CHARLOTTE, N.C. Let's be honest here. Halfway through these NCAA playoffs, North Carolina still hasn't played anybody who'd get a casting call for "Scary Movie 5" (although tomorrow's East final figures to provide some creative tension, yes?).

UNC, in order, has faced a rank minor-leaguer (Mount St. Mary's), the second-place team from the frumpy SEC West (Arkansas) and the Pac-10's third-best entry (Washington State).

If you're No. 1 in the country and not asleep at the switch, you pretty much get through those matchups without a hiccup.

Which the Tar Heels have done.

In a breeze.

The Mount and Arkansas ran with UNC and got triple digits dropped on their heads for their foolishness. Wazzu tried to go tortoise on the Tar Heels last night. That didn't work, either. The final was 68-47 and the average margin for this steamroller's three wins is at a cool 30.3 points. And the pace -- well it doesn't seem to matter.

"Coach [Roy] Williams always talks about getting into the 80s and 90s," said Marcus Ginyard. "But this team is capable of winning games in the 50s and 60s, and we showed that tonight."

The Tar Heels also exhibited some defensive gristle, long a perceived void. Wazzu is no scoring machine, not even close. But it was averaging 67 points on 48 percent accuracy, OK? And UNC squeezed this prune dry to the tune of 31.6 percent scattershooting and limited it to the fewest points any Tar Heels edition has allowed an NCAA opponent since losing a 43-40 final to Oklahoma A&M in 1946.

"I think that just shows our toughness," said Wayne Ellington. "We don't have to score 100 points to win games. Defensively, we're tough enough to get it done."

Pity WSU coach Tony Bennett. His lingering memory from his (brief) NBA career was being a rookie on the 1993 Charlotte Hornets' team that eliminated the Celtics from the playoffs on an Alonzo Mourning jumper as time ran out.

He won't remember this return to the Queen City as fondly.

"We didn't represent the Pac-10 as well as we should," Bennett said. "UNC is a special team. Their defense is better than people think."

How hopeless was Wazzu's cause? This hopeless: Twenty minutes into this Sweet 16 snoozer, UNC ace Tyler Hansbrough had more turnovers (three) than baskets (zip).

And Wazzu was down by 14.

On a scale of 1 to all-she-wrote, this wasn't what you'd call an uplifting development for the guys from Pullman, for whom a two-touchdown deficit for their 12-passes-and-a-layer-of-rust offense looms as large as the national debt.

Granted, the Cougars kept things manageable for 14½ minutes or so. It was at this juncture that Deon Thompson was slow to give help on a baseline assault by WSU guard Kyle Weaver and drew a foul. Williams quickly subbed for Thompson -- but not before venting to the guys on the bench (think Gary Williams without the parental warning labels) and issuing an advisory to the players on the floor about team defense.

Call it a turning point (well, as much of one as you could cite in this heavyweight-vs.-middleweight bout). A couple of stops, an Ellington drive and a Green 3-pointer later, it was 24-15 and the Cougars were sagging. A beat-the-buzzer trey by Lawson put them on the ropes at 35-21 heading into intermission.

Next, two slide-over blocks by Alex Stepheson on Weaver drives (guess someone was listening to Ol' Roy) and then Stepheson's conventional three-point play made it 47-27 with 11:45 to go, and only the most hardened ref wouldn't have been tempted to rule a TKO and call it a night. All that was left was for Hansbrough to foul out WSU bigs Aron Baynes and Robbie Cowgill en route to 16 second-half points.

"The games haven't been that close up to this point," Ginyard summed up. "This team hasn't looked at it that it's been easy for us. People can say we haven't been tested. I just think we're doing a great job out there and things are flowing our way."

They're lava so far. Step in their path at your own risk.