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Off the cuff: First an improbable ACC regular season title and now an improbable comeback victory in the quarterfinals of the ACC tournament. Carolina outscored Miami 27-6 over the last 10 minutes of the game to come from 19 down to win by two at the buzzer. A friend of mine attending the ACC tournament (Greg Pierce) says that Roy Coach Williams' decision to go to a three-guard lineup for part of the second half was the key that ignited the run. UNC was able to match up better with Miami's athleticism. That well may be true because I thought, despite Barnes' 18 points and Zeller scoring UNC's final eight points of the game, that Leslie McDonald may have been the difference maker. Not only did McDonald give Carolina 22 minutes of play, he hit three of four three-point shots and finished with 11 points. In retrospect, the second three he hit may have been the biggest bucket of the game (save for the winner deuce by Zeller at the end). The Tar Heels had just gone down by their biggest margin at 53-34 and within seconds McDonald didn't allow that to stand or increase as he fired in a three from the left wing to cut it right back down to 16. Then came the barrage of four threes by the Tar Heels that cut it four. Later, when Carolina was down by five at 56-51 with just over four minutes to play, McDonald put in a long two from near the left baseline and 12 seconds later drew a charge. That possession resulted in a Zeller hook in the lane that cut it to 56-55 with 3:55 to play and set the table for the last-second heroics by Marshall and Zeller. Carolina is probably going to see a lot of zone defenses from here on out and if they are going to go much further, they'll need to continue to get a few threes from McDonald and others.
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