Did a great job of eating minutes and not screwing up until we could get Pullen back, which is nice. But it's not anything to get too excited about.
Spradling's performance was impressive. No question about it. I guess I wasn't necessarily excited or ready to compare him to Havlicek, but that dude deserves some credit.
-played great defense. aside from the charges, two of which were legit, he played
very solid defense. He's quicker than I anticpiated and moves well laterally. He was consistently guarding senior, experienced guards. At times, he was guarding one of the best guards in the ACC. And with few exceptions, he held his own.
-played good offense. he may not have Jason Kidd out there, but it's obvious he handles the ball exceptionally well (zero turnovers), he gets the ball up and down the court quickly, and he distributes the ball evenly, smoothly. i.e. doesn't pick up the ball at the top of the key and wait for the wings to pop open. That may not impress you, but to me, it is very positive that this true freshman handles the ball well, is smart with the ball, and doesn't turn it over.
-intangibles. I think it's very impressive that the dude did all of the foregoing things on a National stage, in the most high profile non-con home game in our school's history, against an ACC team loaded with seniors.