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Watch the Spartans react to their NCAA tournament draw. From Monday at the Elliott University Center.

Just looking at this headline on ESPN.com made the hair stand up on my arms.

I know, I know, it's just a coincidence that the plane carrying the Marshall football team happened to be heading to ECU - the destination when a plane carrying the Marshall football team crashed almost exactly 36 years ago - but still ... it's weird.

Which is a very, very confusing place. Rob Daniels likened the winding halls around the press room to the arena maze scene in Spinal Tap (Cleveland Hello!) and I have to say, while Rob is sometimes a bit Spinal Tap-crazy, he's dead on here. After leaving the media eating area, I had to open four doors before I could find the work room again.

Assuming I can find my way to the court, and eventually to my seat, I'm looking forward to my first regular season look at the Tar Heels. I'll be watching to see just how fast they can push the pace and whether it can match its offensive energy with a level of defensive intensity that will keep Roy Williams happy. I'm really looking forward to watch the freshman trio of Ty Lawson, Wayne Ellington and Brandan Wright.

Oh, and I'm also looking forward to watching Winthrop's coach, Greg Marshall. He's always a wound-up ball of intensity on the sidelines.

And I'm not just talking about the male member of the Winthrop dance team, nor their velour jumpsuit look. The Eagles are up 38-30, and it doesn't look like much of a fluke. This is essentially the same Winthrop team that nearly knocked off No. 2 seed Tennessee last year in the NCAA tournament. Four starters are back from that team. There is absolutely NO intimidation factor out there.

Add in that the Eagles are shooting lights out (8 of 15) from 3-point range, are playing their usual tough halfcourt defense and Ty Lawson is playing like a freshman point guard often does (5 turnovers) and you can see why the Tar Heels are behind.

Should make for an entertaining second half.

That may seem like a strange thing to say for a team that is 2-4 on the season, but 77-54 over Wofford? Um...wow. I was at N.C. State's last-minute win over the Terriers, and I can tell you that should be an upper division SoCon team. I think Wofford confirmed that when it went on the road and knocked off Cincy. For the Spartans to just destroy the Terriers ... again, wow.

Granted, the G was picked to win the Socon North in the pre-season, but the Spartans also dropped four straight to start the season. Maybe it was integrating in a bunch of freshmen into the rotation, maybe it was the schedule. Whatever it was, the Spartans figured it out against Wofford.

If Mikko Koivisto (what is it with UNCG and its Scandinavian athletics pipeline? First Iceland, now Finland) can turn into a more solid third scoring option that Kevin Oleksiak has been in the past and if Ben Stywall can provide some relief in the paint for Kyle Hines, this could be more than just a good start for the Spartans. This could be something special.

One major caveat though - there could be some tricky chemistry on this team between the established stars, Hickman and Hines, who were recruited by former G coach Fran McCaffery, and the infusion of freshman talent that Mike Dement has recruited. Also, Dement has a very demanding personality. Will it drive this team to improve, or wear them down?

Stay tuned. We'll try to check in regularly with UNCG blog updates as the season progresses.