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Four quick thoughts on a near miss

CHAPEL HILL — It was nearly the upset of the college basketball season. Tennessee shot the lights out in the first half to lead UNC by eight at the break and still held a five point lead with four minutes to play. But the Tar Heels found a way to escape.

Here are four quick thoughts on a crazy day in in the Dean Dome.

1 — Vols weren’t rattled early — With an exceedingly young team playing in its first true road game in a place like the Dean Dome, against the No. 7 team in the country, how they’d handle the environment seemed like a valid concern.

Toss in the fact that when this team has played bad, getting off to ugly starts has been a common culprit. None of that was a problem for Rick Barnes’ team this afternoon in front of a packed house in Chapel Hill.

Tennessee started the game 11-of-16 from the floor and a red-hot 3-of-4 from three-point range as they raced out to a 28-13 lead with 8:12 still to go in the first half.

For the most part, the Vols kept their composure throughout the first half, shooting 65% from the floor and 7-of-9 from the free throw line and matched UNC on the glass (18-18).

The 65 percent shooting in the first half was the fourth highest number EVER by a UNC opponent in the Dean Dome.

The only negative in that first half was the turnovers. Tennessee committed eight, and had the Vols been a little cleaner there might have led by more than 44-36 at the break.

Regardless, it was the best 20 minutes of basketball Tennessee has played in a long time.

2 — Robert Hubbs — Let’s give the senior his own shout out here. He played what was undoubtedly the best half of his career in leading the Vols to that 44-36 halftime lead. Hubbs was a perfect 7-of-7 from the field on his way to 15 first half points.

Hubbs played with as much emotion and confidence in that first half as I can ever recall seeing from him. He was making shots and staring down opponents in a manner you just don’t typically see from him.

Like the rest of the Vols, Hubbs cooled off somewhat in the second half, but he did exactly what you have to have a senior do to start the game, setting the tone for his younger teammates in a starting line-up that consisted of himself, three freshmen and one sophomore.

Hubbs is extremely popular with his teammates, but he hasn’t had a reputation as strong or vocal leader. He showed flashes of being just that today in a tough match-up, finishing with 21 points.

3 — Second half start…almost doomed them, but it didn’t…offensive rebounds did that — Tennessee rode an incredible wave of momentum into the half. Their play in that first 20 minutes had a packed house inside the Dean Dome was more than a little perplexed as they watched the Vols shoot the eyes out in the first half on the way to taking an eight point halftime lead.

Tennessee very nearly gave all that momentum away in the first two minutes of the second half when the Heels went on a 6-0 spurt to start the half. That electrified the home crowd and instantly turned the game into the kind of tight contest it simply wasn’t for much of the first half.

Credit to the Vols though, it would have been easy to fold there and let things get out of hand, but that’s not the way things went down. Tennessee regrouped, got its composure back and hunkered down to take the Tar Heels to the absolute brink before coming up just short.

One of the reasons the Vols came up just short was that UNC just mauled them on the offensive glass. North Carolina won the overall rebounding battle 41-32, but the work they did on the offensive end with 22 boards there to just seven for Tennessee was the difference in a tight ball game.

4 — Let’s hear it for the young guys — This was an enormous test for a Tennessee team that’s not only exceptionally young all over the place, but also still searching for its identity on both ends of the floor.

You can discount moral victories all you want, and that’s fine, but if you don’t think this wasn’t a valuable experience for a young group, then we’ll have to agree to disagree.

Tennessee will be kicking itself for this one. It was a missed opportunity. Once the Vols weathered that storm to start the second half it really felt like they had a chance. Carolina’s experience—and size—showed up in those final minutes though.

When it mattered the most, in the last four minutes of the game, the Tar Heels outscored Tennessee 10-3.

The Vols are young, and they’ll probably take some more lumps this season, but if you’re a fan and aren’t encouraged by what you saw today, well, I don’t know what to say.

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