CHAPEL HILL – To say that North Carolina’s basketball team underachieved last season would be a massive understatement.
The Tar Heels plummeted into a volcano after starting the season ranked No. 1 in the nation. A 4-4 start eventually became a 20-13 overall record, including 11-9 in a so-so ACC, and UNC failed to make the NCAA Tournament, becoming the first preseason top-ranked club to ever do so.
Sometimes forgotten in discussions about all that went wrong for Carolina was that it was just Hubert Davis’ second year as a head coach. He was part of much discourse, obviously, but that he was leading a team for just the second time was often overlooked. Not by Davis, though.
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Year number two was another chance to learn spanning the long season, so what was it that he actually took from the season more than anything else?
“I’m always learning,” Davis replied recently during his annual summer press conference at the Smith Center. “I’ve said to you guys (media) before that I’m always in a position of listening and learning.
“I’ve never, as a player or working for ESPN or as an assistant coach, have I ever felt like ‘I’ve got it, I’ve reached it.’ I’ve always felt like you can always get better and you can always learn.”
Okay, so Davis' penchant for coachspeak came pouring out with that response. But he did let on in other ways during the 35-minute Q&A session that afternoon. One area focused on something he often preaches to his team, perhaps with greater emphasis moving forward.
“That comes down to discipline and details: Getting a box out here, not turning over the ball here, making a free throw here, making a shot there, setting a screen here,” he said. “That’s something that as a team we’ve just got to do a better job this upcoming season.”
The devil here is in the details: Of UNC’s 13 losses, 11 were one-possession games with three minutes left; either Carolina led or trailed in that manner in all but two of its defeats.
So, Davis didn’t pinpoint anything about himself, but in a way he did. A coach’s job is to get his team to execute the little stuff, along with the bigger things, and sometimes improvement occurs during difficult times.
“I don’t have any specific ways in terms of things I learned from last year, but I know that I’m a better coach this year compared to last year because I’ve been doing it longer,” Davis said. “The more that you do it the more you get comfortable.
“You recognize things that you’ve done and you like, and things that ‘I don’t think I like that one, let’s try this.’ That comes with experience.”
With that, and the manner he reconstructed his roster bringing in five players from the transfer portal after seven left, just looking at their attributes, it’s clear Davis wanted a departure from the poor-shooting, poor-ball movement. playing-in-sand ways of a year ago for something more prolific and free-flowing this coming season. Even if he isn’t specifically saying it.
The dramatic on-paper improvement of the Tar Heels is reason for optimism after such a downer of a season, and it’s why Davis is already raring to get on with the season. He loves where his team is and how he is entering year three.
“That goes a long way (for) when I said I’m in a really good spot,” he said. “It’s been a great summer for me as a coach, and I’m really excited about this upcoming season.”
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