The UNC thing

Disclaimer: it's very late, and I've spent most of today and part of tomorrow working on a paper, so this post may not make sense in places.

I'm writing this post because it's clear that MSU's basketball team can't beat UNC. I don't mean "can't" in the theoretical sense here — of course the team could theoretically pull out a win — but MSU just doesn't seem able to get the job done. I think we've lost the last six meetings, if not more. It isn't a case of a simple talent differential: we were supposed to be hopelessly outclassed against Pitt and Louisville in last year's tournament, but we managed to find a way to beat them. We then followed that by getting completely routed in the title game, as I watched the game at a movie theater in west Lansing and ate popcorn despondently. There's something about UNC that always seems to do us in.

After seeing yet another loss unfold tonight, I tried to think of possible reasons why this phenomenon continues to occur. This was what I came up with:

• UNC plays really good defense. It was evident when they beat us in the Final Four in 2005. It was evident last year when they destroyed us on two separate occasions. It was evident tonight, too, although this year's team doesn't seem as strong as the previous ones.
• MSU forgets how to shoot when it plays UNC. Admittedly, the team was hot and cold for much of last season. I spent a lot a lot of time yelling at the TV over missed layups, and it looks like I may be doing that again this year. Still, though, going 2-for-20 from behind the three-point line is not just bad, it's suspiciously bad. UNC's defense played a part, but we missed a lot more open looks tonight than I would expect from this team.
• UNC shoots impossibly well when it plays MSU. I think at one point in the second half, ESPN put up a graphic where one of UNC's players (probably Ed Davis) was 7-for-7 and another (Larry Drew II?) was 5-for-5 shooting field goals. That's ridiculous. UNC seems to do this to us a lot.
• The Big Ten plays defense wrong. Great, we're a physical conference. Put two Big Ten teams together, and the referees will adapt to the nature of the game. Put a Big Ten team up against someone from the ACC, where they make it less of a point to run into people, and see which way the calls go. Yeah, the refs may subconsciously try to even out the foul count after a while (at least according to Yahoo! Sports), but that's not enough to stop us from getting into an early hole, or from Delvon Roe fouling out with more than seven minutes left in the game.

Apologies if any of the above are completely ridiculous to people who actually follow basketball. I try sometimes, but I usually don't succeed.

Also, for the record, the fact that we almost turned it into a real game tonight is encouraging. Maybe we'll shake off this curse before March. Failing that, maybe somebody else will eliminate UNC from the tournament so we don't have to lose to them again.