My two cents
1) Pre-game, I mentioned a) Bacot would get his 20-30 points, b) Love would be Love, and c) the key was slowing down Davis. Got 2 out of 3 right! In fairness, Love was always going to be Love, so that's not that fair. Slowing down Davis was key, as I think he is UNC's best player. Roach did a marvelous job on him. Bacot? Did not see that coming. He is stronger and much more savvy than Lively. I couldn't have been more wrong about that match up. Lively destroyed Bacot.
2) Lively's defensive impact could always be measured, but to see him in all his wonderful colors, he needs to stay on the court. Yes, fouling has a lot to do with that. But even without fouling, Scheyer played Lively for 34 minutes. Lively's previous minute high? 24 minutes. He played 10 minutes more in the UNC game than any other game this year. And with those minutes, Lively gets more confident and gets more aggressive on the offensive end. Those 2 put backs aren't flukes; they came with Lively's defense energizing his offense. I don't know if he's a top #3 recruit in the country, but he is definitely the #1 defensive recruit who's offense will give you 2-3 alley oops/put-backs a game. I want that player playing 30 minutes a game.
3) No one on our team was efficient offensively, and we beat the #1 pre-season team. Our defense can be devastating, but it also shows that, with efficient shooting from 1-2 of Flip, Roach, Proctor, or Dariq, we can be so elite.
4) Despite poor shooting, I loved the play from 4 of our 5 starters. Mitchell was the odd man out. I thought his defense was really, really poor against UNC. He got burned a lot from drives, and Black absolutely took advantage of Mitchell. Hope this is a game Mitchell forgets.
5) Scheyer is adopting Coach K's rotation mantra: basically 6 rotation players. Blakes just isn't ready for prime time ACC play. Young cannot guard ACC 5s. Grandison is a really nice piece off the bench who offers decent decent, excellent 3pt shooting, and solid passing into the interior. When Dariq comes back, I assume the rotation goes to 7.5 players (assuming Lively is able to consistently play 30+ minutes a game from here on out).
6) If you are a casual fan of basketball, chalk this game up to, "Yeah...college basketball is terrible". If you're a Duke/UNC fan, it was a great game: defense, effort, riding your starters, solid set plays (well, except for the outcome of the game for UNC fans). I thoroughly enjoyed the game, and then saw the terrible shooting percentages.
Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It fulfils the same function as pain in the human body. It calls attention to an unhealthy state of things. - Winston Churchill
President of the "Nolan Smith Should Have His Jersey in The Rafters" Club