CHAPEL HILL – North Carolina needed to win a basketball game Monday night in a big way.

The Tar Heels needed to score one more point than their opponent, no matter the foe. They needed to go into the locker room and dance some, jump some, and celebrate a lot.

They needed to face the media afterward getting questions about what they did well enough to win, segments of the game that led to a victory, and about feeling good again.

And they needed to take a step forward from the horrors of last week, shaking off a tad bit of the mess still hanging around from one of the worst weeks in this fabled program’s rich history.

They needed to feel a little bit like North Carolina again.

And they did.