North Carolina beat Wisconsin 71-56 late Wednesday to win the Maui Invitational.
The Tar Heels are now 7-0.
Here are three things to know:
1. UNC looks great and maybe like the nation's best team
The Tar Heels played Chaminade, Oklahoma State and Wisconsin in the Maui Invitational. They never trailed for even a second and won their three games by an average of 30 points. And their seven victories this season have come by an average of 27.3 points. Simply put, North Carolina looks great. And it should not, at this point, surprise anybody if Hall of Fame coach Roy Williams makes his ninth Final Four, or wins his third NCAA Tournament, this season.
2. North Carolina destroyed Wisconsin on the boards
The craziest thing about this game is that it was played at Wisconsin's pace, and Wisconsin still lost by a significant margin -- mostly because UNC dominated the Badgers on the boards. North Carolina grabbed 88.6 percent of its defensive-rebounding opportunities, meaning Wisconsin was terrible at getting its own missed shots. The Badgers entered the game as the nation's third-best offensive rebounding team. But they didn't grab a single offensive rebound until more than 27 of the 40 minutes had passed. That's incredible.
3. Joel Berry might be a National Player of the Year candidate
Joel Berry averaged a career-high 12.8 points, a career-high 3.8 assists and a career-high 3.4 rebounds last season while shooting a career-high 44.6 percent from the field and a career-high 38.2 percent from 3-point range. And he's better in every category so far this season. The junior guard got 22 points on 12 shots against Wisconsin. So he's now averaging a team-high 17.1 points and looking like North Carolina's best player. And if you're North Carolina's best player when North Carolina is great, you are, by definition, a serious candidate to win the Wooden Award.
