Phil Knight bracket takeaways: Duke, UNC survive scares; Michigan State falls to

PORTLAND, Ore. — CBS college basketball insider Matt Norlander is spending Thanksgiving weekend at the PK85, covering the Phil Knight Invitational and Phil Knight Legacy tournaments. He’ll be providing updates throughout as he talks to players and coaches at college hoops’ biggest event of the regular season. Here are five takeaways from Thursday’s action at the Moda Center and Veterans Memorial Coliseum. 

Tar Heels still yet to look, or play, like No. 1 team

This PK85 took almost no time to serve up some drama. UNC flirted with becoming the first No. 1 team since Duke in November 2019 to lose to an unranked team not in a power conference (Stephen F. Austin). The Tar Heels continued their trend of playing in competitive games against mid-major opponents. Portland led by five with 11 minutes remaining and induced 13 lead changes before UNC was able to nudge off the pesky Pilots in the final minute of a 98-91 Tar Heels victory. 

UNC coach Hubert Davis was not surprised with Portland’s demeanor; he wants his team to be playing with that kind of verve, spirit and vigor. Davis also admitted that Carolina players still haven’t embraced or collectively learned how to carry the weight of being the top target not just in every game, but holding the title of No. 1 team. 

“The position that we’re in, people have an expectation of how it should look,” Davis said. “And so we’re supposed to be up by 20 at halftime. We’re supposed to win every game by 30. No, we’re supposed to compete and play hard and continue to improve and see what kind of team we can become.” 

Davis later added: “I think they’re trying to figure this out. I think they’ve never in their life, really, had to deal with this — the weight of other people’s expectations — and I’ve addressed it. We’ve talked about this a lot about, whether it comes from criticism or comes from praise. It’s still noise and it is of no benefit to us.”

Portland averaged 1.12 points per possession and became the second team in five games to clear 80 on UNC. The Pilots set the tone and UNC came out flat, Tar Heels senior wing Leaky Black told CBS Sports. It’s a running theme with every game so far, and he’s pretty much done with it. UNC is winning, but not winning the way it should, he said.

“Lack of detail, lack of enthusiasm, energy,” Black said. “Obviously we have the talent, we’ve got to stop coming out slow, expecting us to beat everyone because we got North Carolina across our chest and No. 1. Coming out flat is obviously not working for us and just trying to do whatever we want to do instead of what the coaches want us to do is obviously not working for us, putting us in a tough position.”

Black said there were way too many possessions where “no one’s out there talking” and the team is “just staring at each other.” Black also told me it doesn’t matter how well he plays on defense, that when the team…