UNC just fine without Tyler Hansbrough

Yes, they’re still winning even without the reigning national player of the year.

One week into the 2008-09 NCAA college basketball season and the North Carolina Tar Heels are still reigning supreme. The Heels passed their first big test without Tyler Hansbrough as their front line stepped up big with Tyler Zeller scoring a team-high 18 points while fellow freshman Ed Davis came up with a double-double Saturday to help North Carolina beat Pennsylvania 86-71.

This is definitely an impressive season-opening performance that indicates that the North Carolina Tar Heels can weather the uncertainty of playing without the national player of the year.

Deon Thompson added 17 points for the Tar Heels, who led by double figures much of the day yet had some trouble putting together a game-sealing run. North Carolina was also without fellow senior Marcus Ginyard, injuries that forced North Carolina to thrust Zeller and Davis into the lineup.

Taking the second spot after week 1 are the Connecticut Huskies, led by Hasheem Thabeet, the 7-foot-3 junior from Tanzania, who scored 23 points and had a career-high 17 rebounds to lead No.2 Connecticut to a season-opening 81-55 win Friday over Western Carolina.

Thabeet, who towers 7 inches over any defender, also blocked five shots. He was 7-of-11 from the field, with most of his attempts from inside five feet. After two years as the Huskies’ defensive stopper, Thabeet says he ready to step it up on offense as well.

Following at third are the Louisville Cardinals, at fourth spot is UCLA and rounding up the fifth spot is Pittsburgh. Levance Fields and DeJuan Blair had 15 and 17 points respectively as they breezed past Fairleigh Dickinson 86-63 Friday night.

Michigan State is at sixth, the Texas Longhorns are at seventh spot, while the Duke Blue Devils, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish and the Gonzaga Bulldogs complete the top 10 teams after the first week of college hoops.

Who will win the 2009 NCAA college basketball national championship? Bodog sportsbook has the odds.

North Carolina Tar Heels 2.50

Connecticut Huskies 11.00

Memphis Tigers 26.00

Kansas Jayhawks 26.00

Want more odds? Visit Bodog for more basketball betting odds. Want to watch college basketball live? Get college basketball tickets online now.

North Carolina Tar Heels March Madness

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 18th, 2008 at 10:57 am and is filed under Basketball, College Basketball, Duke Blue Devils, March Madness, NCAA Basketball, NCAA Final Four, UConn Huskies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.