Ignore all the talk you hear about Ohio State and Florida on ESPN. The most talented college basketball team in the land will enter Cassell Coliseum this Saturday. The #1 ranked North Carolina Tar Heels are the first top-ranked team to play in Cassell Coliseum since Marcus Camby and UMass made the trip back in 1996. This time, the Hokies are hoping for better results.

North Carolina enters this game with a 15-1 record, including a 2-0 mark in ACC play. Their lone loss came back on November 22 to Gonzaga. They have defeated teams such as Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio State, Florida State and Virginia.

Not many of UNC's games have been close. Only two of their victories have been decided by single digits. They beat Winthrop 73-66 and knocked off Ohio State 98-89. They have accomplished this with a basketball team that is very young.

Last year, UNC made the NCAA tournament with a roster that featured four freshmen that either started or were key contributors off the bench. This year, many of those freshmen have been dropped to backup status because of the play of the Tar Heels' outstanding freshman class, which was ranked #1 in the nation heading into the season. Check out the youth in Roy Williams' backcourt.

UNC Starting Lineup
Pos.	Name	Ht.	Wt.	Year	Pts.	Rebs.
G	Ty Lawson	5-11	193	Fr.	8.8	2.5
G	Wayne Ellington	6-4	195	Fr.	12.4	2.6
F	Reyshawn Terry	6-8	232	Sr.	9.1	6.1
F	Brandan Wright	6-9	205	Fr.	15.8	6.6
C	Tyler Hansbrough	6-9	245	So.	18.6	7.8

This team is deep and talented, and some of their third string players could start for many major schools. But first let's take a look at their starting lineup, which features up to five future NBA players.

Tyler Hansbrough is the big name on UNC's roster. Although he's technically a sophomore, at 21 years of age he is older than Virginia Tech senior center Coleman Collins, who is just 20. Hansbrough's best attribute is his tenacious offensive rebounding ability. 51 of his 124 rebounds this year have been on the offensive glass. He is shooting 53.7% from the field.

The Tar Heels will try to exploit Virginia Tech on the inside. Hansbrough has 128 free throw attempts on the season and shoots 71.9% from the charity stripe. The Hokies can't hack away recklessly at Hansbrough, because he can burn them from the free throw line.

Hansbrough isn't the only inside player Tech has to worry about. Freshman forward Brandan Wright has been better than everyone expected. He combines with Hansbrough to form one of the best inside duos in the nation. Wright is extremely athletic. He can run the court, and he shoots 63.9% from the field, which ranks first in the ACC. The Hokies will have to be physical with Wright. He isn't the heaviest guy in the world, but he is aggressive.

Perhaps the only disappointment this year for UNC has been the play of Reyshawn Terry. The senior wing is a talented player who is putting up solid numbers, but they are down from his 14.3 points per game last season. He has particularly struggled in his last two games. He scored four points against UVa and zero against Florida State.

Terry is capable of lighting it up at any point, but he also has a tendency to get frustrated. If the Hokies get after him early and he has a tough day, it could turn into an advantage for Virginia Tech.

UNC's all-freshmen backcourt is very talented. Point guard Ty Lawson is a true point, and he's one of the most explosive players in the ACC. Lawson is second in the ACC in assist-to-turnover ratio at 2.68. He is the perfect fit for Roy Williams' up tempo style offense.

Lawson is joined in the backcourt by Wayne Ellington, a 6-4 shooting guard who averages 12.4 points per game. Ellington is very dangerous from the outside, shooting 42% from the arc on the season.

Off the bench, the Tar Heels will play a number of talented players. Sophomores Danny Green, Marcus Ginyard and Bobby Frasor are all players who gained starting experience last season. Ginyard is a 6-5 defensive stopper who could very well find himself locked up on Zabian Dowdell when he is in the game.

Key Stats
Category	North Carolina		Virginia Tech
Category	Stat	ACC Rank	Stat	ACC Rank
FG %	50.6%	2	46.9%	9
FG % Defense	40%	4	39.4%	3
3-Pt. %	38.2%	5	38.5%	4
3-Pt. % Defense	32.9%	7	32.6%	6
Free Throws	69.7%	6	63.2%	11
Rebounding Margin	+11.1	1	+1.5	9
Turnover Margin	+3.5	3	+6.94	1
Assist/TO Ratio	1.49	1	1.27	2
Scoring Off.	88.8	1	73.3	10
Scoring Def.	64.9	5	57.9	2
Average		4.8		6.6

North Carolina holds a big advantage over the Hokies in scoring offense, free throw shooting and rebounding margin. The Hokies are slightly better defensively and are one of just two teams in the ACC that have given up less than 1,000 points on the season.

It will take some luck for the Hokies to knock off the Tar Heels, but it's possible. First, they must use their senior guards to pressure the all-freshmen backcourt of UNC. Lawson and Ellington are very good, but they haven't faced the ball pressure they'll see Saturday. The Hokies have three players who rank in the top nine in the ACC in steals (Jamon Gordon, 2nd, 2.5 per game; Zabian Dowdell, 3rd, 2.25 per game; Deron Washington, 9th, 1.75 per game), and they need to pressure Lawson and Ellington.

Also, UNC has played just one road game this season, a 69-48 victory at Saint Louis. It will be a somewhat new experience for their three freshmen starters.

The Tar Heels will throw talent in waves at the Hokies, and it will probably be too much, especially with so many talented UNC post players. The Hokies will have to play their best game, and we'll have to see the Tar Heels at less than their best for an upset to occur.

The biggest game of the Seth Greenberg Virginia Tech hoops era dawns this Saturday afternoon inside the Cassell, as the #1 ranked North Carolina Tar Heels visit Blacksburg, in what is sure to be a major litmus test and then some. To put it simply, this is the most talented basketball team that Tech will play all year no matter were the Hokies end up this postseason.

Just how great is UNC? Try all of this on for size ... UNC is 2nd in scoring and 3rd in scoring margin, at +25 points per game. So this is not just the high-revving, high-octane Tar Heel offense that Coach Roy Williams had envisioned. This is a track meet quality team that is attempting to run away and hide from their opponents. 14 of the 15 UNC wins have been by 10 points or more, and UNC has 11 wins by 21 points or more.

UNC is young, as the Tar Heels only field one upperclassman in their Top-10 rotation. Though youthful, UNC is precocious, as their current freshman-year ballers were the #1 ranked recruiting class last year by many publications, and the current sophomores were a high single-digit to low-teen national class. UNC is the Mariana Trench of D-1 hoops talent ... this team is deep, deeper, deepest, as I count a very legit eight, possibly ten future NBA ballers on this Tar Heel hoops squad.

Can UNC be beaten? This game is like the aging Jodie Foster sci-fi movie, as this game is all about maintaining Contact. That will not be easy vs. the 4th best defensive rebounding team, the 13th best offensive rebounding team, which just so happens to combine for the 3rd best rebounding margin overall. The long and the short of all of this is that in the three closest games that UNC has played this year (going 2-1 in those games), UNC is a stunning +25 in turnover margin! Turnover margin is the bread and butter of Greenbergball, and sadly our Hokies are gonna have to dine on Sourdough and Parkay.