Breaking down Illinois vs North Carolina

Still, let's give the clear advantage to the Illini: Bruce Weber's team is full of veterans, it has the length and athleticism to match up with Harrison Barnes, John Henson and Tyler Zeller, and it will be playing in Assembly Hall, a major built-in boost no matter the opponent. And unless Roy Williams solved his point guard problems in the past week (hint: he didn't), UNC will travel to Champaign with the same disjointed squad, a team much weaker than the sum of its very talented parts. (If someone can explain why North Carolina, a team that barely survived its home date with Charleston Sunday night, was ranked in the top 10 to begin the season, I'd like to hear it. It didn't make sense then and it looks even worse now.)

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