If North Carolina wants to return here in April, it needs to keep playing like this.
Ty Lawson sped, Tyler Hansbrough dominated and UNC rolled to a 98-63 blowout win over No. 13 Michigan State in the ACC-Big Ten Challenge.
The top-ranked Tar Heels (8-0) have now won five of their past six games in the made-for-ESPN event.
But more important to their quest to return to Ford Field for the Final Four, they have now beaten two top-15 teams in the last eight days.
"It's pretty impressive, this team, having a schedule like that _ eight games in 18 days, Coach (Roy) Williams told us,"
guard Bobby Frasor said after the Tar Heels held the Spartans to 20-percent shooting in the second half. "And we're even banged up, (so) to play the way that we did is pretty impressive."
"We can still get better. I don't know if that's scary or what for other teams, but we have a chance to be a really, really good team."
Although the Tar Heels will eventually be tested, they made things look easy again Wednesday night.
Hansbrough, the All-American forward who had missed four of the Tar Heels' first seven games while resting a stress reaction in his right shin, then a "tweaked"
left ankle, started and scored the first six points of the game for Carolina, which never trailed.
The Spartans, behind forward Raymar Morgan and guard Chris Allen, remained scrappy early, cutting their deficit to 33-29 with about six minutes left in the first half when Allen buried a three-pointer. But UNC countered with an 11-4 run _ during which five different Tar Heels scored _ to pull away.
And although MSU shot 51.6 percent in the first half, UNC also shot better than 50 percent for the 10th straight half.
Carolina led 53-39 at the break, but opened the second half with a 14-2 run during which the Spartans made only one field goal, a lay-up by Morgan, in the first 7:12.
By the time Morgan made another layup to end his team's scoring draught, UNC had already scored 67 points, which was what the Spartans (4-2) had been allowing opponents to average this season.
"The second half, they seemed to lose their legs a little bit,"
Williams said. "There's no way our defense caused them to shoot 20 percent. I hope that I was substituting and I hope that I was trying to force the pace and make the teams go up and down the court, and (that) might have had something to do with it also."
Because while the Spartans appeared to grow tired, the Tar Heels kept coming. In waves.
Hansbrough looked as healthy as ever, mixing in jumpers with power moves. His 11 rebounds were a season high, an d he also added 25 points, leaving him 35 short of Phil Ford's career scoring record at UNC.
Lawson, who always enjoys match-ups against other speedsters such as MSU's Kalin Lucas, didn't look overly winded after showing off his improved outside game and finishing with 17 points and eight assists. He now has dished out 38 assists with only three turnovers over his last five games.
And shooting guard Wayne Ellington, who had become almost an afterthought early this season, what with Hansbrough's injury, Deon Thompson's aggressiveness, Lawson's speed and Danny Green's three-point shooting, showed again why he is such a valuable asset. He scored 13 of his 17 points in the first half.
Morgan led MSU with 21 points.
And the Tar Heels left with the goal of a return trip.
"At halftime, Coach Williams told us,'20 more minutes, let's finish this out, and hopefully, if we get a chance, we can be back here in a couple of months,"
' Frasor said. "We know what's at stake. We all want to come back here. I was thinking about how different it will look, blue carpet with the Final Four, and the NCAA putting up signs as to which team locker room we would be in. It will look a lot different in April."
