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North Carolina hosts NC State on Saturday for a 5 PM tip at the Smith Center, and Friday afternoon, UNC Coach Hubert Davis met with the media to discuss aspects of his team and also the Wolfpack.

The Tar Heels have won eight of their last 10 games and are 13-6 overall and 5-3 in the ACC. State has won seven of its last eight contests and is 15-4 and 5-3.

Here are Davis’ responses to some questions about the Wolfpack:

Q: Terquavion Smith scored 34 points in the game between these teams in the Smith Center last season. UNC won comfortably, but Davis hasn’t forgotten how the then-freshman played. Smith is having an outstanding sophomore season and is certainly in the running for ACC Player of the Year. He leads the league in scoring at 19.1 points, is tied for fourth in assists at 4.7 per contest, third in steals, and leads the conference with the most made 3-pointers on the season.

DAVIS: “He’s a fantastic player,” Davis said. “He’s a basketball player, and that’s the thing that I can compliment him the most. Yes, he has a gift to be able to score; he can score at all three levels. He has the ability with whomever is guarding him to be able to create a shot for himself or his teammates at any given time. He’s just that good.

“But he gets after it on the defensive end. I don’t know where he ranks in terms of in terms of assists, but it’s up there in the ACC. So, he’s making guys better. He’s a wonderful player. He’s fun to watch, and it’s going to be exciting to compete against him.”

Q: State has done well bringing in some guys from the transfer portal, including 6-foot-9, 275-pound forward D.J. Burns, who initially went to Tennessee, didn’t play and then transferred to Winthrop, where he played the last three seasons. Burns averages 9.9 points (55.5 percent from the floor), and 4.7 rebounds in 20.7 minutes per game.

With State dealing with injuries in the front court, Burns has played 69 minutes over the last two games. A couple of weeks ago, he scored 18 points in 16 minutes in a win over Duke. He’s also averaging nearly two assists per contest.

DAVIS: “He’s a good passer,” Davis said, when asked the challenge of dealing with a big who can pass as well as Burns, along with the other stuff he does. “It’s very difficult, it’s extremely difficult because he has a gift at being able to score around the basket. He just can.

“He does a really good job of getting position down low on the block, and his ability to use his size to be able to create space to score consistently down on the block is a huge problem every night he steps on the floor.

“What makes him even more difficult to defend is normally you could say, ‘Let’s go double-team him,’ you can’t do that. He’s such a gifted passer. He’s almost like a second point guard out there given his ability, his great vision. And not only is he a really good passer, he’s also is somebody that gets the ball to the right person at the right time and they actually do something with it.

“He’s playing at an extremely high level. As I said before, he’s extremely gifted. It’s going to be fun to watch the matchup between him and our bigs.”

Q: NC State Coach Kevin Keatts has always wanted his teams identified for their defensive pressure and wreaking havoc on opponents. This year’s club may do that better than any of his previous Wolfpack clubs.

DAVIS: “They’re extremely well coach,” Davis said. “A number of things stick out to me, first off, from a defensive standpoint, they put so much pressure on you defensively. They’re always right there up in you, and they do a great job with pressure defenses, whether it’s just man-to-man or trapping. They do a great job of creating turnovers, so that’s going to be huge for us from an offensive standpoint to limit turnovers and make the easy play.

“Offensively, they always have extremely gifted players that have the ability to be able to score, be able to create one-on-one. So, every year that’s NC State. I think an added layer to them this year is D.J. Burns. It’s his ability to score down low in the paint. So they now have a consistent inside-outside punch from an offensive standpoint that is consistent and makes them even better.”