CHAPEL HILL – It’s entirely understandable if North Carolina knowingly entered its game with Pittsburgh on Saturday with a desperate disposition.

Having dropped four of its last five games, sitting just three games over .500, and projected on the outside of the NCAA Tournament bubble, desperate is an apt description of how the Tar Heels should have approached the game.

They needed to win. Period. It didn’t really matter how, just win the darn game. And they did.