marshall also seems to have prescient court vision, making passes that look like hockey one-timers. It is not uncommon to see him make passes where it is clear that he already had a target picked out before he even had the ball passed into his own hands. It’s also worth noting that while Marshall is not much of a threat to shoot jumpers, he will still drive the lane if presented with the opportunity.

Joining Marshall in the backcourt is junior guard Dexter Strickland (No. 1), who has become the team’s lockdown perimeter defender. He is tied for the team lead with 14 steals, but his biggest contribution comes in making an opposing guard’s stat line look ugly. Look for Strickland to be tasked with shutting down J’Covan Brown tonight, who leads the Longhorns with more than 19 points per game.

While Strickland has made a name for himself defensively, he’s still a threat on the offensive end. He is a quality slashing guard who can get to the rim or stop on a dime to knock down a pull-up J. His smart shot selection has given him a team-leading 57.6% field goal mark, and he’s averaging more than eight points per game.

If opponents can manage to get past Strickland, there’s even more defensive talent waiting in the frontcourt. John Henson (No. 31) — a former player at Round Rock High just outside of Austin — averages just over 3.4 blocks per game. His 7’4″ wingspan makes him a threat to block practically every shot that is taken in or near the paint, and as Luke Winn showed in an early-season Power Rankings column, he can quickly cover long distances to do so. He’s also a handful on inbounds plays from the baseline, as his height and wingspan take away any inside scoring plays and essentially force opponents to settle for a long lob to a backpedaling guard.

Henson also worked on his midrange game in the summer, and while he still has some issues with the baseline jumper, there’s no question he has improved. When he’s clicking and knocking down those 15-footers, North Carolina becomes even more dangerous.

Joining Henson inside is 7-footer Tyler Zeller (No. 44), a quality big man who has had his college career dogged by injuries during his first three years. As mentioned above, he runs the floor really well, which leads to a lot of easy buckets when Marshall finds him in transition. Even when those fast break points don’t materialize, the hustle allows Zeller to establish early post position, and his point guard usually finds him for the easy look. Once he gets the ball in the paint, Zeller’s array of post moves make him practically impossible to stop, a fact opposing fans quickly learn when he drills his first jump hook.

Defensively, Zeller’s height is difficult to game plan for. He stands tall and moves well laterally, so opposing players who can’t get position on him prior to the entry pass stand little chance of scoring. Of course, even when he is out of position, the excellent help D from Henson still makes it tough for opponents to score inside. Zeller is also extremely talented at picking up charging fouls, so Brown and Myck Kabongo will have to be careful when they attack the lane tonight.

Even with all that talent we’ve already covered, the Tar Heels still have a bigger star in the starting five. Harrison Barnes (No. 40) is an all-around stud, and he currently leads the team with 16.1 points per game and a 48.5% success rate from behind the arc. If there were a stat to track jumpers from just inside the arc, he’d likely be one of the national leaders in that category, too. Barnes is especially skilled at taking the ball on the perimeter, making one strong dribble towards the hoop, and then drilling a pull-up jumper.

Barnes has always been a quality jump shooter, but he worked on his handles and strength this summer, and is now able to slash to the rim with even more success. For a numerical perspective on that improvement, consider his free-throw rates. As a freshman, Barnes posted an FTR of 24.9%, or roughly one free throw earned for every four field goals attempted. This season, his FTR has climbed to 38.9%, or roughly two free throws for every five field goal attempts. He’s putting the ball on the floor more often this year, and earning more trips to the line as a result.

With a starting five that talented, the Tar Heels really only have to go three deep off the bench. Of course, since we’re talking about North Carolina, those bench players would likely be starters at most other schools.

Reggie Bullock (No. 35) is a three-point marksman who is fourth on the team with 9.2 points per game despite averaging less than 18 minutes. He is very quick on the catch-and-shoot, so the Longhorns can’t afford to lose him for even a moment on defense, especially with a point guard like Marshall who can find him immediately.

Freshman forward James Michael McAdoo (No. 43) is already built like an upperclassman, and he is making an impact off the bench. Averaging just 14 minutes per game, McAdoo still grabs about four rebounds per game and chips in roughly six points.

Fellow freshman P.J. Hairston (No. 15) is a shooting guard in a small forward’s body, checking in at 6’6″ and 220 pounds. He is a threat to shoot from outside, as he proved in the two-game Las Vegas Invitational at the end of November. Against South Carolina and UNLV, Hairston went 8-for-13 from long range and scored 34 total points. He’s now averaging 8.3 per game, but has seen his three-point percentage come back down to Earth, where it now sits at a still-impressive 38.8%.

Senior Justin Watts (No. 24) has also made an appearance in every game this season, but is averaging less than six minutes per game. He’s a high-energy player who provides a few minutes of good defense and work on the glass.

Keys to the game

For a young Longhorn team that has six freshmen on the roster, tonight’s game will be a completely new experience. Although they earned a road win against UCLA, the L.A. Sports Arena was nearly empty and there was little energy in the building. Tonight, the Dean Dome will be packed full with more than 21,000 fans who want nothing more than merciless revenge for the pair of Texas victories over UNC in the last two years. While the Tar Heels have proven to be fallible in losses to UNLV and Kentucky, Texas will have to play a nearly flawless game to escape Chapel Hill with a win tonight.

1) Clean the offensive glass – The Longhorns have steadily improved in this department all season, although one has to wonder how much their stats have been augmented by a weak string of opponents. Texas is ranked 13th nationally in offensive rebounding percentage, reclaiming 40.4% of their missed shots.

While the Tar Heels are equally good on the defensive glass, they have had some issues giving up the offensive boards and second-chance points. Michigan State grabbed nearly 46% of their missed shots in the Carrier Classic, while the Kentucky Wildcats reclaimed more than 41% of their misses in Lexington at the beginning of the month. It’s obvious Alexis Wangmene, Clint Chapman, and Jaylen Bond aren’t on the same level as Derrick Nix, Draymond Green, or Anthony Davis, but the Longhorns can really help their chances by extending possessions with offensive boards.

2) Get back on defense – Combine this key to the game with the previous one, and you will quickly see the strategic difficulties inherent in facing this North Carolina squad. If your team crashes the offensive glass, it only serves to help the already-potent Tar Heel transition game. Sell out to stop transition defense by leaving just one or two offensive rebounders, and you’ll likely have a lot of one-shot possessions. While it’s practically impossible for Texas to completely shut down the transition game and still earn any offensive boards, the Longhorns will have to limit the damage on the break and secondary break.

3) Knock down the three-pointers – The Longhorns have been especially cold from long range in recent games, so fans can only hope that it means they are due for a great performance tonight. Texas made just 2-of-17 from long range in Saturday’s win over Temple, and the team has hit only 20.5% of their three-point attempts in the last two games.

North Carolina, meanwhile, has had some difficulties defending the perimeter. In their loss to UNLV, the Runnin’ Rebels were able to knock down 13 three-pointers. UNLV found the most success on the drive-and-kick, but also were able to get open looks when the Tar Heels doubled the ballhandler on perimeter screens and fell victim to a simple throwback to the screener.

Kabongo has really improved over the last few weeks, logging quite a few assists each night courtesy of the drive-and-kick. He’ll likely find many opportunities to do that against UNC tonight, so the Longhorn shooters have to take advantage of those open looks if they hope to pull off a monumental upset.

With just seconds left in the game, Cory Joseph had a chance for redemption as he dribbled at the top of the key against North Carolina’s Dexter Strickland. Just a month earlier, Joseph threw up a prayer of a shot that could have tied the game against Pittsburgh at the buzzer. That night, the ball went nowhere near the basket. Now, with time running out against the Tar Heels, Coach Rick Barnes wanted his guard to attack the rim, draw a foul, and win it at the free-throw line. The freshman had a different idea.

Standing near the free-throw line, Joseph pumped, getting Strickland to bite on the fake, then spun for a turnaround jumper. The crowd of 20,787 held its collective breath in anticipation, as the shot seemed to hang in the air for eternity. When the ball finally sailed through the net, the Greensboro Coliseum’s powder-blue contingent fell completely silent.

The clutch shot provided an exciting conclusion to a back-and-forth affair, and came just seconds after Carolina superfrosh Harrison Barnes had knotted the game with a three. Both teams had monumental runs in the see-saw battle, with Texas claiming a lead as large as ten before Carolina erased the deficit and built a seven-point run of their own.

For the Longhorns, the 78-76 victory gave them a quality road win in a hostile environment, an experience the young team needed with road games against Kansas, Baylor, and Texas A&M waiting in conference play. It also marked the fourth straight time that Texas defeated North Carolina, a string dating back to the 1995 season.

What looked good

Jordan Hamilton had another excellent game, scoring a team-high 24 points, including a 4-of-7 mark from behind the arc. He seemed to thrive on the pressure, making four straight points when the team trailed by seven early in the second half. After his three-pointer pulled the Longhorns within two just minutes later, he openly celebrated and shot a Kobe-esque stare at his defender as they headed back down the court.

Joseph was the second-leading scorer for the team, setting a new career-high with his 21-point performance. It marked the fourth time in the last six games that the freshman has bested his previous high-water mark, and it gave him a 19.3 PPG average over his last three contests. Cory’s increased confidence over the last month is a huge development for a Longhorn team that often has lineups with only two or three quality scorers on the floor at a time.

In this particular game, the Longhorns were hampered by foul trouble from the start, making Joseph’s gutsy performance even more important. With Matt Hill, Dogus Balbay, and Alexis Wangmene forced to play a combined 52 minutes thanks to the foul issues, the Longhorns had to have their capable scorers step up. Joseph’s willingness to shoulder the load is going to be huge when Texas inevitably faces the same depth issues later in the season.

While Hill and Wangmene didn’t light up the scoreboard, they both played remarkably well for being thrust into a high-pressure situation against a talented North Carolina frontcourt. Wangmene had the best game of his career with Texas, grabbing nine boards — five of them on the offensive glass — while playing solid defense against the likes of Tyler Zeller and John Henson.

Hill picked up some unnecessary fouls early and was beating himself up for the mistakes. During one first-half timeout, he even looked as his dad in the stands and mouthed “dumb fouls” as he shook his head in disgust. But Hill bounced back from the early setbacks, adjusted to the physical play down low, and managed to contribute four points and four boards on the afternoon.

Most importantly, the Longhorns showed incredible poise in coming back to win the game. It would have been very easy for the team to fold after blowing their 10-point lead during a 29-12 Carolina run, especially in front of a frenzied crowd of more than 20,000. Instead, Texas chipped away at the lead and made the key plays down the stretch to secure an impressive road win.

What needed work

The biggest problem for the Longhorns came in the form of foul trouble. Having so many players pick up boneheaded fouls served to handcuff Barnes when it came to lineups, and it resulted in some really disappointing offensive results. Over the last seven and a half minutes of the first half, Texas made just two baskets, including one stretch of 4:10 without a basket. The offensive impotence allowed UNC to erase a 10-point Texas advantage and even take a one-point lead to the break. Fortunately, Carolina had their own lengthy scoring drought during that time, or else the results might have been even more disastrous for Texas.

Tristan Thompson picked up a pair of fouls within the first three minutes of each half, and as a result he spent 24 of the first 29 minutes of the game on the bench. He drew one whistle by trying to tap at the ball on a rebound he was out of position on, and was tagged with another foul by playing too aggressively on defense 17 feet from the basket. Perhaps the freshman was too amped up for a road game against a big-name opponent, but he has to play smarter basketball. He should be commended for making a difference down the stretch while playing with four fouls, but in the future he must avoid the brain-lock that limited his minutes in this game.

The Longhorns also had a hard time climbing the mountain during their comeback because they were giving up far too many easy points inside. Time and again, Texas failed to box out on the weak side, giving Carolina too many extra possessions. In fact, four different Tar Heel buckets in the second half were scored on tip-ins and putbacks.

In addition, transition defense for the Longhorns was uncharacteristically pathetic. Nobody stopped the ball as the UNC guards flew down the court, and it resulted in far too many easy layups. On the rare occasion a Texas big would recognize the situation and flash out to stop the play, the late response left other Tar Heels open for midrange jumpers or threes.

One final thing that was troubling in this game was that the Longhorns threw two or three inbounds passes directly into the near corner. Naturally, the Tar Heels immediately collapsed into a double team, which was especially effective with the length on their roster. Texas is going to face some very nasty, high-pressure defenses in Big 12 play, so this is a habit that must be broken. There’s simply no reason to waste possessions or time on the shot clock by passing into an easy double-team situation where the sideline acts as a third defender.

Up next: at #15/14 Michigan State (8-3)

Last season, the North Carolina-Texas game was one of the most anticipated of the year. It matched two top-ten teams in the first-ever basketball game at the new Cowboys Stadium, and it delivered on all counts. The two teams played an exciting, fast-paced game that ended with the high-scoring Longhorns racing away with a 103-90 victory.

As the season wore on, it became clear that both teams were ranked far too high in the pre-season, and that too much was made of the Texas victory. After the Longhorns started the season 17-0, they stumbled down the stretch and lost in the first round of the NCAA tournament. The Tar Heels, meanwhile, followed up their national title with an NIT berth, and ultimately a second-place finish in the tournament.

This year, the Tar Heels once again started the season ranked near the top of the polls. Coach Roy Williams questioned the wisdom of the voters during the pre-season, reminding the media of all that North Carolina had lost in the off-season. Marcus Ginyard, Ed Davis, and Deon Thompson had all left Chapel Hill, while twin brothers David and Travis Wear transferred to UCLA over the summer. In October, fifth-year senior Will Graves was dismissed from the team for failing to comply with team rules.

All told, the six departed players accounted for 65% of the team’s minutes last season, plus 67% of the scoring and 70% of the rebounding. Trying to fill that massive void is a cast of highly-touted freshmen and former role players who now must grow into bigger contributors.

Although this afternoon’s game is technically a neutral-site affair, there’s no doubt that Greensboro Coliseum is going to be bathed in powder blue. The two teams are closely matched, so even in fact that stat guru Ken Pomeroy predicts just a one-point win for Carolina, and gives the Horns a 46% chance to win.

By the numbers

As with all Roy Williams teams, the Tar Heels are very well coached. They are excellent on both sides of the ball, with their adjusted offensive and defensive efficiencies both ranked in the top 40 nationally. They post a 0.216 point differential per possession, which is huge when you multiply it by the high number of trips down the court in a Carolina game. The Heels run the 14th-fastest tempo in the country, logging nearly 73 possessions a game.

Offensively, the biggest weakness for North Carolina has been turnovers. Last year, the Heels constantly struggled with the issue, but seem to have made some improvements over the summer. This season, they are averaging 15 per game, which isn’t nearly as bad as it sounds because of their up-tempo attack. Adjusting for the speed of their games, the Heels cough it up just once in every five possessions.

On the other side of the ball, North Carolina plays great help defense and it results in a ton of blocks. The team is swatting 5.2 shots per game, with big men Tyler Zeller and John Henson accounting for 4.2 each night.

Free throws will not be a pretty thing in this game, as North Carolina is actually shooting worse than Texas at the line. The Heels are making 63.5% of their attempts on the year, slightly lower than Texas’ paltry 66.1% mark.

The starting five

Thank to the run-and-gun style employed by Coach Williams, the Tar Heels have 10 different players who see the court for at least 11 minutes each game. Even with the deep stable of talented players to choose from, the team has used the same starters in all ten games.

The team is led by big man Zeller, who is having a standout season in his junior campaign. The seven-footer is averaging 15.8 points per game, including a career-high 27 points against Kentucky earlier this month. Zeller is a tough match-up for opponents, because in addition to his game-changing size, he possesses an excellent jump shot. As a result, he is very dangerous when pulling opponents to the perimeter on screens, because he can easily score on both the pick-and-roll and pick-and-pop. He also runs the floor extremely well for a big man, making him a valuable asset in the transition-fueled North Carolina offense.

The biggest buzz surrounding the team this year came from the signing of superstar Harrison Barnes. Hailing from Ames, Iowa, the freshman was named to the pre-season All-American team without having ever played a single minute of college basketball. He’s an all-around player who can score in a variety of ways, making him a matchup nightmare for opposing coaches. Barnes is physical enough to bang inside, can take his man off the dribble, and has a quality jump shot to score in the midrange.

Early in the season, Barnes was struggling in his adjustment to the college game. He was finding it difficult to get open looks, and the frustration was apparent in his demeanor and attitude. The freshman had a tough five-game run starting at the tournament in Puerto Rico, shooting just 24.5% from the field over that stretch. He finally snapped out of the funk with a big game against Kentucky, and posted a double-double last Saturday against Long Beach State.

The aforemtioned Henson has made massive strides in his sophomore campaign, averaging nearly a double-double so far this season. He’s posting 10.5 points and 9.9 rebounds per game, while providing invaluable length on the defensive end. A former Round Rock high school star, Henson can constantly be found deflecting passes or blocking shots, and often fires up the crowd with rim-rocking dunks in transition and on putbacks. He bulked up in the offseason so he could be more physical inside, but he still is a great slasher who can spread out the floor.

Dexter Strickland has also grown a lot as a sophomore, and is benefitting from being able to focus on the shooting guard role this year. He’s still turning it over a couple of times each game, but allowing him to come off the ball has opened up his offensive game. He’s upped his scoring output to more than seven per game, a solid number in a backcourt as congested as North Carolina’s.

With Strickland playing more of a two, that leaves the point guard duties to Larry Drew II. He was also a turnover machine in the early part of last season, but seemed to find his stride as the team matured and made its run through the NIT. This year, he has an assist-to-TO ratio just above 2-to-1. Quick with the ball, Drew is also a three-point threat, although he’s currently struggling from behind the arc. With just 19% of his three-point attempts going down so far this season, Drew is more than due for a breakout performance from long range.

Off the bench

Without the Wear twins, there isn’t much in the way of frontcourt reserves for the Tar Heels. Fortunately, Alabama transfer Justin Knox was able to immediately play for UNC when he enrolled in grad school, and he’s providing key minutes backing up the Carolina bigs. Knox is a high-energy guy who scraps on the boards and is a physical force inside. Despite seeing the court for just 16 minutes a game, he’s still averaging nearly seven points and five rebounds.

Reggie Bullock and Leslie McDonald are the top scoring guards off the bench for Carolina. At 6’6″, Bullock is the closest thing the Heels have to a second big man off the bench, but he’s not a good enough ball handler to be a consistent swingman. He and McDonald have actually been the team’s top three-point threats, with each going 13-for-30 (43.3%) on the season. McDonald is a 6’4″ guard who likes to take his man off the dribble, and is strong enough to finish through contact.

Joining them in the backcourt is Kendall Marshall, a highly-touted freshman point guard labeled by some as the best passer in his class. This year, the Heels simply need him to be a steady backup to Drew while learning the nuances of the college game.

Junior Justin Watts is the last man in the rotation for the Heels, and he plays the least minutes out of any of the reserves. He’s always been just a role player in Chapel Hill, and that’s still the case this season. While he’s not going to stuff the stat sheet, Watts is one of those guys who makes the most out of his limited playing time.

Keys to the game

We’ve mentioned that the Tar Heels are once again a bit careless with the basketball, albeit not as much as last year’s team. With Zeller wrecking shop inside, the best way to keep his point total down is to keep the ball from ever getting to him in the first place. The Longhorns need to pressure the guards and force mistakes when Carolina settles into half-court sets. The Tar Heels often telegraph their passes and try to force it with bad passing angles, so Texas should have ample opportunity to knock the ball away.

Although North Carolina has a formidable fronctourt, the Longhorns need to attack inside. The caveat to this approach, however, is that the Texas players can’t force things when the Carolina defense bunkers down. When the Tar Heels help on defense, the Longhorns need to kick it out to open shooters. Texas has been hot from three-point range recently, so this can get them open looks on the perimeter. But when Carolina is late responding to drives and good ball movement, Texas has to hope they can pick up some fouls on the thin Tar Heel frontcourt.

All of these are moot points, however, if the Longhorns don’t play better team defense than they did in their last road game. USC absolutely embarrassed the Texas D, with the stout Trojan frontcourt taking advantage of constant one-on-one mismatches. It’s no secret that the Longhorn frontcourt is weak in one-on-one situations, so they must work together to keep Zeller and Henson from piling up the points.

Finally, Texas can really help their case if they can make an early run. Larry Drew made the mistake of calling his team’s fans “spoiled” in an interview last year, an observation that made up for its lack of tact with its incredibly accuracy. As we learned when visiting Greensboro Coliseum for the NCAA tournament in March of 2009, UNC basketball fans are exactly like Longhorn fans. While the Carolina faithful can make the arena deafening when the team is on a run, they are a reactionary bunch that sits on their hands if things aren’t going well for the home team. Like Longhorn fans, they don’t generally will their team to victory when they are struggling. If Texas can keep Carolina from jumping ahead early, it will definitely dull the huge home-court advantage.

Texas opens the season with the Coaches vs. Cancer tournament, which culminates in a pair of games at Madison Square Garden against two of the tournament’s other three regional hosts — Illinois, Maryland, and Pittsburgh. The Terrapins and Panthers were both NCAA tournament teams in 2010, and both advanced out of the first round. While the Illini did not make it into the Big Dance, hopes are high for their 2010-11 campaign, and ESPN’s Andy Katz even ranked them 15th in his first preseason poll.

The Longhorns also face a trio of perennial powers in this season’s non-conference slate. Texas first travels to Greensboro, North Carolina to tangle with the Tar Heels on December 18th. As we reported on Twitter last week, the two schools were in talks to move this year’s game to the Bahamas. With this year’s contest staying Stateside, it fulfills North Carolina’s “semi-home” game in the current contract and now leaves the two schools free to revisit the Nassau option in future seasons.

While the Tar Heels were sent reeling following their loss to the Longhorns last December, they seemed to put the pieces together in the post-season and surged to the NIT finals, where they lost to Dayton. With another year under the belts of the young and talented Carolina team — plus the addition of freshman stud Harrison Barnes — the Tar Heels are set for a solid 2010-11 campaign.

Just four days later, Texas heads to East Lansing for an on-campus match-up with Michigan State. The Spartans are coming off their second-straight Final Four, and return all of their key players outside of Raymar Morgan. Although the Longhorns escaped with a victory against MSU in Austin last December, they have historically had trouble with Tom Izzo‘s teams. A true road game against a preseason-Top 5 squad will certainly be a challenge for the Horns.

In early January, Texas hosts Connecticut at the Frank Erwin Center. Like the Tar Heels, the Huskies had an abnormally mediocre season last year. Unlike North Carolina, however, Connecticut managed to knock off the Horns in the midst of their struggles. The Huskies are bringing in a pair of 4-star guards and return Kemba Walker, so expect coach Jim Calhoun to have his team ready for another exciting match-up.

The Longhorns will also face two more major conference opponents in Southern Cal and Arkansas. Texas knocked off both of those teams in 2009-10, and are looking for another clean sweep this year. The Trojans are still embroiled in NCAA drama, as their school’s lawyers are fighting sanctions that were handed down earlier this month. Coach Kevin O’Neill certainly has his hands full rebuilding the program, but his squad matured nicely at the end of last season.

The Razorbacks, meanwhile, will be without star guard Courtney Fortson, who declared for the NBA draft and signed with an agent in April. Arkansas fans are lamenting the decision, as Fortson went unselected in Thursday night’s draft. They can take solace in the fact that sharpshooter Rotnei Clarke will still be on the court for Coach John Pelphrey, though.

In addition to the major names, the Longhorns filled the remainder of their non-conference slate with a slew of mid-major opponents. Navy and Louisiana Tech are Texas’ opening round opponents in the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic, while in-state foes Lamar, Rice, and Sam Houston State are all making trips to the Frank Erwin Center. North Florida and Coppin State round out the non-conference sked for the Horns with match-ups in December.

For the second time in the last three years, Rick Barnes has led his Texas Longhorns to a perfect 9-0 start. Texas has yet to truly be tested, winning those first nine games by an average margin of 32.7 points. That all changes today.

The Longhorns square off with the defending National Champions this afternoon in the first-ever basketball game held at the giant Cowboys Stadium in Arlington Texas. While both schools have cash incentives built into their contracts to reward them for drawing crowd as big as 75,000, most observers expect less than 40,000 in the seats. Regardless of how many basketball fans make their way into JerryWorld this afternoon, it will be a historic day.

Although the Tar Heels are fresh off another national title, Roy Williams’ team is still finding its way early in the season. North Carolina lost four starters from last year’s team, including Tyler Hansborough and point guard Ty Lawson. The new-look Tar Heels are incredibly young, boasting a highly talented five-man recruiting class, and have a very deep frontcourt that could be the best in the nation.

By the numbers

That excellent North Carolina frontcourt means that the Heels don’t push the ball up and down the floor quite as much as they used to. Of course, that’s not saying much when you consider just how fast last year’s UNC team played. This year, the “slower” style of Tar Heel basketball is still the 25th-quickest in the nation, with an average of over 74 possessions in each of their games.

When North Carolina isn’t scoring easy points in the transition game or on the secondary break, they love pounding the ball down low to their big men. Nearly 64% of their points come from within the arc, good enough for fourth nationally in that metric.

Oddly enough, their free-throw rate isn’t sky-high as a result. The FTR measures how often teams head to the line in relation to field goals they attempt per game. North Carolina’s FTR is just a tad over 38%, which actually places them just outside the top third of the country. By comparison, the Longhorns boast an FTR of 46 percent.

The number which could be most important in this afternoon’s game is the turnover margin. So far this year, North Carolina has actually turned the ball over more often than their opponent, albeit just barely. The Tar Heels have a negative 0.3 turnover differential per game this season, a number that stems largely from their massive early-season struggles with the ball. While the youngsters have settled down quite a bit in recent weeks, the quick tempo and inexperience can still lead to a fair share of miscues for the Heels.

Meet the Tar Heels

Without a doubt, the toughest match-up for Texas is big man Deon Thompson. The 6’9”, 245-pound senior is not only a beast in the paint, but is a handful off the dribble and can hit spot-up jumpers from anywhere on the floor. While he’s not going to shoot a ton of threes, Thompson has still proven that he has the perimeter shot in his arsenal. The threat of his jump shot keeps defenses honest, so when opponents play him tighter outside, Thompson uses an explosive first step to blow by them and get to the rim.

Thompson is also going to give Texas a lot to handle on the glass. He is averaging eight boards per game to go along with his team-leading 17 points per contest, and his offensive rebounding rate is actually 66th-best in the country according to stat guru Ken Pomeroy.

In the backcourt, Marcus Ginyard is the steady leader of the team. After missing nearly the entire championship season due to injury, the senior guard used a medical redshirt to return for one more season. Unfortunately, he is struggling with another foot injury and is listed as probable for today’s game.

Ginyard is best-known for his suffocating, lock-down defense, and is often found harassing the opposing ballhandlers well beyond the perimeter. He worked hard on his jump shot all off-season, and it’s already paying off. While North Carolina isn’t a team that takes a ton of three-pointers, Ginyard is one player opponents hate to see shooting from behind the arc. So far this year, he is hitting at a 44% clip from long range and is averaging over 10 points per game.

Although not a senior like Thompson and Ginyard, big man Ed Davis is also a huge contributor for the Heels. Just a sophomore, he still hasn’t even completely developed into his 6’10” frame, but is already dominating opponents down low. He fights for every single rebound, and currently leads the team with more than nine boards per game. Davis is also an intimidating presence on defense, swatting nearly three shots per contest.

In the backcourt, sophomore Larry Drew II has huge shoes to fill at the point guard position. Following the departure of Lawson to the NBA, the youngster who averaged just nine minutes and 1.4 points per game in 2008-09 was handed the keys to the offense. No pressure.

For the most part, Drew has responded very well. He’s averaging nine points per game and has improved dramatically over the first month of the season after struggling with turnovers in his first few games. Drew is very quick with the basketball and can weave in and out of traffic to reach the paint. But if teams think they can sag back to try to keep the speedster in front of them, they quickly discover how deadly accurate Drew is from long range. On the year, the guard has connected on 42.3% of his three-point attempts.

Swingman Will Graves is the fifth man in the starting rotation for Coach Williams. With so many other talented players on the floor, Graves isn’t asked to do too much, and his stats are rather pedestrian as a result. What he does provide to the team, though, is a heady player who can run the floor and attack defenders off the dribble from the perimeter. Don’t be surprised if Graves is the one coming up with a key bucket late in the game while Texas is focused on all of the other stars.

Off the bench, giant seven-footer Tyler Zeller provides quite the spark in the paint. Although he plays just 19 minutes a game, Zeller is still the third-highest scorer on the team with 9.2 points per game. Named “Mr. Basketball” for the state of Indiana in 2008, the tall, thin center can run the floor incredibly well for his size and fits perfectly into the up-tempo style of UNC. In the half-court game, he provides a huge target on the blocks and his solid turnaround jumper can make him seem unstoppable when he gets the ball down low.

Freshman John Henson started playing his high school ball at Round Rock, just a few hours south of JerryWorld. After transferring to a prep school in Florida, he chose North Carolina from a long list of suitors that included the Texas Longhorns. Henson is 6’10” and has an incredible wingspan, but still has the body of a freshman. He’s wiry and lacks the muscle to bang around down low with experienced college forwards and centers. But Henson is incredibly athletic and agile, so he’s able to pull those defenders out away from the basket and beat them off the dribble.

Dexter Strickland is another of the talented freshman on the Carolina roster, and has been blossoming as the backup point guard behind Drew II. Like the starting point, Strickland is ridiculously fast and can speed past the defense in transition and off the perimeter. But the youngster is still making his share of freshman mistakes, which have limited him to just over thirteen minutes per game. Strickland is hampered by a hamstring injury that has him listed as questionable for today’s game. If he does play, the Horns can’t afford to lose him on defense, as he’s showcased a very solid jump shot early in the year.

The excellent freshman class at Carolina also includes twin brothers Travis and David Wear from Mater Dei in California. The 6’10” freshmen can score inside, but they also are very impressive shooting the ball from the midrange and even beyond the perimeter. Defensively, they often seem uncomfortable if pulled too far outside the paint, but when they are able to camp out near the rim, their length is invaluable.

Keys to the game

This afternoon’s contest is an intriguing match-up of similar styles, with both teams able to run the floor or beat up their opponents in a half-court game with their solid frontcourts. Vegas thinks the Longhorns are six-point favorites on this semi-home court, but it wouldn’t be at all surprising to see this one finish even closer.

For Texas, the most important thing is to control the paint. In their loss to Syracuse, the Tar Heels were absolutely stymied by a 2-3 zone that kept them from scoring inside and forced them to take a ton of perimeter shots which mostly resulted in misses. Even against an over-matched North Carolina Central team, the Tar Heels seem perturbed by the zone and were content to wait around the perimeter when they couldn’t attack the paint. If the Longhorns can keep Carolina from getting looks inside, they will have a much better shot at the win.

Texas also needs to force mistakes by the young Tar Heels. North Carolina has turned it over at least 19 times in four of their games, so the quick hands of Dogus Balbay and Avery Bradley on defense could lead to turnovers and easy points for the Horns. There is no easier way to slow down a high-octane team than taking the ball away from them.

In addition, the Longhorn guards and swingmen have to make sure they don’t force things inside. With their stable of tall, lengthy defenders, the Tar Heels love it when opponents try to drive all the way to the rim, or take their time trying to make moves on the blocks. The typical result is a swatted shot that ends up somewhere in the 15th row. What Carolina’s defense is susceptible to is good ball movement and drive-and-dish attacks. If Texas can work the ball around and make the tall defenders react, they will earn many more open looks.

Finally, Texas must take advantage of the freebies. Neither of these teams is very good at shooting free throws, with the Heels making just 65% of their attempts and the Longhorns sinking an even-more embarrassing 61 percent. This game has all the makings of a nail-biter, so every single point is crucial. Leaving those points sitting at the line will certainly leave one of these teams saying “What if?” tomorrow morning.

Ed Davis notched a double-double on opening night
(Photo credit: Gerry Broome/Associated Press)

Welcome to the first in our daily series recapping the previous night’s action around the country. As the season rolls on, this morning scoreboard check will include unranked Big 12 teams, as well. And as a catch-all disclaimer, it should be noted that on some mornings, sleep just seems more valuable than the scoreboard rundown.

#4 North Carolina 88, Florida International 72 – After all of the off-season controversy surrounding the alleged mix-up in scheduling this game, it appears that perhaps Isiah Thomas didn’t have that much to worry about. Thanks to a ridiculous 26 Tar Heel turnovers, the Golden Panthers were able to keep the game respectable for much of the night, never falling behind by more than 26 points.

For Carolina, the bright spot of the night was the defense. The Heels blocked eight shots and held the Panthers to 30% shooting in the first half. Ed Davis led the block party for Carolina, swatting away four shots to go with his double-double performance of 13 points and 11 rebounds. Deon Thompson led all scorers with twenty.

#12 California 75, Murray State 70 – The final score indicates a much closer game than what actually transpired out west, but it also makes way for concerns about the Bears’ killer instinct. Mike Montgomery’s squad built a lead as big as 18 points in the second half of this one, but the hot-shooting Racers hit 53% of their shots in the second stanza and refused to give up.

The backcourt combination of Jerome Randle and Patrick Christopher provided 31 points for the Bears, including Randle’s 10-of-11 shooting from the charity stripe. Cal lost the battle on the glass by a 30-29 count, and had a meager 1.25 assist-to-TO ratio.

#17 Ohio State 100, Alcorn State 60 – The least competitive game of the night also gave us the least information about a Top 25 team. With the Buckeyes cruising the whole way, Thad Matta was able to go deep on his bench, dishing out at least thirteen minutes to ten different Buckeyes.

Jon Diebler hit 6-of-9 treys in a 22-point performance, but the standout star of the night was Evan Turner. The junior from Chicago held down point guard duties and logged a triple-double with fourteen points, ten assists, and 17 rebounds.

If the dominating win wasn’t enough to get Buckeyes excited about the new season, big man Dallas Lauderdale is expected back for Thursday’s game against James Madison.

#25 Syracuse 75, Alabany 43 – It didn’t take long for Jim Boheim to get over the 800-win hump, reaching that milestone in the first game of the 2009-10 season. The Orange bounced back quickly from their embarrassing exhibition loss to Le Moyne, decimating the Danes with suffocating defense. Syracuse forced 32 turnovers, including 21 steals, and held their opponents to just 27% shooting from the floor. Former Iowa State Cyclone Wes Johnson had six of the Syracuse steals and added twelve points and eight rebounds.

Guard Andy Rautins had to leave the game with just over fourteen minutes left. After jumping to pass to big man Arinze Onuaku, he landed on an opponent’s foot and twisted his ankle. Rautins wore a walking boot the rest of the evening, and his status is still in doubt for Wednesday’s game against Robert Morris.

Florida International at #4 North Carolina – 6 P.M. CST, ESPNU
The biggest story of the night will undoubtedly be the regular-season coaching debut of Isiah Thomas, although the new may have already started wearing off following a loss to the NAIA’s Northwood in an exhibition on Wednesday night. For the defending-champion Tar Heels, the key storyline in early November will be how the team moves forward following the loss of Tyler Hansborough, Wayne Ellington, and Ty Lawson. The return of Marcus Ginyard following last year’s foot injury will definitely provide senior leadership, something the Heels will likely need for their quintet of ESPN Top 100 recruits.

Alcorn State at #17 Ohio State – 6 P.M. CST, Big Ten Network
This is a guaranteed yawner from the opening rounds of the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic, but fans will get their first look at how the Buckeyes have matured following an offseason where nearly the entire team returned. The only key piece missing from last year’s squad is big man B.J. Mullens, who left for the NBA after just one season. Dallas Lauderdale will be expected to fill the void this year, although he will likely be missing this early season matchup as he recovers from a broken finger he suffered in preseason practices.

Albany at #25 Syracuse – 8 P.M. CST, ESPNU
Iowa State transfer Wesley Johnson lit up the scoreboard in Syracuse’s exhibition on Tuesday night, dropping in 17 second-half points en route to a 22-point performance. Unfortunately for the Orange, it came in an embarrassing loss to D-II school Le Moyne. To be fair, Syracuse was experimenting with man-to-man for much of the game, a drastic departure from Jim Boheim’s famously stingy zone D. But the result certainly raises eyebrows in a season where pundits are wondering if this young Syracuse team can handle the rigors of the Big East conference. A convincing win over the visiting Danes would help to wash away some of the bad taste that is already tainting this season.

Murray State at #12 California – 10 P.M. CST, ESPNU
In what is likely going to be a down year for the Pac-10 Conference, hopes are high for the talented and experienced Golden Bears. Cal returns four starters from last year’s team, including a pair of senior guards in Patrick Christopher and Jerome Randle. It’s a well-proven axiom that solid backcourt play leads to quality results in March, so many expect the Bears to be dancing into the second weekend. If you can’t stay up to watch this one, be sure to set the DVR and get your first look at the Best Team Nobody Knows.

It’s painfully clear now that there is a very thin upper crust in the NCAA this season, and a lot of other mediocre teams filling up the middle. But even amidst that thin upper crust, there’s not much differentiation, as it’s a season in which no one is the clear frontrunner for the national title.

This week’s vote was a little easier, as only ten teams which we ranked were victims of a loss over the last seven days. Below is our ballot from this week, followed by superfluous explanation. If you’re enjoying the new “change” data in the third column, you might also be interested in our previous ballot, from February 23rd.

Rank	Team	Change
1	Connecticut	1
2	Memphis	2
3	Pittsburgh	2
4	Oklahoma	1
5	North Carolina	—
6	Louisville	—
7	Duke	—
8	Wake Forest	1
9	Michigan St.	1
10	Kansas	5
11	Missouri	3
12	Villanova	1
13	Marquette	1
14	Gonzaga	2
15	Clemson	2
16	Washington	4
17	Arizona St.	3
18	UCLA	1
19	Louisiana St.	2
20	Illinois	2
21	Purdue	4
22	Xavier	1
23	Florida St.	1
24	Brigham Young	2
25	Syracuse	1

At first glance, some readers may be confused by the very minor slides from Pitt and Oklahoma. At this point, we feel that a team should be valued more on their overall body of work than simply the results from the last seven days. The recent games certainly must be taken into account, but even Pitt’s road loss to unranked Providence isn’t enough to overshadow the fact that the Panthers have many more quality wins than the Tar Heels. As for the Sooners, they get some leniency when you consider that they lost to a Kansas team which we’ve moved into the Top Ten, and that they did so without superstar Blake Griffin.

Those Jayhawks are our biggest movers of the week, shooting up from No. 15 to tenth in this week’s ballot. Kansas finished the week with an absolute mudholing of Missouri in Allen Fieldhouse yesterday, and they were also aided by the fact that Marquette, Clemson, and Arizona State all lost a pair of games during the last week.

The other portion of our ballot that is worthy of discussion this week is, as always, the troubling bottom five spots. As we mentioned in the introduction, there’s really not any consistency or exceptional quality once you get past the initial contenders, and losses this week by West Virginia and Texas muddied things up at the bottom once again. You may notice that even though Florida State lost on the road against Boston College, they actually climbed a rung in our rankings this week. That’s an anomaly explained by both the Seminoles’ huge win against Clemson on Saturday, and the fact that once again there was a dearth of teams wanting to crack the rankings.

Some bloggers have been ranking Butler, which actually resulted in the Bulldogs checking in at 24th in our consensus poll last week. Considering that they won their pair of games this week, they likely will even climb when the consensus poll is released this afternoon. But the simple fact of the matter is that Butler lost at home to Loyola-Chicago and on the road to Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Wisconsin-Green Bay. Do you honestly think the Bulldogs would be sitting at 25-4 if they played in a conference that was worth a damn?

As we’ve mentioned, the consensus blogpoll will be up later this afternoon. Fast Break will be here for your late afternoon enjoyment, including new bracket projections, bubble watches, and the real polls from the AP and coaches. The Baylor game preview will follow in the late afternoon.

Rank	Team
1	Pittsburgh
2	Connecticut
3	Oklahoma
4	Memphis
5	North Carolina
6	Louisville
7	Duke
8	Missouri
9	Wake Forest
10	Michigan St.
11	Villanova
12	Marquette
13	Clemson
14	Arizona St.
15	Kansas
16	Gonzaga
17	Purdue
18	Illinois
19	UCLA
20	Washington
21	Louisiana St.
22	West Virginia
23	Xavier
24	Florida St.
25	Texas

It was an interesting week with losses by half of the top ten teams from the last poll. Only Wake Forest and UConn suffered their defeats at the hands of other top ten teams, while North Carolina, Michigan State, and Oklahoma all lost on the road to unranked opponents. As a result, it was a little easier to ignore the instinct to slide teams up and down based on the most recent results and instead reshuffle everyone based on their complete body of work this season.

The middle of the pack all held their own by winning their games this week, but our votes differed slightly from the consensus of last week’s blogpoll, when we didn’t submit a ballot. We chose to slot Marquette ahead of Clemson based on a more robust list of quality wins, although they could quickly take a nosedive with an absolute nightmare of a schedule awaiting them over the final two weeks. The Golden Eagles have to face UConn and Louisville this week before closing the season with a road trip to Pitt and a home game against Syracuse.

After that quality in the middle of the poll, things were a bit dicier with the lower rankings. Five of the bottom seven teams lost a game this week, and practically every other team that could have been considered for the 24th or 25th slot dropped at least one game as well. LSU slides up two spots to No. 21 in our ballot, but it’s more a reflection on the lack of other candidates than a rousing endorsement of the Tigers. They are playing in an incredibly weak SEC, leaving a home win over Washington State as their only remarkable victory this year.

The full compilation ballot will be released later this afternoon.