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Before the Virginia Tech game, Ol' Roy Williams was talking about making sure his team had solid effort.
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He got it, more or less.
Williams saw his team cough up a 20-point lead, but in the end, UNC had enough ooomph to hold on for the win.
As Marcus Paige put it, "[l]dsast year in the same situation, it could have got real interesting. But we just kept it at mildly interesting, which is a big difference and a big change for us as a team this year."
As far as Virginia Tech is concerned, of course the Hokies would like to have won, but this team really competes. It's a big change from the last two coaches. Under Seth Greenberg, Virginia Tech got up for big games but not all games, and James Johnson's teams never really established a competitive identity.
Buzz Williams, after a season and a half, is doing a brilliant job.
Three point watch: UNC was 3-23 for 13%. All three were by Joel Berry, who was 3-11. Marcus Paige continues his slump and was just 2-10 and 0-5 from deep.
Up the snowy road in Charlottesville, Malcolm Brogdon sharpened up his dagger and stuck it right between Syracuse's ribs: when Syracuse mounted a comeback and cut the lead to 52-48, Brogdon hit a pair of threes to rebuild the lead. Devon Hall hit a basket, then London Perrantes hit another three, then got another layup, then followed that with a steal.
Anthony Gill had a dunk, and Virginia was up 64-57. And after that it was just a question of hitting free throws. Virginia did, and that was the end of that - the Pack Line beat the 2-3.
Syracuse was lucky to get there in the first place - it took two days just to get to Charlottesville. So give the Orange credit for a solid effort in trying circumstances.
If you're curious, Charlottesville got about 20 inches.
Monday's only game is Duke-Miami, which is our main story today, but on Tuesday, Wake Forest gets a chance to turn things around with Virginia in town, while BC will fight to upset Florida State.