LSU Diet Game Guide

#1 UNC vs. #8 LSU, ~5:45 pm (3/21). Carolina is coming off a thrashing of Radford, even without Ty Lawson, who is still questionable for Saturday's game. As a result, it looks like no one is taking bets on the game yet until an announcement is made about Ty. But you have to assume UNC would be a double digit favorite with Ty, and and probably around a -4 point favorite without him. There will probably be a money line bet either way, but I won't even try to guess what it'll be.
Anyway, Wayne Ellington is coming off a spectacular game, again. I can throw the numbers at you, but I think what stands out most is that he's somehow gained the ability to take over a game. I'm not exactly sure how I'd define that, but its something about him being visible on every single possession. Even off the ball, he garners so much attention that he makes life easier for his teammates. He's certainly making Larry Drew II and Bobby Frasor's jobs MUCH easier in Ty's absence, because he's now providing a slashing threat that no other perimeter player besides Ty can provide.
Tyler "All Time ACC Leading Scorer" Hansbrough, Danny Green, and Ed Davis also played well. Ed posted a career high 15 points. I said yesterday I think Danny needed to have a big game for his confidence; he was 1 for 3 from 3 point range, and 6 for 14 overall, which is not spectacular, but enough for him to remember that he can knock down shots. He also had 10 rebounds and 3 steals. I think Danny's defense could be one of the keys to the LSU game, as one of his assignments will probably be LSU's Marcus Thorton, a big (6'4"), athletic shooting guard who can play just about any position on the floor. Thorton is coming off a huge game against Butler, where he had 30 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists, 4 steals, and only 1 turnover. Its well known amongst the Carolina faithful that big guards have given Carolina problems all year; Greivis Vasquez, Toney Douglas, and Tyrese Rice have all had huge games against the Heels that have resulted in defeats.
Okay, now some good new for us all; first, LSU doesn't have much of a bench threat; 65% of their scoring comes from 3 players, and 85% of their scoring comes from their starting 5. Carolina also relies on their starting five for around 85% of their scoring, but the Heels score around 91 ppg, while LSU scores 75. LSU was ranked #20 in the latest poll, and were the SEC Regular Season Champs, but the SEC is arguably the weakest BCS Conference this year, having put only three teams into the NCAA Tournament. LSU's strength of schedule was 85th in DI, extremely low for an 8 seed. Besides Butler, LSU hasn't beaten a single team in the RPI Top 50 all season, posting an 0-3 record. They're also a bad road/neutral site team, with a 7-5 record at these sites.
As for Ty's injury, we await new news with bated breath and aching toes.