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Optimism is authentic for a basketball reversal at Carolina.
Hubert Davis spoke at UNC’s annual sponsorship luncheon, and he sounded a bit different from his first two years at that podium.
Davis answered questions with some stories as he has told before, but this time there was more comfort and confidence to his words. Almost like he was saying it before, living and feeling it now.
“I’m in love with this team,” Davis said, which is a platitude he did not reach early in the last two seasons.
Davis made some hard decisions with failing to make the 2023 NCAA Tournament after the Tar Heels went to the national championship game the year before. Seven players transferred out and two starters graduated. He replaced them with five incoming transfers and two freshmen.
Two of them have found success at their new schools, Caleb Love with top-ranked Arizona and Dontrez Styles with run-and-gun Georgetown. And several of his new players have upped their games from their prior schools, particularly athletic and versatile forward Harrison Ingram.
After nine games and four straight losses a year ago, the record was 5-4 including two true road defeats at Indiana and Virginia Tech. Going into exam break, the current Tar Heels are 7-2 with five home wins and two losses on neutral courts. But the mix of old and new has excited most fans and Davis.
In his three-year learning curve as a college head coach, Hubert has preached to his teams about the “noise coming from friends, family and the phone.” He knows he can’t control most of that, deciding to get into the game.
“I am turning up my volume,” he said. “I text the players more, call them more and still want them to stop by the office to talk to me and the coaching staff at least twice a week.”
After an overtime loss to Villanova that they all think they should won and an 11-point defeat to defending national champion UConn at Madison Square Garden, Carolina faces No. 14 Kentucky in Atlanta and No. 11 Oklahoma in Charlotte. The ninth-ranked Heels need to win both games to solidify their non-conference resume before ACC play resumes in January.
He wants his team to play even faster than it has so far this season and to get more easy baskets from steals and running the court even after made baskets. Those can offset the liabilities of not having a true rim protecter and relying too much on 3-point shots and still learning how to switch defenses.
Davis was asked if he could have lunch with any person, living or dead, who would it be? “My mom,” he answered, so humanly. “That would be great because she has missed so much after she died when I was 16.”
Featured image via Dakota Moyer
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