Loss Inspired Impromptu Wee Hours Players Only Meeting
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CHAPEL HILL – Players-only meetings happen in sports fairly regularly, but are also typically associated with losing streaks.
Spawned by poor play, they can be an airing of grievances, accountability, and sometimes forge needed unity.
In the case of North Carolina’s impromptu very late-night chat following a loss at Georgia Tech this past Tuesday night, it was about none of that aside from accountability. Players accepting responsibility for mishaps, mistakes, and snafus has never been an issue with the third-ranked Tar Heels (17-4, 9-1 ACC).
Yet, with a ten-game win streak coming to an end with the surprising loss, there weren’t any trends that needed hashing out. Instead, the connected Heels naturally discussed the loss, why it happened, disposing it, and the importance of marching forward with Duke visiting the Smith Center on Saturday night.
“It was tough,” veteran forward Armando Bacot said Thursday, in a pre-Duke press conference. “We stayed in the locker room once we got back for an hour-and-a-half, two hours, just talking about the game and what we could have did better.
“But we know we’ve got to flush it in the toilet and prepare for the game on Saturday, because we’re playing a totally different team. It’s going to be a different atmosphere.”
The Heels didn’t do much right in the 74-73 setback, and it clearly gnawed at the team, as any number of plays by each Heel that got into the game could have reversed the outcome. And unlike some recent Carolina clubs, this group is intent on avoiding any need for another meeting inside of a losing streak.
“Just conversations about the whole game,” senior guard and leading scorer RJ Davis said. “It’s obviously a game that you didn’t want to lose, but at the same time, not overreact and stay composed and keep our composure leading up into this game.”
The team arrived back in Chapel Hill at 12:40 AM, and the meeting involved no coaches and took place inside the locker room. It wasn’t called by one of the older leaders, it happened organically. And everyone on the roster had a chance to speak.
As the conversation started with what went wrong in Atlanta, it eventually morphed into the reality of what’s coming Saturday, and only seven players on the roster have experienced with craziness of a UNC-Duke game, and only four of those Heels are scholarship players. So, seven scholarship guys have not been apart of what many consider the greatest rivalry in American sports, so the vets began prepping them for the next several days.
“It’s a lot of our teammates’ first time playing in this UNC-Duke rivalry game,” said Davis, who also leads the ACC in scoring. “So, it will be really brand new, just the overall energy, the environment that’s leading up into the game.
“And at the same time, just treat it like the next game because it’s the next game on the schedule and not get too caught up into social media and people DMing you saying you have to win this game. Just ignore all that and just focus on the next game.”
Carolina Coach Hubert Davis appeared surprised when the topic of the players’ meeting came up during his press conference Thursday. He went home and watched the replay of the game again and went to bed at 3:45 in the morning, he said.
He was quite pleased about the locker room discussion.
“Them having a meeting getting back doesn’t surprise me,” he said. “This has been a together group from the start since all of them stepped on campus.
“So, hearing that they had a meeting when they got back and talked about our team, that’s something that brings joy to my heart because this is their team.”
It is their team, and the evidence is their results meaning so much such a discussion would take place after the club’s first loss in 45 days.
Hubert Davis says he often reminds the players they can only control how they react and respond, which is what those couple of hours were about. Knowing this gives the third-year coach a great deal of optimism.
“I know this group will react,” he said, “and I know how this group will respond.”