Tar Heels could use close call

CHAPEL HILL -- This is how well North Carolina's season has gone so far: Friday, senior swingman Danny Green admitted it would be nice to play in a close game or two, if only for the practice.

With the Tar Heels racking up wins by double-digit margins, they have so far managed to exceed even the highest expectations that were placed up on this team.

Even Green said he was "a little bit" surprised by the degree of their success and acknowledged he never thought he would ever be in a position where he would prefer a game come down to the final possession.

"I never thought I'd be talking about that," Green said, laughing. "I'd love to win every game by double digits. If we could do that, that'd be great. But I just know that it would help us more in the long run if we had a couple close games."

The top-ranked Heels are still waiting for their first. Going into today's ACC opener against Boston College, the Heels have won all 13 of their games by 15 points or more, a school record.

That includes a 35-point demolition of No. 10 Michigan State, a 29-point win over Oregon and a 17-point win over Kentucky. Seventh-ranked Notre Dame and Penn came the closest, both losing by 15 -- a comfortable margin for anyone else, dangerously close for the Heels.

That kind of dominance has so far validated those preseason pundits who claimed the Heels are equipped to become college basketball's first undefeated team since Indiana in 1976. It's heady talk, but so far, so good as the ACC season begins.

"We have high expectations, but also we realize that we're going to get challenged soon with conference games coming up," Carolina forward Tyler Hansbrough said. "Boston College and some of these teams we play in conference are really tough.

"I think we've been playing well and we know that, but there are some areas we want to improve on, too. ... We'll take it game by game, but I think you ask every team I've ever played on, it would be great to go undefeated."

Aside from the obvious roadblocks which loom ahead -- the two games against Duke and next weekend's game at Wake Forest -- the Heels also have to go to Miami on Feb. 15, four days after traveling to Duke.

Otherwise, the schedule plays largely into Carolina's favor. They face Wake Forest and Clemson only once each, and the Clemson game is in Chapel Hill.

Still, all of those games figure to be a bit tighter than what the Heels have experienced so far. Even the Tar Heels are willing to marvel at the relative ease with which they have handled the competition.

"A little bit," Green admitted, "but it's not that surprising to us. We know what we've capable of. Who's to say those teams didn't have bad nights and we had good nights?

"So we don't look back and say we're the greatest team out there right now. We look back and say we're doing pretty well for ourselves, but we know we have a lot to work on, a lot of things to improve on."

Going down to the wire would be one of those areas, but you won't hear Roy Williams complaining. The Carolina coach said that while the the Heels may not have had to make a do-or-die free throw this season, they do have the experience from close games.

Six of Carolina's 31 regular- season games were decided by single digits last season (Carolina went 5-1), and the Heels had three overtime games before two of Carolina's three wins in the ACC Tournament were decided by five points or fewer.

As far as Williams is concerned, that experience will suffice.

"I'm certainly not going to hand the ball to the other team 10 times in a row to get it close," Williams said. "I'm going to let 'em keep playing the way they want to play."

So far, that's worked pretty well for the Heels. Maybe even, as Green might say, too well.