#1 Kentucky Defeats #5 North Carolina, 72-73
In what many consider to be a possible National Championship game matchup, the #1 Kentucky Wildcats defended their home court with a 73-72 victory over #5 North Carolina. For North Carolina, the loss leave them with a split in a difficult week featuring games against two top 10 teams. Earlier in the week, the Tar Heels defeated Wisconsin.
With the preseason #1 and the current #1 facing off, it is not surprising that many scouts were on hand to watch North Carolina’s trio of returning stars and Kentucky’s annual one-and-done class of super-freshmen:
Freshman Michael Kidd-Gilchrist had 17 points and 11 rebounds as a spark Kentucky (8-0) needed early before Doron Lamb took control in the second half with 12 of his 14 points as more than two dozen NBA scouts and front office personnel watching one of the most heavily hyped matchups of the season.
After Ohio State’s thumping of Duke, Kentucky needed this win to hold onto its #1 ranking.
For North Carolina, it is somewhat surprising to see this veteran team sitting at only 6-2 right now. The nation is on notice that the Tar Heels are beatable.
For the ACC, this is yet another tough hit to the reputation. After starting out so well, the Big 10 proved to be a much superior conference in the ACC-Big 10 Matchup, winning 8 of 12 games. And now North Carolina has lost 2 of its last 3 games, including what was essentially a road loss to UNLV last weekend.
Compounding today’s misery was Wake Forest being upset by Richmond and Boston College losing to Boston University. However, the good news is that Miami was able to soundly defeat a good UMass team, while Virginia continued to roll with an 86-53 win over Longwood to get to 7-1.
The Confidential 