Hubert Davis has tried a little of everything to help his team get better.

From his first day as head coach, Davis was confident Carolina could be a very good team. When the Tar Heels lost three early games, some decidedly, Hubert continued to encourage his players because he is nothing if not positive. Even after blowout losses at Miami and Wake Forest, he knew they weren’t that bad.

So while he acknowledges they are much improved, he has specific reasons why they have won 14 of their last 17 games and are in the Sweet 16 in his first season in the big chair. One of them is the red-hot Brady Manek, who has averaged 23-plus points and shooting better than 50 percent in their last five victories.

Manek said this week he came to UNC because Davis wanted to open the court more than a traditional two-post offense that’s been a tradition in Chapel Hill for many years.

Manek said Davis “wanted to try the stretch four part, and he was ready to see how that would turn out. And I think I was a good fit and helped change his mind a little bit on that.

“That’s really the big piece of how I got here. And it’s affected how our team plays. It affects getting Armando more open down low, spacing the floor out. So it’s all around helped us get better.”

After four years at Oklahoma, Manek arrived as a very good college player and, ironically, the loss of Dawson Garcia gave him the additional minutes to up his game even more.

Manek’s teammates say he was a great fit from the moment he stepped on campus, a leader on the court and in the locker room.

“They knew coming in I only had one year, and they really accepted me as Brady and as a basketball player,” he said.

Manek said after getting ejected midway through the second half against Baylor, he was agonizing in the locker room trying to follow the game on the Jumbotron, which was showing replays. He was a play behind what was really happening.

After the stress relief in the locker room and returning home, he offered to run the stairs before practice for getting thrown out. His teammates and coaches wouldn’t have it, and in fact they all crawled from the baseline to mid-court without Manek just to show how much they love the big-bearded bomber who’s been a huge part of their sweet journey to Philly.

 

Featured image via Todd Melet

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