College basketball: North Carolina 98, Michigan State 63. It must be that the Lions’ anti-mojo lives in the home team’s locker room at Ford Field and affects all who dress there. How else to explain the beating Michigan State suffered against North Carolina?

Unfortunately, there are plenty of explanations. Carolina’s Tyler Hansbrough scored whenever he wanted, and got his own rebound when he happened to miss. Ty Lawson and Danny Green were taking threes practically from halfcourt and hitting one after another. The Tar Heels played swarming defense, collecting 15 steals and frustrating MSU’s ballhandlers so that by the second half, State’s point guards just couldn’t wait to get the ball to the wing. (Even those entry passes were getting stolen, a rare problem for an elite team like MSU. The last time I remember it happening to State was the Final Four game in 2001 when Arizona ran the Spartans out of the gym in the last game in green and white for Jason Richardson, Charlie Bell and company.)

In the first half, Michigan State played hard and well, getting nice boosts from Chris Allen and Delvon Roe. They were still down 14 at the break. In the second half, the floodgates opened, and all you had to see was Kalin Lucas’ beaten expression to know that this was a crushing defeat. 98-63, specifically, and it wasn’t any closer than it looked.

Sure, it could have been closer. Goran Suton, who’s having arthropscopic surgery on his knee Thursday, could have helped against Hansbrough. State had 21 turnovers and the margin got out of hand in the second half, when the Spartans looked like they were counting the minutes until they could get back on the bus. But even with its best game, MSU wasn’t beating North Carolina. This was the number one team playing its top game, the best I’ve ever seen a college team look in an early season game. (UNC coach Roy Williams even seemed aware of the moment, dressing tastefully in a nice change of pace.)

But MSU already had one soul-searching loss, last week’s upset blowout against Maryland. You’d like to see them rebuilding their confidence from here on in, but the body language in the second half made clear that’s going to take some work. Lucas’ expression was especially worrisome. He’s the Spartans’ leader and an emerging star, and he had to be excited to test himself against Carolina’s Lawson. Lucas didn’t play well, Lawson was outstanding, and in the final minutes Lucas looked like he was taking it hard. If the loss motivates him and the team, great. I’m worried, though, that instead this will deflate MSU and make the team worse by sapping its confidence. Let’s hope for a bounce-back win against Bradley on Sunday. Box.

College basketball: Maryland 75, Michigan 70. I didn’t see Michigan’s ACC-Big Ten Challenge game tonight, when the Wolverines got their shot at Maryland. The Mitten is now 0-2 against the Terps as, like MSU, U-M lost despite leading early in the second half.

A sad coda: If the state of Michigan had come to play, the Big Ten would have won the ACC-Big Ten Challenge this year for the first time. Box.