CHAPEL HILL -- For a while, it looked like North Carolina should have saved some baskets for the next few weeks. The Tar Heels are going to need them.
They ended up needing them all Tuesday, taking a 19-point lead on Michigan State before holding for an 89-82 win, but it's hard to imagine the Tar Heels shooting the ball any better for most of the night.
Bucket after bucket, shot after shot, the last shot of the first half and the first of the second - both 3-pointers - all went in at an amazing rate.
The Tar Heels made six of their first seven shots and didn't slow down until they had a double-digit lead in the second half.
Michigan State got within six in the final minute, but no closer. The Tar Heels had given themselves more than enough padding.
As the Tar Heels enter the toughest stretch of their schedule - maybe the toughest stretch of anyone's schedule - there was no better way to kick it off, with a lights-out shooting performance and some grit down the stretch.
"We came out and really, I feel like laid the hammer on a great Michigan State team," North Carolina forward Marcus Ginyard said. "It's going to take that type of effort, that type of intensity. We've got Kentucky and Texas coming up, two big-time teams that everybody's looking forward to us matching up against. It's going to take this kind of effort."
There's a lot the Tar Heels will want to remember, though.
Their two biggest weaknesses this year are both in the same spot on the court - outside shooting and perimeter defense. Not a problem Tuesday against the Tar Heels' toughest opponent so far.
The Tar Heels were 5-for-7 from 3-point range at one point (and 5-for-10 overall), while holding Michigan State to 2-for-20. The Spartans had been making more than six per game.
Dexter Strickland's long-distance 3-pointer at the buzzer gave the Tar Heels a 16-point halftime lead on 21-of-33 shooting.
That just isn't done against Michigan State. And if that wasn't enough, Ginyard hit a 3-pointer on the first shot of the second half.
At one point in the second half, with North Carolina up 15, the Tar Heels had made twice as many shots (29) as they had missed (14). The flow dried up not long after, but it was enough to hold off the Spartans, who kept plugging away until the end.
Tuesday's game opened a nightmare stretch of the schedule that includes visits to No. 4 Kentucky and No. 2 Texas sandwiched around a home game against Presbyterian. (What, no Kansas?)
That's as difficult a run of games as any team will play this season, throwing the young Tar Heels into the deep end of the pool.
North Carolina coach Roy Williams even expressed concern last month that the Texas game, which will be played at the Dallas Cowboys' new stadium, might be a little too much to ask. He may feel differently this morning.
This stretch of games is going to do one of two things for the Tar Heels - teach them how to play with the big boys at a level befitting their preseason ranking, or dent their fragile psyche going into the ACC schedule.
"We can gain a great deal of confidence," Williams said recently. "We can lose a great deal of confidence."
So far, it's easy to see which way the Tar Heels are headed. The trick now will be staying on target. For much of Tuesday, they couldn't miss.
