North Carolina looked like a North Carolina team is supposed to look on Wednesday night. It just wasn't that the Tar Heels took down their hated rival, the North Carolina State Wolfpack, it was how they went about it.

This team has been a notoriously slow starter. That wasn't the case this time around. UNC had arguably its best first half of the season. They took an insurmountable 54-26 lead into the half.

It also wasn't another example of the Tar Heels scraping by against an inferior opponent by a possession or so. Many times they have played down to the opponent. Betting against North Carolina as a favorite this season has been a profitable pastime. They are only 5-13 against the spread when they are giving points, including 0-5 the last five times in Atlantic Coast Conference games.

In fact, if an individual took the other team and the spread no matter who was favored, he or she would have won the last eight times going into the most recent game.

That is why the 97-73 win over the Wolfpack could lead to some positivity that things might be trending in the right direction. The Heels played with passion and purpose. After a brief feeling out process, they threw a flurry of punches as soon as the bell wrang, and they never let off the gas.