Help. That’s a meaningful word in basketball. You provide defensive help, you help your teammate off the floor, you help a shooter with a good pass (aka an assist). The Tar Heels had too much and not enough help last night against Ohio St.There was not nearly enough help in the first half. Brandan Wright and Tyler Hansbrough were poor in cutting off dribble penetration. And, Carolina’s perimeter players didn’t help the post guys. Time and again OSU’s guards were able to drive, draw and dish for wide open 3’s. Carolina’s defense was almost non-existent in the first half. Amazingly, the Heels were able to stay close in to the break.

In the second half, Carolina helped too much. Early on, this turned out to be ok. Reyshawn Terry got a piece of a 3, Hansbrough blocked a couple of shots, Marcus Ginyard and Wayne Ellington stole several passes. But there is such a thing as over-helping. Roy Williams talked about it in his press conference. Over-helping is a cardinal sin against good three-point shooting teams. J.J. Redick was the master of blistering over-helpers. Want to know why Duke hardly ever lost with Redick? It’s because his amazing stroke forced teams to come flying at him from all over the place. That left Division I college players wide open. Indeed, Redick made it possible for Lee Melchioni to play big-time minutes in his career at Duke.

Last night the Heels began to over-help late in the game. Ivan Harris’s 3-ball that cut the lead to 5 was a direct result of Brandan Wright over-helping and leaving Hunter alone in the corner. Still, all the great help that came before the last 3 minutes of the game was a breakthrough.

Prior to the second-half last night, UNC was a conflicted team. Not conflicted in the harsh, destructive sense. This conflict was more a result of cognitive dissonance. The need to run, run, run vs. the need to stop, hunker down and play defense. The need to be unselfish vs. the need to get Tyler the ball all the time. The need to get folks a lot of minutes vs. the need to play a bunch of people. The need to understand, and execute, the offense/defense vs. the need to attack and be aggressive. So you see, there was a lot of conflict.

In the second half, though, the Heels began to resolve all that conflict. UNC quit worrying about getting beat and started making the other team worry - worry about Tyler, worry about the run-and-jump traps, worry about passes being stolen, worry about the loud, loud building. Ultimately, this is how the Tar Heels helped themselves. With any luck the Heels will help themselves to a lot more wins.