THB: The first loss.

The Tar Heels lost to Maryland last night. Except for which team had the most points at the end of the game, the Heels' performance in this game was actually largely indistinguishable from the wins against Clemson and Georgia Tech. All three games were close. In all three games the Heels did not dominate (except in brief runs). What does this say about the soon-to-be-former #1 team?

• Bobby Frasor (out with a season-ending ACL injury) was a much more important part of this team than we appreciated while he was playing. One of the weak points is perimeter defense, too much is being put on defending the boards, and defending the boards has a large element of luck in it. The bounces off the rim and glass are not always going to go our way. On the perimeter, good defense is much more a consistent presence in the game overall. We have holes there.
• It is clear that everyone realizes that they way to take Tyler Hansbrough out of the offense is to cut off his passing lanes. He goes to the same places for the ball consistently, defenses are learning to attend to those lanes. That forces the ball to someone else, or it forces a stupd pass to Hansbrough, a reliable number of which will inevitably become turn-overs.
• The ACC is a very, very strong conference. Being in the middle of the pack in the ACC is equivalent to being a top 25 team. There are no easy ACC games.