Tom Suiter: Arizona Blowout Important Win for Tar Heels

Wow! Was that amazing or what?!

I thought that Carolina and Arizona would be an interesting game. I thought it would really be interesting when it was announced at gametime that two of the Tar Heels' key players were sick with stomach problems. The game was interesting all right, but only in the fact that UNC went into Tucson and just annihilated the 19th ranked team in the country 92-64, handing Wildcat coach Lute Olson his worst home defeat in the 24 years he's been at the helm and ending their 29-game home winning streak against non-conference opponents.

UNC treated Arizona like a December cupcake matchup at the Smith Center.

Brandan Wright and his 15 points per game didn't play, and neither did defensive whiz Marcus Ginyard. You never noticed they weren't there. Carolina is just so deep that two big-time players like that weren't missed. Not at all.

"Not having two important players made everybody else get off on a little bit of an edge," Carolina coach Roy Williams said afterwards.

Maybe that is so. But whatever. Carolina rolled with what it had, placing six players in double figures, led by freshman guard Ty Lawson, who dashed and darted and sprinted his way through and around Arizona like the Wildcats were running in, well, tar. He scored 18 points and added eight assists to pace six Tar Heels in double figures.

"North Carolina is very, very, very, good and will get even better with the young players that they have," a shell-shocked Lute Olson said.

Freshman Deon Thompson started in place of Wright and scored 14 points, while another big freshman, Alex Stepheson, contributed 10 points off the bench and added six rebounds.

"I think it is a big statement about how deep our team is, that we have guys on the bench who can start and we can still win a game like that," said Deon Thompson, who also had six rebounds.

You bet it's a big statement, and not just for the confidence of Thompson and Stepheson but for the confidence that Roy Williams can have in them. He now knows they can perform well on a big-time stage, and at Arizona on national television was certainly all of that. It all builds towards March.

To be sure, Arizona couldn't throw the ball in the ocean standing five feet from it. They shot a pathetic one of 23 from behind the arc.

"We caught Arizona on a day that the ball didn't go in the basket for them," Williams said. "I hope our defense had something to do with that."

Arizona had as many turnovers -- 20 -- as they had field goals. It was about as thorough of a beating as one ranked team can give another.

"I don't remember anyone playing any better against us, ever," Olson said. "But I don't remember us playing worse."

I have thought from time to time that Carolina might have too many good players. But Roy Williams hasn't won all those games over the years because he doesn't know what he's doing. Not every coach can handle an abundance of talent and keep them all happy, but Williams has held egos in check. He's gotten a talented group of players to forget about individual stats and put the team first, and it's working and they're winning. Williams has been the scientist taking a lot of different ingredients, trying this combination here and that one there and has come up with a powerful potion.

There's a long way to go and lots of basketball to be played, and who knows what the future holds? But as January eases into February, this young Carolina team is getting better and better and that certainly has to be scary for the rest of the ACC, if not the nation.

"North Carolina is not in our conference," Arizona guard Juwann McClellan said. "And we won't play another team like that in conference."

And the boys in light blue weren't even at full strength.