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CHAPEL HILL – North Carolina Coach Hubert Davis met with the media Friday afternoon in advance of the Tar Heels’ game Saturday versus NC State at the Smith Center to discuss his team, the rivalry with the Wolfpack, former coach Roy Williams who will be honored at halftime, the 1982 team, and more.
The Tar Heels (14-6 overall, 6-3 ACC) host the Wolfpack (10-11, 3-7) at 2 PM and the game will air on the ACC Network.
Above is the full video of Davis’ presser and below are some notes and pulled quotes from what Davis had to say:
Note: We are running a separate piece on UNC honoring Williams at halftime Saturday.
*Armando Bacot is on quite a tear this season, even with him scoring just six points in UNC’s win over Boston College on Wednesday night. He did, however, grab 18 rebounds two nights after pulling down 18 versus Virginia Tech. In fact, including his 17 boards at Notre Dame and 22 against Virginia, Bacot has grabbed 17 or more rebounds in four of UNC’s last seven games, and the three in which he didn’t, the 6-foot-10 junior snared 12 each time.
He has double-figure rebounds in each of the last 11 games and is averaging 14.2 boards per contest in that stretch. Bacot has 10 or more boards in 16 of UNC’s 20 games so far. Davis was asked what he’s done to inspire Bacot to pull down so many missed shots, but the Carolina coach gave the Richmond, VA, native all the credit.
“It’s not me, it’s him,” Davis said. “It’s all of his hard work, his dedication, his mindset, his will, his want-to, his toughness. It’s all about him, 100 percent him. We talked about it over the summer him expanding his game. He made a thousand threes every week during the summer, worked on his ballhandling, because I felt like in order for him – one of his goals is to play at the next level, and he’s going to have to have perimeter skills.
“As a coach, my job is to win games, and to prepare these guys to be the best that they can be here at North Carolina, but also to prepare them to go to the NBA as well. Those are the things that he worked on this summer.
“But the thing that I’m just so impressed with him about is there’s a lot of times where guys would work on that during the summer and they would change their game and would go away from what they do best. And even though Armando can shoot the ball from the outside, and he has the green light to be able to do it, the things that he does best is finish around the basket and rebound the basketball.
“Freshman year it went from good to better, and now it’s great. He’s having a terrific season, and I’m very, very proud of him.”
*Through Carolina’s first 16 games this season, it converted 48.2 percent of its shots from the field, including 39.8 percent from three-point range. The Tar Heels had been in the top 10 in perimeter shooting pretty much all season to that point.
But over the last four contests, two of which were blowout losses at Miami and Wake Forest, and two were wins at home over Virginia Tech and Boston College, the Heels have shot just 33.3 percent from the field, connecting on 88 of 264 attempts, and from beyond the arc they have shot 28-for-100, which is 28 percent.
Teams go through slumps, which this could be, but opponents, especially in league play, tend to find ways to defend each other, forcing clubs to adapt and change some. So is Davis pleased with his team’s shot selection of late, and has anything changed in their approach to getting shots that has contributed to the four-game drop off?
“At times I am happy with the shots we’re getting,” Davis said. “I think it’s a couple of things. Number one is, we’re really good when we pass up good shots to get great shots. For example, against Boston College, I don’t think we consistently did that.
“That’s something we’ve got to continue to reinforce, is understanding to pass up good shots to get great shots. I think we always struggle when we don’t have the combination of ball movement and player movement and too much dribbling.
“And at times over the last two, two-and-a-half weeks, there’ve been more than I like offensively where there hasn’t been that ball and player movement that is really good for us, and too much dribbling and less passing. So that’s something that we’ve got to consistently do better, specifically tomorrow against NC State and moving forward for the remainder of the year.”
Davis also noted that when teams apply some pressure it has affected his team some.
“I think it’s a combination of a number of things,” he said. “I think sometimes shots don’t go in. That’s why consistently I talk to the team about energy, effort, and toughness and our defense… I do think teams that pressure us at times have bothered us.
“And what it does is it results in more turnovers and it results in us running our offense a little bit further out than where we should and where we want to, and I think that contributes to maybe shot selection and missing shots.”
*UNC’s 1982 national championship team is having its 40-year reunion this weekend and will be acknowledged during the game Saturday. Those Tar Heels won Dean Smith’s first national title when they beat Georgetown, 63-62, in one of the most famous college basketball games ever played. It remains one of the highest rated as well.
The game featured UNC legends Michael Jordan, who hit the game-winning shot with 17 seconds remaining, James Worthy and Sam Perkins, plus future UNC head coach Matt Doherty, and point guard Jimmy Black. The Hoyas were led by Eric “Sleepy” Floyd and Patrick Ewing.
The Heels finished 32-2 that season, but UNC Coach Hubert Davis didn’t get to see the entire game that night. As an 11-year-old, his parents made him fulfill a commitment to something else, instead, though he did get to see the second half.
“I remember I was very upset with my parents because I was a boy scout and we had a Boy Scout meeting that night, and I wanted to skip it and see the national championship game,” Davis recalled. “And my parents said, ‘No, you made a commitment. And since you made a commitment to be a part of the Boy Scots, irregardless of how much you want to cheer on the Tar Heels and watch the game, if you say that you’re going to do something than they have to live up to it.’
“So, I had to go to the Boy Scout meeting, and I came home and I got to watch the second half. So, I never got to watch the first half. I was very upset with my parents for teaching me what integrity meant, and I got there at halftime and saw the second half. And I saw North Carolina beat Georgetown.”
*UNC sophomore forward Dawson Garcia remains at home in Minnesota and will not play versus the Wolfpack. His family is dealing with some illnesses, something that has gone on for some time, and in a couple of cases resulted in family members passing away. It has been a very tough year for Garcia, so he is at home for an indefinite period of time with his family.
“There’s no time table of when he’s going to come back,” Davis said. “He’s unavailable because of family illnesses. And I’m just very thankful that he has this time to be able to spend with his family.
“I’ve been in contact with Dawson and his parents every day since he’s left, whether it’s been talking on the phone or through text messages, and just being supportive and letting him know that we’re thinking about him, we’re praying for him and his family, and that we miss him.”
