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CHAPEL HILL – North Carolina Coach Hubert Davis met with the media Thursday afternoon in advance of the Tar Heels’ game at No. 4 Duke on Saturday evening.
Most of the questions Davis was asked surrounded the event this game will be. It is Carolina-Duke, but it’s also Blue Devils Coach Mike Krzyzewski’s final game at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
Davis understands all that is going into the game, but his mission is to keep his team grounded and focused on the task at hand, which is playing and winning the basketball game. Davis went in that direction with a lot of his responses, but still let on with some interesting answers.
He was also asked about Brady Manek’s assist numbers and the Blue Devils themselves.
UNC (22-8, 14-5 ACC) and Duke (26-4, 16-3) tip at 6 PM.
Above is the full video of Davis’ presser, and below are some notes and pulled quotes from what he had to say:
*Davis said following the win over Syracuse on Monday night that his team’s chemistry right now is the best it’s been all season. So, he was asked to expound on that.
“Just the growth of going through a season together,” Davis said, noting what led to his point about the chemistry. “The time spent, not just on the court but off the court, practice, shootarounds. Just the time spent and the relationships that not have been built, but have developed.
“We have two freshmen, three transfers, dealt with throughout the year a number of different injuries and roster changes. In any relationship, where it gets stronger is with time.
“This group is relatively new, especially with a new coaching staff. A lot of newness in terms of the freshmen and the transfers… There was a lot of newness coming into this season. And so, when I talked about our togetherness has been at an all-time high and the health of this team has been the best that it's been all season, it's because of the time and experiences shared over the last 11 months."
*One Tar Heel whose play of late clearly illustrates the improved chemistry has been graduate forward Brady Manek. The 6-foot-9 stretch four is the 14th all-time leading scorer in Oklahoma history, but pumping out assists wasn’t exactly his forte in Norman.
Manek started 111 of 122 games with the Sooners, and his per-season assist numbers were 15 as a freshman, 26 as a sophomore, 27 in his junior campaign, and 21 last year as a senior. Only seven times he handed out three or four assists in a game.
At UNC, however, Manek has 55 assists on the season already, and ten times he had dished out three or more. That breakdown: five assists twice; four assists twice; and three assists six times. He had five in the win at NC State last weekend, and three in the victory over the Orange on Monday night.
Is this something Davis saw on film from Manek and has simply brought out more, is it a product of UNC’s offensive system, or is this something Manek has developed since arriving?
“Watching (him) on film, there’s a number of things that I didn't know. What obviously stuck out was his ability to shoot the basketball. And once he got here it was quickly noticed what a fantastic basketball player, savvy, intelligent, great passer. He can do a number of things on the floor. He's not just a great three-point shooter, he's a basketball player. And he makes plays, he makes instinctive plays.”
Davis gave a couple of examples of Manek’s instincts: The game-winning at Clemson was supposed to be Manek popping out for a three, but when Caleb Love drove, Manek instinctively rolled giving Love a target, and it worked.
In Monday’s win over Louisville, the big basket was a dunk by Armando Bacot after a feed from Manek. Manek was supposed to be in the right corner either ready for a three or pulling a defender away from the lane. But as RJ Davis drive, Manek cut along the baseline making himself available. He got the pass from Davis, drew a defender, and then dished to Bacot.
“You knew there was a reason he was so success for four years playing at Oklahoma and the Big 12, and I couldn’t imagine not coaching him, and I couldn’t imagine not being on this team and a part of this program.”
*Duke freshman A.J. Griffin went off in the first game, scoring 27 points on 11-for-17 shooting, including 3-for-6 from three-point range. The Tar Heels saw most of what’s in Griffin’s bag in the first meeting, and believe that have a plan to slow him down.
“He’s a tough matchup,” Davis said. “He’s a fantastic player. He has great size (6-foot-6) for a wing player. You put a smaller guy on him and he has the ability to score around the basket by posting up, penetrating. You put a bigger guy on him, and he also has the ability to shoot the ball from the outside and make plays on the perimeter.
“I think statistically he’s still the leading ACC three-point shooter. What makes him very difficult to match up with him and to guard is because he can score in many different ways. He’s athletic, he’s aggressive, he’s playing with a lot of confidence. And whoever defends him, it will be a challenge for them.”
*Duke freshman guard Trevor Keels was coming off an injury in the first meeting, but he still played 20 minutes. Since that game, however, a fully healthy Keels has played at least 27 minutes in each contest, going over 30 five times. He is coming off a 27-point performance in a win at Pittsburgh on Tuesday, but also included in that stretch is a 25-point game at Clemson.
Keels is 6-foot-4 and weighs 221 pounds, though he appears even bigger. He could pose some problems for the Tar Heels.
“He’s another big guard,” Davis said. “You put a smaller guard on him and he has the ability to post up and score consistently around the basket. You put a bigger guy on him, and he has the ability to shoot the ball and drive and make plays from the perimeter.
“He can handle the basketball, he’s an excellent defender, and with his size and versatility, it poses tremendous problems. And he’s playing with tremendous confidence.”
*Davis is definitely a task-at-hand coach, and he doesn’t really show his hand a whole lot, no pun intended given that he acknowledged Thursday he isn’t a gambler. He will gush about his live for the players, coaching them, and sitting in the seat he now occupies, but he doesn’t often reveal much.
So, when asked if his team is playing with “house money” going into this game after how the first meeting played out, the hoopla surrounding Coach K, and that very few people on the planet are giving the Tar Heels much of a chance in this game, the coach still didn’t show much. But his response as interesting nonetheless.
“I’m not a betting guy, I don’t know what ‘house money’ means,” Davis said, laughing. “I know that we’ve been practicing and preparing and that we want to play great on Saturday.”
