Final: UNC 95, Miss St 49

Not much more to write in this one other than what was said in the first half analysis below. After an initial lull in the first few minutes of the second half, the Heels ripped off a big run to push the lead to 40+ and allow Roy to start tinkering with the lineups and see what he has in his backup players.

Leslie McDonald looked sharp tonight, hitting six 3-pointers for a career-high 21 points and overall the Heels shot head-shakingly well from downtown, finishing 15-31 from 3 on the game. Hopefully they didn't burn all their sharpshooting in this first contest because they are going to have to be a lot sharper going against a Butler team that may not be enormously talented, but you know they will shoot, execute, and play scrappy defense.

The only negatives that stand out are the performance of Marcus Paige, who continues to struggle on offense (1-7, 3 turnovers), and James Michael McAdoo being a little careless with the ball on occasion (4 TOs). Both will need to up their game as the level of competition UNC faces gets a little better over the next couple of days.

Still, nice to know this young Heels team can get into biscuit range.

Halftime: UNC 49, Miss. St 17

Pretty much a dream half for UNC as the Heels jumped out to a 29-6 lead in the first 10 minutes and haven't looked back. For any Carolina fans that aren't watching this game, though, don't feel overly confident in the stat line: it's hard to tell just how good Roy's team is playing tonight because the Bulldogs are just. that. bad. Shooting 20% from the floor, 1-11 from 3, committing 10 turnovers... yeah, that's a recipe for a blowout. MSU fans may just want to avoid watching this team on the offensive end of the floor - their performance was incredibly listless and they had no semblance of organization either.

Despite the sub-par quality of the opponent, it is certainly notable just how good Carolina has played. They've moved the ball well on offense, executed well in transition, and gotten a lot of different guys involved (eight different Heels have scored so far; five with 7 points or more). Also notable is how well the team has shot the long ball, going 8-14 from distance (57%) with Bullock, Hairston and McDonald going 7-9 between the three of them. If they can continue to be a productive shooting trio, this can be a really fun offensive team to watch... and it's already pretty fun.

Not much to watch for in the second half other than hoping the freshmen get a few more meaningful minutes. This game is pretty much over - time to start scouting Butler already.

UNC vs Mississippi State: Game Thread

In the kick-off to the Maui Invitation, the Heels look to say "Aloha" to the Bulldogs... that is, both hello and goodbye.