I am still trying to process the game and what it means for the rest of the season. I keep alternating among three possible interpretations.
The Good We played a very good, very talented team and in spite of horrendous officiating almost won.
The Bad We played a terrible game and still almost won. We are going to improve a lot by February.
The Ugly We are a deeply flawed team, and we won't have a very good season.
I can't figure out which of these is true. Each of them seems quite possible to me. I do know that I (and others) overestimated the talent on this team before the season.
Here are some other thoughts (many of which echo things alreay said by others.)
On our final shot, Mack didn't make a mistake by taking it to the hoop, HOWEVER, he stopped short of making contact with any of the defenders. If he had forced the contact, there is a very good chance the refs would have called a foul on UNC.
North Carolina is big on flopping and faking fouls. I have seen this a lot in other games. Cadeau is the worst offender, but they all do it.
I kept wondering why we were slowing the game down. We often had one or two guys dribbling for 15-20 seconds before initiating the offense. I understand trying to shorten the game when you have foul trouble, but we frequently left ourself with little time to get anything like a quality shot.
I share the puzzlement about what has happened to Dylan Andrews.
I HATE games with this many fouls 47 fouls in 40 minutes. 57 free throws. Games like this become unwatchable.
Along with the rest of the terrible officiating was the basket interference by North Carolina that wasn't called. It was obvious! And by not calling it, they couldn't review it.