The North Carolina Tar Heels played their first basketball game of the season tonight. After the lackluster effort in the last four minutes of their preseason game against Pheiffer, it was assumed that the Heels would come out with fire and passion and crush the Pioneers of Sacred Heart. The crush part happened, but it happened much later than anticipated.

Employing an offense UNC is likely to see over and over again this season, the Pioneers spread the floor, worked the shot clock and launched one three-pointer after another. Unfortunately for UNC, Sacred Heart knocked down a good many of those threes. The Pioneers kept the game close for a half, and never really let Carolina put them away. It’s hard to be disappointed with scoring 103 points in a 22 point win. However, Sacred Heart did expose several glaring weaknesses the Heels have right now.

The worst aspect of UNC’s play had to be their on-the-ball defense. More teams are sure to spread the floor and work the clock against the Heels. And, most of those teams will be looking to shoot three pointers. Carolina will have to do a better job of not allowing penetration in to the middle of the floor. Otherwise, the Heels will find themselves in more tight games than they need to be.

On the bright side - make that the super-nova side - Tyler Hansbrough was unstoppable. Tyler is an amazing player. No contact seems to jar him. His ability to finish cleanly while being hammered is incredible. Hansbrough finished with 29 points (18 in the first half) and 12 rebounds. Reyshawn Terry came alive in the second half to aid Tyler. And it was Terry’s play that ultimately pushed UNC comfortably past he Pioneers. Terry is nothing if not flashy. In one 3 minute stretch, Rey scored on an offensive rebound, slammed home a miss, stole a pass and went coast-to-coast, and tomahawked a sweet inbounds alley-oop from Bobby Frasor.

Ty Lawson, Wayne Ellington and Brandan Wright were as good as advertised. Wright and Ellington started, Lawson won’t be far away. The game tomorrow night vs. the winner of the Iona/Winthrop game will be equally as trying. Especially if the opponent is Winthrop. As a Tar Heel fan, I’m not sure I’ve ever been less thrilled with a 22 point win. Without question, the bloom is off the rose for the Tar Heels. With an expectation level this high, it might be an odd season where big wins are sometimes seen as disappointing.

One other notable item: Marcus Ginyard and Quentin Thomas hardly saw the floor, logging 12 and 4 minutes respectively. Ginyard in particular seemed to be unsure of what to do. In the practices I saw, he was super. But it’s clear that Wayne Ellington has emerged as a star. As I noted after the practices, the 2 spot is a little crowded. It doesn’t appear that Ginyard has a good feel for what his role is yet (this was clear in the preseason games as well). Ellington, on the other hand, seems to know just what to do. He still struggles a bit with the high screen-roll, but his defense otherwise is pretty sound. Offensively, he’s a force. Given the need for Wes Miller’s 3-ball ability, Marcus Ginyard is going to sit quite a bit for a while.

Thomas, I believe, may be relegated for the rest of his career to a mop up player. Frasor and Lawson are just too good not to play virtually all the minutes at PG. And that’s exactly what happened tonight. The other non-starters played well. Danny Green, Alex Stepheson and Deon Thompson did some nice things (Green especially). With all of their size, the Heels out-rebounded Sacred Heart by only 3. That’s not going to work against better teams. And Winthrop, for instance, would fall in to the “better teams” category. Wednesday’s game will tell us something about the Heels. It would be nice if what it told us was that this group is able to defend the 3 and keep people out of the lane.