PHILADELPHIA – North Carolina Coach Hubert Davis met with the media Thursday afternoon at Wells Fargo Center in advance of the Tar Heels’ game versus UCLA on Friday in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament.
Davis fielded a variety of questions about his team, the Bruins, former NBA players coaching in college, and much more.
The winner between the eighth-seeded Tar Heels (26-9) and fourth-seeded Bruins (27-7) will meet either No. 15 St. Peter’s or No. 3 Purdue in the East Region final here on Sunday.
Note: We will add the video of the press conference once the NCAA has moved it into the media hub.
Below is the complete transcript of what Davis had to say:
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Q. Hubert, over the last nine games your team has held its opponents to below 40 percent shooting. I know Leaky plays a big part of that but that's a team-wide thing. Is that a matter of the guys buying in after the Pittsburgh loss or are you doing anything schematically?
HUBERT DAVIS: No, we're not doing anything different. We've emphasized all year the importance of us being a good defensive team. We've identified the three things that make us successful, and that's playing good defense, rebounding the basketball, and also taking care of the basketball, limit our turnover. I think the last stretch of nine games and throughout the year, we've gotten better at it and we've gotten more consistent at it.
I also think our guys are -- you talked about buying in. I think they're seeing how successful we're becoming because of how consistent we are on the defensive end. So I don't know if that's -- you want to call it buying in, but I think they're experiencing the success of us doing a better job on the defensive end, and it's obviously made us a better basketball team.
Q. You're one of several coaches in the tournament who played in the NBA and is coaching at their alma mater, Penny Hardaway, Juwan Howard, guys like Shaheen and John Scheyer played professionally. How appealing is it to these kids who obviously all want to get to the NBA being coached by someone like yourself who played in the NBA, and are there any specific examples how you help them and prepare them to get to where they want to go?
HUBERT DAVIS: Well, I always think it's important to have people around you that have experienced and been through and have been where you want to be. Not just for myself, our entire coaching staff. Everybody on our coaching staff went to Carolina, played at Carolina, and with the exception of one of our assistant coaches, every one of our wives went to Carolina. So it's been tried, tested, proven successful.
When we're talking to the guys, they can look at us and say, you know what, you've been there before. And then you talk about not just my experience but Sean May played in the NBA, Pat Sullivan coached 18 years in the NBA, Jeff Lebo played in the NBA and also coached in the NBA. That type of experience I think is valuable for our players. It's valuable in recruiting because we've been there before.
So I think it's a huge factor.
Q. Do you see this as a trend? Obviously Penny and Juwan, it doesn't seem like this was the case 20, 30 years ago. Do you think more schools are going to go in this direction if you guys are successful?
HUBERT DAVIS: I don't know. I can only draw on my own experience, and for me this is not a job. To me this is missionary work. It really is. It's put me in a position where I can help and serve and coach and teach and give back to these kids everything that Coach Smith and Coach Guthridge gave to me the four years that I was there and also give back to the kids everything that Coach Williams gave to his players for 18 years.
To be in that position is very humbling. I'm very thankful and appreciative, and it's a great place to be.
Q. I'm wondering if you have any memories of the last time being here in Philly in 2016.
HUBERT DAVIS: Yeah, we won against Indiana and we won against Notre Dame, yeah.
Q. Being on familiar ground, I wonder for you personally if that helps at all this week.
HUBERT DAVIS: I don't -- well, it doesn't help because I'm not playing, and if I was out there now, I would really hurt them right now at 51 years old. The thing that I am enjoying and I just enjoyed with practice today is that with the exception of Leaky, nobody has ever been in this situation before in the Sweet 16. To see not just the determination and the fight and the will and the want-to but also the excitement and enjoyment of being in a stage that they've never experienced before brings joy to me.
That's what I love. Every day I get a front-row seat to be able to experience things with each one of these players, and to see how happy and excited and motivated they are to be in this position is something that I've really enjoyed.
Q. All season you talked about getting these players to play the games and to win the games and have that Carolina experience. Do you feel like after the win at Duke and this run, you've kind of accomplished that? And what does that feel like?
HUBERT DAVIS: I definitely do feel like now they have their own stories, their own testimonies, their own memories of being in big-time moments and coming up big in big-time games. I do.
As I said before, I want them to have memories, plural, stories and testimonies. I don't want it to stop.
Actually at the end of practice yesterday, I told them, I said, if anybody asked me from a player's perspective, for me personally, what is the greatest experience that I ever had as a player, I would tell them it's when I got to go to the Final Four in '91. I said, guys, I went to the Final Four and we lost. I played 12 years in the NBA, and my number one greatest experience personally as a player was to play in the Final Four.
I said, guys, I desperately want you to have that experience. I want you to get to the Final Four. I want you to get to the final game. I want you to do that.
So yes, they are getting memories and stories and testimonies, but I don't want it to stop there. I want them to have more.
Q. I was curious if you saw a big difference between Brady Manek when Dawson was still in the lineup and in the rotation and once he actually left and it's kind of like Brady had to play more minutes. Is it as simple as there are more shots and minutes to go around so that's led to Brady's increase, or was there something else to it?
HUBERT DAVIS: Well, no, I mean, obviously there is more minutes to be had. To be honest with you, Brady is playing at such a high level right now, it didn't matter who we had on the team, he would be out there on the floor.
At times even when we had our full lineup, when Brady was in a rhythm on both ends of the floor, I kept him out there on the floor. I've said this before, like the chemistry between Armando and Brady has worked from day one. It just has. They just play off of each other. Their skills complement each other. Their personalities complement each other. When they're out there on the floor, we are at our best.
Q. You mentioned Armando's personality. He seems to have this mischievous side to him. If so, how does that manifest itself, and also his serious side because he won your team's top scholar athlete award.
HUBERT DAVIS: Well, I wouldn't characterize him as mischievous, I would characterize him as a very competitive but also lighthearted kid that has a tremendous heart and a tremendous value on team. I've known Armando since he was 15 years old, and he's always wanted to go to Carolina. He's always wanted to be a part of this program.
When I talk about the joy that I feel for the players, I probably feel more for him because the three years that he was here, the first year we didn't have a winning season, last year we lost in the first round. I feel like now he's getting the Carolina experience.
For me, that brings me great joy, and I've known Armando for a number of years, and I love coaching him.
Q. We've talked a lot about RJ's assists and shooting and those kind of things. But as he's been on the ball more and more during the course of the season, how has his game management improved as far as getting the guys in the right stuff and sort of setting the phone from that perspective offensively?
HUBERT DAVIS: Yeah, he's done a terrific job. He's a guard, and so he's not a point guard or a shooting guard. He can play off the ball or with the ball in his hands. But we really like the ball in his hands because he consistently makes good decisions. He has a great understanding of when to pass and when to shoot, and he gets his players involved and gets them the ball in the right spots.
Last week in Fort Worth the first game against Marquette, he had 12 assists, and then the next game he knew he needed to be more aggressive on the offensive end and he ended up having 30. That versatility as a guard, it's valuable to us.
I think the other area that he's gotten a lot better at is defensively. One of the things that I talked to him about was because of his size, he can be a factor on the defensive end. I wanted opposing teams to talk about him defensively on their scouting report, and I think he's taken that challenge and he's done a better job defensively, and he's having a terrific season.
Q. Maybe a little about UCLA, kind of a two-part question. What are the challenges you think they bring you, and Jaime Jaquez, we don't know, so do you have to change your game plan not knowing when he's going to play?
HUBERT DAVIS: No, I think the challenge for UCLA is they're a really great team and they're extremely well-coached. It's a team that has a number of gifted players that can consistently from an offensive standpoint create a shot for themselves and for their teammates pretty much every time.
Their lineup, they basically play four guards and one big. Obviously that's going to put a guard on one of our big guys.
The battle is can we take advantage of their lack of size and get the ball into the post or attack the basket through post or penetration, or is their perimeter play going to be a factor for us because we're bigger.
They're also an outstanding defensive team. I think on the Pac-12 First Team defensive team I think they have three players on there. Two of them come off the bench. That's impressive. There's a reason why they got to the Final Four last year, a reason why they're one of the better teams in the country and it's because they're really good on the offensive end and they get after it defensively.
Q. For the last couple of months it seems like your players have really embraced being in an underdog role, and during that time you've had a lot of fighting mantras, whether it be take the first punch, plant your feet, stand your ground, fight back. Do you feel like a city like Philadelphia that is kind of infamous for the underdog might be a good backdrop to your fight continuing?
HUBERT DAVIS: Well, my message to them hasn't been from the standpoint of being an underdog. My message to them has been to change the narrative. So it hasn't been from an underdog standpoint. It's I just felt like the narrative with this group was that they weren't tough, they weren't resilient, they did not -- this wasn't a team of perseverance.
I said the other way that can change is you're going to have to change it. I've never felt and I've never talked to them specifically about like an underdog role, but I have motivated them and challenged them to change the narrative of us not being competitive and competing and shying away from physicality. It's something that I wanted them to embrace, and I wanted it to be a part of our team.
Q. A couple of different times during this run, your guys have said how anxious they are to get back out there. After today's practice, how ready would you say they are for tomorrow?
HUBERT DAVIS: Oh, we would play today. We love to play. We love to compete. What a great opportunity it is to play against an unbelievable UCLA team.
That's one of the -- we were talking today at the end of practice, and I asked them what practice was this, and they said, 98. Armando says, I want to get to 100. I want to get to triple digits. I said, okay, that means then we've got to practice on Saturday, and then that means we've got to go practice back at home.
So our guys are excited. They're motivated. They accept the challenge of playing a great team tomorrow night, and we're ready to go.
Q. You guys are scoring at an elite level on possessions that end in a Caleb Love catch and shoot, 1.4 points per possession. What do you think has led to Love being such a more efficient shooter this season?
HUBERT DAVIS: Well, I think there's three clear things of why Caleb is a much better shooter this year compared to last year. I think, number one, it's because of him. It's his hard work. He's a guy that consistently before and after practice, early mornings, late nights, he's a guy that's always getting up extra shots.
Number two, a huge reason is shot selection is much better. I've always felt like you have a better chance of making shots if you take good shots, and I really believe that Caleb's shot selection has gotten a lot better from last year to this year.
Then just -- last year was both for him and RJ, they were just freshmen, and one of the things that Caleb and our freshmen didn't have last year is they didn't have older guys at their position that could tell them what to do and to teach them how to prepare and how to practice and how to play. So they just basically came to Chapel Hill and here's the keys and just play.
The maturity standpoint of just growth, natural growth from a freshman to a sophomore year, I think plays a huge factor, and again, he's having a terrific year, and I absolutely love coaching Caleb Love.
Q. As you see in most tournament games, the lower seed might jump out to a 10-, 15-point advantage. You guys last week were up about 25. Everything that happened in that second half and you guys were able to weather the storm and come out in overtime with a victory. Do you think that's really propelled you guys with positive momentum moving forward with maybe an inexperienced team in the tournament?
HUBERT DAVIS: Well, I do. I think not just the experience we had with Baylor. I think what allowed us and helped us in the situation with Baylor was the experiences that we had earlier in the year. We were in overtime against Syracuse and also Louisville. We were in tight games against Duke and other teams. Clemson was a late-shot, late-game situation. We had been there before.
When things were very tight in the second half with Baylor, those are things and those are conversations that we talked about in the huddle and things that we could grab and hold on to and understand that we had been successful in these situations.
That gave us in that Baylor game two things. One, it gave us confidence and it also gave us peace. So going into the overtime even without two of our starters, we were still in a place of confidence and we were still in a place of peace.
