Out of their league

DETROIT - By halftime Wednesday night, Michigan State had established that it could compete with North Carolina, score on Carolina and carry out its defensive assignments against Carolina.

And North Carolina had established a 53-39 lead.

Then it got ugly.

Then it got out of hand.

"Unfair" is the first word that comes to mind when watching the No. 1 Tar Heels, who absorbed early determination from No. 13 MSU and blew the Spartans off the raised court at Ford Field, 98-63.

"You know, with a (35)-point loss you can't take a lot of things," MSU senior guard Travis Walton said, "but I think we should have feelings of embarrassment, (anger) and things have to change."

The 35-point margin of defeat was the second-worst of MSU coach Tom Izzo's 14-year tenure, surpassed only by a 36-point loss at Iowa in his first season.

Afterward, Izzo said he was happy with his team's first half - other than 11 turnovers that helped UNC break for some easy baskets - and blamed his scheduling for a second half that saw MSU make 7 of 35 shots (20 percent).

This was the Spartans' fourth game in seven days, after playing Thursday, Friday and Sunday in the Old Spice Classic in Orlando, Fla., and it showed.

"In the second half they appeared to lose their legs a little bit," North Carolina coach Roy Williams said of the Spartans. "There's no way our defense caused them to shoot 20 percent. We feel very lucky and we were very lucky to get the schedule like this."

A sparse-looking, announced crowd of 25,267 couldn't whip up much noise for MSU in the cavernous home of the Detroit Lions, which got a trial run for the Final Four it will host in April.

North Carolina (8-0) appears a safe bet to be there, likely with very few losses. The Spartans (4-2) would like to be there, but they have a lot of improving and healing to do - physically and psychologically - before they can even approach such thoughts.

"I'm not gonna talk about something like that when we had an embarrassing loss like this," Izzo said when asked about returning. "That would be ridiculous."

MSU played for the fourth straight game without senior center Goran Suton, who will have arthroscopic surgery today on his injured left knee. He is expected to miss two to four weeks.

He was missed Wednesday. But he couldn't have done anything to stop the Tar Heels' NBA-like onslaught.

"I don't think you really saw our real team tonight, and yet our real team might have been beat by 20," said Izzo, who called UNC one of the best teams he has faced at MSU.

The Tar Heels played with senior center Tyler Hansbrough, who was a game-time decision with an ankle injury. The defending national player of the year did his thing, hitting 13 free throws and scoring 25 points.

MSU got 21 points from Raymar Morgan and 16 from Chris Allen. But sophomore Kalin Lucas was outplayed in a point-guard matchup with UNC junior Ty Lawson.

Lucas didn't score until midway through the second half, when the game was well out of hand. Lawson finished with 17 points, eight assists and seven steals, while Lucas had six points and five assists.

MSU freshman forward Delvon Roe, who picked the Spartans over the Tar Heels in a heated recruiting battle, was a bright spot for MSU with a team-high eight rebounds, three assists and three blocks - two on Hansbrough.

But Roe, whose surgically repaired knees are still strengthening, was permitted to play just 20 minutes. And MSU didn't have enough similar efforts to put up any kind of fight.

"They're a very good team, they just have so many weapons inside and outside," Morgan said of the Tar Heels. "(But) we killed ourselves with all the turnovers and mental mistakes."

Izzo stood alone on the raised floor, under the glaring lights, just as he did last March when MSU's season ended in a 92-74 Sweet Sixteen loss to eventual national runner-up Memphis.

Despite the final scores, this wasn't quite as humiliating as that one, which was 50-20 Memphis at the half. But it was not the kind of evening MSU envisioned when it was put together in the offseason.

"I apologize to those fans who came out on a tough night," Izzo said.