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The Big Ten has been very good to the North Carolina Tar Heels of late. Back-to-back wins over Ohio State and Michigan will give players, coaches, and fans alike a merrier Christmas than was expected around two weeks ago.
The common denominator around both wins has been big run by the Tar Heels. The Buckeyes led the Heels last Saturday, 66-55, with 7:14 remaining. A 17-6 outburst in the next 5:04 knotted the game at 72, and went a long way in UNC's 89-84 overtime win.
Wednesday night's victory against Michigan wasn't as dramatic, but it wasn't an easy one either. And just as it was four days earlier, a big Tar Heel run over a small segment of the game went a long way in North Carolina's win.
Michigan led 28-23 with 6:36 left in the first half. From there, an 18-4 North Carolina run flipped the script. It went up nine with one minute left in the first half, and never looked back. After that, the main storyline was the ebbs and flows of the Tar Heels' lead.
The bottom line is that the run is this team's friend. They are at their best when they are playing fast and aggressively defensively, and confidently, but with reasonable efficiency on the other end.
Trailing by five, Hubert Davis turned up the heat, and the team responded. That will be the focus of today's Film Review.