Summary

College basketball's much-needed return on opening night is Christmas Day … until it starts to get hairy in the second half of a buy game. Just ask North Carolina 's Michael Malone, who had to bench his starters midway through the middle of a second-half collapse against Western Carolina . UNC, with help from an untimely technical on the Catamounts, avoided disaster in Monday's 80-72 win, but it was a pucker-worthy showing from a $20 million roster that looks far from the top of the ACC pecking order.

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