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Off the cuff: At first glance, one might say that Carolina was fortunate the normally hot-shooting three-point team Virginia Tech was off. That's true to a certain extent but much of that is because Carolina's defense bothered the Hokies and there were a number of closely contested three-point shots. The Hokies, one of the best three-point shooting teams in the country, was just five of 26 at home against the Heels Meanwhile, Carolina hit eight threes with seven of them coming in the first half when the Heels were able to come from behind to grab a double-digit lead. In the first half, Carolina shot 52 percent and had three players in double figures. In the second half, the Heels shot only 36 percent and turned the ball over nine times. But they gutted out the win with good defense and strong free-throw shooting. During the game-determining first-half run, Coach Hubert Davis said his guards were able to penetrate and score or either "spray it out" to men outside for open threes. It was a big win for Carolina's NCAA chances. It used to be that if a team had 20 wins and had a winning records in the ACC, that team would go to the NCAA tournament without any problem. Now, you have to get wins over certain teams, particularly getting what is called Quad One wins, in order to go to the tournament. This was a Quad One win. Right now, there is only one more opportunity to get a Quad One win and that comes in the regular-season finale at Duke, in what would be Coach K's final home game.
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