Off the cuff: Alex Stepheson, playing in front of his father for the first time this season, looked focused and energized. It was clearly his best effort of the season and his 21 minutes were needed with Deon Thompson slowed by a bad knee. Thompson played nine minutes in the first half but sat out the second half because he felt he was hurting the team with his slow play. Ok, I'm officially tired of the Verizon Wireless radio commercial, especially because it portrays a Carolina "staffer" as an ass. In the ad, an excitable Carolina fan introduces himself to the Tar Heels' "scouting director" and offers to help call in information on players. The Carolina staffer asks if he can get reception in Alaska. When the thrilled fan says yes, the "scouting director" says "Then call me from You Gotta Be Kidding Me High School." Rude. A Carolina person would not act like that to a fan. If they did, it would be the last time. It's midway through February so it's down-the-stretch time. It's time for Lawson to get back in the lineup. Surely he has to be healthy but if he comes in right at the end of the season, there will be chemistry problems. The Heels play totally different with him in the lineup and they need to get some continuity going into tournament play. It was good to see production off the bench with Green and especially Graves but I'm not sure the Heels want to go into the stretch run with Mike Copeland playing 15 minutes. He played well with a bucket on his only attempt, two blocks, four rebounds and two assists. But UNC needs to get guys well so that he doesn't have to play that much at this point in the season. At the preseason ACC media event, I voted for Tech's Jeff Allen as the rookie of the year. He has been solid but he did not play well against the Heels as he went only two of eight and turned the ball over six times. Tech committed 21 total turnovers while Carolina had nearly as many as they turned it over 19 times.
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