Off the cuff: It's hard to believe that North Carolina actually had a lead in its game against No. 1 Indiana. Midway through the first half, Brice Johnson hit a short jumper on a fastbreak to give the Tar Heels a 19-18 lead.

That was Carolina's only lead of the game although the Heels managed to tie it at 31-all with four minutes left in the first half.

Frustratingly, even at that point, the Tar Heels were working hard to score while the Hoosiers were getting fastbreak layups and dunks.

It was only a matter of time before Indiana would open it up. For an hour, from the four-minute mark to midway through the second half, Carolina fans could have switched over to Dancing with the Stars and only would have missed eight points. Eight points in an hour of real time. That was painful.

A couple of things unrelated to the Tar Heels bothered me about this game. First, it seemed a little racist to me that reporters after the game and even radio and TV coverage during the game, asked questions or made comments that either called into question if Indiana was a legitimate No. 1 team or went overboard to support that Indiana is worthy of being No. 1. Why wouldn't they be? It seems that whenever a basketball team with a lot of white players does well, it has to be a fluke. (By the way, it appeared that every person in the stands was also white. Strange in these days of demographic changes.)

Second, one of those white players, Will Sheehey was a bit of a jackass. The junior forward scored 19 and hit three of four three-pointers and he wanted to make sure everybody knew it when he hit one. Not only was he overly demonstrative but he talked smack to Carolina players as he ran back down the court. Great sport, huh. After hitting his last three, giving Indiana its biggest lead, he came out of the game running his foul F-bomb mouth in aggressive celebration, slapping hands with every player on the team. He certainly isn't shy. He wants the attention on himself. Could you imagine a Carolina team player under Dean Smith using "happy" expletives in celebration as he came to the bench? The times they are a changin' and not always for the better.

As for watching the games on ESPN, I've asked this before but does the sports news of the day need to constantly run across the bottom of the screen? Not only is it distracting and shrinks the screen but it's also awfully repetitive for anyone watching the whole game. With all the ways of finding out information now days, I doubt many people turn over just to check in on the sports blurbs of the day. That means that most people are subjected to the same news over and over again.

The words "Marvin Miller, former MLB Players Association executive director, dies at 95" ran across the bottom of the screen about 30 times during the game. 30 times! If there isn't any other information happening in sports over a two-hour period other than that, I'm not sure the ticker at the bottom is needed. Generalisimo Francisco Franco is still dead.