North Carolina is scary good

North Carolina dominated Butler Friday night to earn a spot in the South Region final and that performance should put fear into the other teams remaining in the NCAA tournament.

It's not just that the Tar Heels picked up a 92-80 victory over the Bulldogs, but it's the fact that they didn't look all that great and still easily handled a very good team that was so impressive.

North Carolina has all the tools necessary to make a championship run and here are three factors that make the Tar Heels so scary good:

Experience

While some of the stars from last season are no longer on the roster, this North Carolina team did make it all the way to the tournament championship game last season before losing to Villanova. The roster is loaded with tournament-tested players and it's a huge benefit for them to have been in pressure-packed moments before, the type of experience many opponents will lack.

Also impressive is that in this era of one-and-done student-athletes, the Tar Heels start five upperclassmen. With two seniors and three juniors in the starting lineup, North Carolina can go into a game without having to be worried about pregame jitters and will not be overwhelmed by any situation.

Depth

Going hand in hand with the experience is the tremendous depth the Tar Heels posses. North Carolina always recruits well, so when the five starters consist of upperclassmen, the talent on the roster is off the charts.

Friday's win was a key example of this, where Luke Maye, who averaged fewer than 14 minutes a game this season, stepped up in a huge way with a career-high 16 points and his first ever double-double. Maye is the kind of talented Tar Heel just waiting for an opportunity to show his skill, which presents a huge preparation headache for opponents as each game North Carolina can offer up a different X-factor.

Size

North Carolina owned the boards against Butler with a 38-26 advantage, a trend that has played out all season long. The Tar Heels led the nation with 43.5 rebounds a game during the regular season and they've actually upped that number to 45.6 during the tournament.

Joel Berry is the only starter shorter than 6-foot-6, which with so many teams running four-guard lineups makes the Tar Heels a matchup nightmare. You can't teach size and North Carolina has it in spades.