CHAPEL HILL – North Carolina Coach Hubert Davis met with the media Friday afternoon to discuss his team as the Tar Heels continue preparing for a home game Saturday versus Florida State.
Davis was asked about his philosophy defending inbound plays late in games, how he’s managing the four and five spots with Dawson Garcia unavailable, recent growth by Dontrez Styles and D’Marco Dunn, if he follows chatter about his team’s NCAA Tournament resume, his communication with the team and much more.
The Tar Heels are 17-7 overall and 9-4 in the ACC, and the Seminoles are 13-10 and 6-7.
Above is the full video of Davis’ presser and below are some notes and pulled quotes from what he had to say:
*With 3.1 seconds remaining in Carolina’s 79-77 win at Clemson on Tuesday night, the Tigers were set to inbound the ball from the baseline on UNC’s end of the court. They were a full court away from the basket. Davis opted to have his team not guard the passer inbounding the ball. This tactic has been up for debate in basketball for years, with some coaches preferring to guard the inbounder and some not.
Davis explained why he chose not to have a defender on the ball on the baseline, and that it isn’t his set way of doing this. It was more situational.
“Normally, I do like to guard the inbounder, but after Brady (Manek) scored, there were three seconds left, (and) the play that they were running… they were going to have momentum towards their basket,” Davis explained. “So, we had our defender – I think the defender was Puff (Johnson) – around half court, just to make sure that nobody got behind anyone of our defenders.
“So, from that standpoint, we didn’t want anybody to get ahead of our defenders and have the ability to get a good shot off in three seconds, that’s a lot of time. So, we felt like in that situation keeping the ball in front of us opposed to getting behind us was better. But more times than not, I really like putting somebody on the ball, just in that situation we tried something different.And I’m glad it worked out.”
*The Tar Heels haven’t faced that kind of situation much at all this season, but it is something they regularly work on, Davis said.
“We do that a lot,” he said. “I would say over 50 percent of practice at the end of practice we work on late-game situations. Try to put our guys in positions to make decisions and make plays so that we can talk about it. So that when we are in that situation that we’re clear and definitive on what we want to do on both ends of the floor.”
*Freshmen D’Marco Dunn and Dontrez Styles have played a combined 151 minutes this season, with Styles not playing at all in seven games and Dunn not playing at all in eight contests. But both got into the game in the first half at Clemson, which Davis said is more reward for their continued growth.
“They deserve, not only getting experience, they deserve to be out there on the floor,” Davis said. “Dontrez and D’Marco have continued to improve and get better on both ends of the floor the entire season. I’ve said a number of times I can’t be happier with them as kids, with their development, and the unbelievable and outstanding careers they’re going to have here at North Carolina.
“And I want them out on the floor because they deserve it, it has been earned, and they can really help us out there on the floor. Whether it’s the first half, second half, both halves, one minute, 20 minutes, having D’Marco and Dontrez out there on the floor helps us.”
*Could Dunn and Styles playing in the first half at Littlejohn Coliseum be a sign of things that come, that they have come around to where they might have a regular spot in the rotation moving forward? Or at least with Styles, who played nearly five consecutive minutes at Clemson?
“I know that our starters are playing big minutes, and they’re doing a terrific job, but they can’t play the entire game,” Davis said. “There’s foul trouble, and we need guys coming off the bench that provide energy defensively, execution on the offensive end. And Dontrez, Justin (McKoy), D’Marco, Kerwin (Walton), and Puff have been given opportunities to do that, and every time that they step on the floor, they give that to our team.
“That’s a great benefit for us, and for me as a coach, to feel comfortable with putting those guys in and knowing that our level of play is going to continue to be at a high level.”
