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North Carolina Tar Heels: Paige Changes the Game

By John Woodcock

Mar 25, 2016; Philadelphia, PA, USA; North Carolina Tar Heels guard Marcus Paige (5) shoots against the Indiana Hoosiers during the second half in a semifinal game in the East regional of the NCAA Tournament at Wells Fargo Center. Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports
Mar 25, 2016; Philadelphia, PA, USA; North Carolina Tar Heels guard Marcus Paige (5) shoots against the Indiana Hoosiers during the second half in a semifinal game in the East regional of the NCAA Tournament at Wells Fargo Center. Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports /
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The North Carolina Tar Heels romped over the Indiana Hoosiers through a big team effort and a push from Marcus Paige.

The North Carolina Tar Heels defeated the Indiana Hoosiers 101-86 in the wee hours of the morning yesterday to advance to today’s Elite Eight showdown. They won their half of ACC-Big Ten matchup that the East Region descended into and Notre Dame came back late to knock out Wisconsin on the other side.

The result meant that there would be two All ACC regional finals as the Midwest fell to top seed Virginia and tenth seed Syracuse. It also means that the ACC is guaranteed two Final Four teams from those contests. The Big 12 could have matched them, but Kansas fell late at Villanova and so here we are.

What exactly happened that allowed the Tar Heels to beat Indiana in their kind of horse race game that Big Ten teams look to avoid? In two words, Marcus Paige.

North Carolina has been famous for it slow starts so far in the NCAA Tournament. It let FGCU stick around for a half. Then it let Providence do the same. Each time second half surges brought the Heels out of trouble.

This time there might have been a slow start. Except that Paige hit four three pointers to start the game. This gave the Heels an early lead that they never relinquished and Indiana was forced to play catch up. Paige would end up with twenty points on the night, but none were as important as his first fourteen.

Brice Johnson once again played to script in the second half. By the end of things he would have twenty points of his own and another double-double to break Billy Cunningham’s record for those things. His offensive play in the second half insured no drop off for the team, even if Paige had only two more shots to contribute.

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Johnson may have benefitted from a reluctance of Indiana to double-team the post in the first half. Of course the reason for that could only be Paige sitting out by the three point line.

Support from the other three starters was there too. Kennedy Meeks had fifteen in a game where Isaiah Hicks got saddled with four fouls pretty quickly. Justin Jackson and Joel Berry got fourteen each.

The Hoosiers were another team that played smaller. They lacked a second post man and sometimes played without one at all. This made the Tar Heel defense work to keep track of all the moving pieces. Since most of the Indiana players were interchangeable, the Heels switched on screens more often.

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Their success was that Indiana only got production from three perimeter guys. Yogi Ferrell (25 points) had a big scoring game, but was not the real threat much of the night. That honor belonged to second half Troy Williams (21 points). Williams simply could not miss in the early parts of the second half.

Still if you had told Coach Tom Crean that Williams and Ferrell would score 46 combined, he probably would have taken it. Yet it was not enough to win a game that got to a hundred points for the winning side.

The nice thing about playing Indiana is that it is sort of like what Notre Dame tries to do. The difference is that Notre Dame has Bonzie Colson to move around the offense. My feelings on Notre Dame really haven’t changed since the ACC Tournament.

Next: Last Game Against Notre Dame

If Marcus Paige delivers another game like the one he gave yesterday, then the Tar Heels will be moving on to the Final Four. They get their shot at Notre Dame tonight around 8:50 PM on TBS.

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