Don't get caught up in the fact that North Carolina defeated Gardner-Webb at the end of the night. Don't get caught up in the fact that Cole Anthony scored 28 points, or that Armando Bacot had a double-double.
The Tar Heels played what might have been their worst game of the season.
The offense in the first half was paltry at best — North Carolina started the game just 1-8 from the field, and didn't eclipse 10 points until halfway through the first period.
"I've heard that that was the worst basketball a couple of the coaches have seen in a long time, that first half," sophomore guard Leaky Black said.
Head coach Roy Williams said all offseason that this team would struggle to score compared to the past few years. Few, if any, would have expected them to struggle this much, especially with the gravity that Anthony brings night in and night out.
It's hard to describe just how much difficulty the Tar Heels had to score against a mid-major team who starts four guards and whose starting center, Ludovic Dufeal, stands at just 6-foot-8.
"(Williams) shouldn't be happy with how we played," Anthony said. "I'd say we're very stagnant on offense, and defensively we're missing a lot of rotations. As I said, it's early in the season, but at some point it's no longer going to be early in the season."
North Carolina, a team that emphasizes passing and ball movement more than anything else, had 19 assists in the game compared to 16 turnovers. The bigs were stripped in the post, and the guards gave the ball up regularly.
"Everybody in here works on their game daily," said Black, who had a team high in assists with six. "We lift. There's no reason someone should bump us off the ball while we're dribbling. It's a lot of being comfortable with the ball when you have it."
