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.

The University of Texas released the non-conference schedule for the men’s basketball team yesterday, and the Longhorns once again have a top-flight list of opponents before Big 12 play. Use the drop-down menu at the top of the page to check out the full season schedule, or simply click this handy-dandy hyperlink.

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.

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.

The college basketball season is now just fifteen minutes away. Here are your TV listings for the night:

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.