UNC 79, Duke 71

Although Carolina won the game, I never imagined that the game would play out the way it did. I thought we would see major swings in the scoring margin, but it was just not meant to be. Why did UNC win?

1. UNC involved numerous players into the offense. Ellington, Hansbrough, Green, Frasor, Thompson, Davis and Lawson were involved in the offense.
2. UNC retrieved the rebounds. Duke was unimpressive on the boards.
3. Duke's game was the Singler/Scheyer show. Paulus didn't show up, and neither did McClure, Thompson or Zoubek. Henderson didn't play a good game, and Williams was marginal at best.
4. Bench play. Although Copeland played 3 minutes at the beginning of the game, UNC's bench would have still dominated if the regular starters were in the game. Davis and Frasor played solid games. Duke's bench played exactly 19 minutes, had 3 rebounds, 2 steals, 1 block and 0 points.

UNC is clearly the better team. Duke can beat UNC, no doubt about it. But Duke can't beat UNC as long as UNC is playing its A or B game.