A lot to love from this N.C. State win, but I'm still making the case for Strickland

Like most Tar Heels fans, I felt quite a bit of relief at around 11 p.m. Tuesday night.

This 77-63 win obviously was one that North Carolina had to have. Four consecutive losses and a defeat against N.C. State would have been a little too much to stomach and would have been a blow to the confidence of this young team.

I didn't have a very good feeling when the Tar Heels finally limited the turnovers to only three in the first half, yet they only led by four points at halftime. Then the Wolfpack outscores UNC 10-1 to start the second half and I start to have a sick feeling that things might be falling apart ... again.

Suddenly, I saw the Tar Heels team I had been hoping to see all season. I love it when Carolina gets that transition game going and I love it when the Heels are setting screens and coming off of them as well as they were against the Pack.

Deon Thompson came out aggressively with 11 of his 20 points in the second half. The return of Ed Davis, left, helped in so many ways, from his 12 points to his nine rebounds to his defense at times on Tracy Smith. John Henson, if you forget the airballed free-throw attempt, even looked a little more comfortable.

But what I noticed the most was the play of Dexter Strickland, who had 14 points and two steals even though he inexplicably only played 17 minutes. In addition, he played good defense on Javy Gonzalez in the second half .

This brings back a question I've written about on this blog before. Why is Strickland not playing more? But I've changed my answer.

A few weeks ago, my plea was to give Strickland more playing time than Larry Drew II. Clearly with play like I saw from Larry on Tuesday -- 18 points, seven rebounds and only 1 (!) turnover -- he's not the guy who needs to lose minutes to get Dexter more time.

I hate to say this because I like Marcus Ginyard a lot, but it's time for Drew to start ahead of Ginyard or at least get more playing time. Marcus still is a good defender and he can surprise you under the boards at times, but he clearly is in an offensive funk right now.

Out of loyalty to Marcus, I would be surprised if coach Roy Williams actually takes away his spot in the starting lineup. But I hope that, at the very least, Strickland gets more playing time than Ginyard, who got as many minutes (28) as Davis against N.C. State.

I know this only is one game, but this win certainly felt good and gives me hope that the Tar Heels can turn things around and win a couple of games in the NCAA tournament.

And, of course, winning seven straight against the Wolfpack is awfully satisfying.

Baseball could learn something from the NFL overtime system

There has been some unfair criticism of the NFL's overtime system. People don't like the fact that if the team that wins the coin flip scores on its first drive, the other team doesn't get a chance to score.

People say that it's not fair. But the answer always is that if the other team wants a chance score, it should just play better defense.

Not only do I salute this NFL system, I think Bud Selig is missing a terrific chance to improve Major League Baseball.

Dump that old archaic extra-innings system.

After nine innings, simply have a coin flip and the team that wins the flip gets to bat. If it scores, the game is over. If it doesn't score, then the other team gets to bat.

Fairness? Of course it's fair. If the team that loses the coin flip wants to bat, it just has to pitch well and play defense.

With that system, it also would prevent a lot of the extra-inning games that go on forever.

Sound like a stupid idea for baseball? Of course it is. Just like the NFL's overtime system is stupid.

No system is flawless, but this one is hopelessly flawed.

The college system eliminates most special teams, which are an important part of football, but at least it's fair.

The simple answer: If the coin-flip-winning team scores, it has to kick off to the other team to provide it with a chance to score on offense. If they keep matching the same number of points, then they keep playing.

Of course if the Vikings had won the overtime coin flip on Sunday night, odds are that gun-slinging Brett Favre would have thrown an interception to give the Saints the ball anyway, right?