Lawson’s play at the point is the key. He entered the Michigan State game with 47 assists and nine turnovers this season. That’s an assist-to-turnover ratio of 5.2-1. Look at the numbers for Syracuse’s Jonny Flynn, UCLA’s Darren Collison, Connecticut’s A.J. Price, or Sherron Collins of Kansas. The best of the bunch is Flynn at 1.9-1. Only Gonzaga’s Jeremy Pargo comes close to matching Lawson with a 4.4-1 ratio.

So who can give North Carolina a game? Will it be Oral Roberts? Evansville? Valparaiso? Don’t think so. How about Rutgers on Dec. 28 or that road game at Nevada on Dec. 31? Not likely. Conference play begins Jan. 4 with North Carolina hosting Boston College.

Can North Carolina become the first perfect college basketball team since Indiana went 32-0 in 1976? Most coaches — including Williams — doubt it.

“I would be very surprised in our sport, in this day and age, that you don’t have one of those games where people just make all kinds of shots [against you],” said Jim Calhoun, coach of No. 2 UConn. “Those things do happen. There are people out there, like a Miami, that on a given night they give their A game, and unfortunately the best your kids can muster up is a C game. You can get beat.”

Calhoun brings up Miami because the Hurricanes are in the ACC and the Huskies got a good look at their talent during a Paradise Jam victory. North Carolina plays at Miami on Feb. 15.

Slideshow Nittany Lions, Tigers and Bearcats, oh my! Check out some of the mascots from around the college hoops world. NBCSports.com

But most everyone identifies the real danger date for the Tar Heels as Feb. 11, when North Carolina plays at Duke. That’s always a special get-together. But this season it could go well beyond anything in our imagination. Fourth-ranked Duke demonstrated unusual poise, experience and talent winning in a tough environment at Purdue on Tuesday night. Duke teams rarely get a confidence builder like that on the road in December.

Mike Krzyzewski’s team will be prepared for Feb. 11. Circle the date.

“Right now, everybody’s saying they’re the team to beat,” Calhoun said of Carolina. “But let’s let the season play a little bit to find out exactly. I love them. They have all the components. But we’ve got to play a lot of games to find out.”

Some would say Calhoun’s Huskies have the best shot to keep up with Carolina. With center Hasheem Thabeet, forwards Jeff Adrien and Gavin Edwards, wing man Jerome Dyson, and guards A.J. Price, Kemba Walker and Craig Austrie, UConn comes closest to matching Carolina’s talent and depth. Stanley Robinson is expected to rejoin the roster soon and will give the Huskies an extra dimension they lack now.

Perhaps the next time North Carolina visits Detroit, UConn will be there as well.

“Right now they have too much size for us,” Calhoun said. “Hopefully [by the NCAA Tournament] we’ll be bigger. If we continue to grow as a team, I’d feel very comfortable [with that matchup]. They won’t have any more quickness at point guard than we do. They’re not going to be as good defensively at center as we would be. We won’t be as good offensively as they are at center.

“But we’ll have plenty of athletes and guys who can play also. It could be very interesting, but it’s a long time before that could possibly happen.”

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