**************************************************************************************
Remember, for just $8.33 a month, YOU CAN BE A UNC TAR HEELS INSIDER, TOO!!!
***************************************************************************************
CHAPEL HILL – Winning 29 games, spoiling Duke’s last home game for Mike Krzyzewski, beating him in his last game ever, and reaching the national championship are nice, but Hubert Davis has no interest in his program resting on its laurels.
North Carolina turned a wobbly season of inconsistency filled with questions about the program’s future into a memorable and dramatic run this past spring that nearly notched the Tar Heels their seventh NCAA title.
But other than the confidence and experienced gained, none of that means anything moving forward. It was just a run, and it has zilch to do with what Carolina does in the 2022-23 season, one in which it very likely will start out as the top-ranked club in the nation.
Returning four starters while brining in honorable mention All-Big Ten forward Pete Nance from Northwestern, along with some Tar Heel subs, justifies Carolina's perch as the coming season nears.
With that, the Heels are light years ahead of this time a year ago, however, but don’t expect Carolina's head coach to pull back in his daily push.
“No. No. No,” Davis replied, rather emphatically, when asked that very question recently at the Smith Center.
Letting up isn’t a thing in Chapel Hill, and another constant will be to once again disregard sentiments on social media, around campus, and from the credentialed media.
“One of the things that I told them last year was to block out the noise,” Davis said. “I felt it was the negative noise. Whether it’s from the phone, the family, and the friends. And that’s something I felt that our team did a much better job of turning it off or turning it down last year.”
This time around, though, the tweaking is the tenor of what the players are asked to deflect.
“So, when they came back to campus, we had a meeting, and I just wanted to set the tone and let them know where I’m coming from," said Davis, who is in his second year at UNC. “And I told them this year, a huge determining factor is the key for us is now, both is noise, but now it’s the positive noise. ‘You guys are great. You guys are in this way-too-early top 25 ranked number one.’
“It absolutely means nothing. ‘You guys going back to the Final Four. You’ve got four starters coming back.’ That’s noise. And for us to focus on what is real and that’s our preparation, our practice, and how we can get better this summer to possibly put us in a position where we were last year and see what happens.”
The four starters back are Armando Bacot, a certain shoe-in for preseason ACC Player of the Year and major candidate for similar national honors, guards Caleb Love and RJ Davis, and fifth-year wing and defensive dynamo Leaky Black.
In them, Carolina has a player in Bacot who will leave as the program’s top all-time rebounder if he stays healthy, a clutch performer in Love who is a degree of consistency away from becoming a first-round NBA pick, and Davis, who had career highs in scoring (30 points), assists (12), and rebounds (12) in UNC’s six-game NCAA Tournament run.
Black, who has played 3,116 minutes in Carolina blue, might be the best defensive player the program has had in decades, but he has also made himself a fairly efficient offensive player who knows when to step forward and when to mesh.
A few key reserves are back, notably 6-foot-8 forward Puff Johnson, who scored 11 points twice in the NCAA run, and bouncy 6-foot-6 forward Dontrez Styles, who combined to play 40 minutes in Carolina’s first two contests in the big dance. Will Shaver, a 6-foot-10 freshman who enrolled after Christmas, and an incoming class that should help, especially in the backcourt in Seth Trimble.
And with Nance, who averaged 14.6 points and 6.5 rebounds last season for the Wildcasts, the Tar Heels are loaded. But Carolina's coach isn’t taking his foot from the pedal. Not one bit.
“I’m not taking it easy on them,” Davis said. “I’m coming harder at them.”
Is it because advanced point?
“I’m just that type of guy, I’m ready to go,” he replied. “So, this isn’t returning players, new players, I’m ready to compete.”
This is about Carolina’s culture reflecting its coach. And it’s what Davis is building.
**************************************************************************************
Remember, for just $8.33 a month, YOU CAN BE A UNC TAR HEELS INSIDER, TOO!!!
***************************************************************************************
