CHAPEL HILL – North Carolina Coach Hubert Davis met with the media Friday at the Smith Center in advance of the top-ranked Tar Heels’ season-opener Monday night versus UNC-Wilmington at home.

Davis fielded questions for 17 minutes about the health of his team, some things he learned in evaluating the job he did a year ago, playing more of a bench, certain players, and more.

Above is video of Davis’ presser and below are a few notes and pulled quotes from what he had to day:

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*The message Davis has given to his team this season is validation, meaning they need to validate the run from last year, but then some. But in doing so, the team has to remain fixed on the process and all it entails.

“I talked last year about tuning out the noise from the phone, family, and friends,” Davis said. “And I spoke that that noise was coming from the direction of criticism. There’s noise this year, but it’s coming the direction of praise. My message has been consistent with them, it’s still noise.

“And one of the things that I’ve talked to them about before the Johnson C. Smith game, I had spoken with somebody who is a pretty successful business man. And he was asking me questions about the team, and I was talking about them that the important thing for us to focus on our preparation, our process, our practice, and the play will take care of itself.

“And he says, ‘Wow, that’s really interesting. That’s very similar to what we were taught in business school.’ I said, ‘What do you mean?’

“He says, ‘In business school, they never talked about profit. They always talked about doing the right things the right way. And if you do the right things the right way, profit will ultimately come.’

“And I shared it with the team, and it really resonated with them. And I believe that.”

*Davis was complimentary of sophomore guard D’Marco Dunn, saying he has clearly taken his game up a notch or perhaps even more.

“One of the things I always tell the guys is I’m a giving-opportunity coach, not a giving-play time coach,” Davis said. “Your opportunity is going to come. I can’t tell the guys when it’s going to come, where it’s going to come, in the manner in which it’s going to come, the day it’s going to come, but they’re going to get multiple opportunities to do everything that they want to do…

“D’Marco is an unbelievable example to that. He got an opportunity to start against Johnson C. Smith, and he took advantage of that opportunity. And the reason why he took advantage of it was because he was ready.”

*As for the areas Dunn’s game has improved?

“Consistently in his jump shot, defensively understanding that he can be an elite defender, playing at the type of pace and type of level that you have to play with consistently on both ends,” Davis replied. “I think that’s probably one of the biggest challenges coming from high school to playing at this level is the pace and the manner in which you have to play… Those are some things D’Marco has improved on from last year to this year and it’s nice to see.”

*Regarding Dunn and fellow sophomore Dontrez Styles, would Davis agree that with players in their situations, the next step is often them going from thinking they can play at the UNC level to knowing they can?

“I feel that way,” Davis said. “Another thing I always tell the guys is, whether it’s in high school, college, or the NBA, you’re always going to reach a level where everybody can do the same things that you can do. So, I know you’re really, really athletic or fast, at some point, you’re going to reach a level that everyone is just as tall, just as athletic, just as skilled as you are.

“So, how are you going to differentiate yourself from that other player is really the attention to detail, the fundamentals. It’s your commitment to how hard you’re going to work.

“For the example of D’Marco and Dontrez, they’re consistently working on their games before and after practice… And that’s something that I talk to them a lot about.”

*Freshman guard Seth Trimble’s defense has come up when talking with teammates and it came up when Trimble was answering questions earlier Friday. The players say he is a lock-down defender. So, what is Davis’ team on the 6-foot-3 gifted athlete’s ability on that end?

“Seth is gifted on the ball,’ Davis said. “His athleticism, his strength, his ability to guard the ball one-on-one full court is rare and something I haven’t seen I’ve been here as a coach, whether it’s been as an assistant coach or a head coach. From that standpoint, he’s been gifted athletically, he can do more things.”

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