North Carolina
Davis: For whatever reason we haven't had success at [Virginia]
Hubert Davis speaks to the media ahead of a matchup at Virginia.
If you were, what would you say you guys have tried to highlight this week with the, the extra time that you have off and like there have there been any specific areas that have been points? Yeah, you know, I said, you know, I was looking forward to this week. One of the things was us practicing on us instead of practicing in preparation for a game. And so obviously, we've had to practice in preparation for tomorrow, but we've also had practices where we just focused on us and, you know, um one of the things that we've talked about at great length was, you know, just from a defensive standpoint, just tightening the screws on the discipline and details that um allow us to be a good defensive team. Um, two areas that I, I would say that I've really reinforced is one rebounding the basketball, um, boxing out and, and rebounding. And I know, you know, statistically, um in terms of defensive rebounding percentage, we're number one in the conference, but I felt like there's been slippage in that over the last two or three weeks and particularly getting teams getting second chance opportunities and them capitalizing on that the other areas having the discipline to be able to defend without fouling. I just feel like we've been putting teams on the free throw line a lot more lately. And so, um, you know, those specific areas defensively just doing a better job at, um, to allow us to be the best that we can be on that end. Some of the guys said, uh, after the game last Saturday that they felt like they needed a break, they were getting a little bit tired a little bit. We were getting heavy. Did you sense that as much as they were saying it? And what did you do this week to sort of maybe pull back on the legs and give them a chance to get their legs back? Well, I did think that this week where you didn't have a midweek game, you know, I think I, and I, I always believe this individually in it and as a team, there are times where you can get better by just being able to catch your breath. And I do feel like, you know, basketball wise, physically, even mentally being able just to take a deep breath. Um, not having a midweek game was something that would be good for this group. You know, that being said it was, it was a week of, of hard work, a week of really good practices in preparation for the remainder of the season. And so it wasn't a week off off. It was, it was a time to reinforce the things that allow, have allowed this team to be successful thus far and to be able to continue to improve and move forward. The thing on that you can work hard during the week but not mentally preparing for a game if there's something to say for refreshing mentally. And that at this time of year is pretty much all you can't really refresh the legs as much as you can in mind. And that kind of helps everything else. Well, I think it's a different type, you know, and it, you know, when you say we, it was a different type of, um, you know, like from a mental standpoint in terms of focus, you know, there's a difference in, you know, doing individual workouts and practicing on us and thinking is being locked in towards that as opposed to doing that in addition to how does this relate in preparation to a game and being able to just have a single focus on us for a good part of the week? I thought was refreshing and I thought, well, it was needed. Do you have a big, big picture question? And I know there's still a lot left in your season. But when you think about Armando, we talked a lot about his legacy this year and he wanted to be remembered a certain way. How do you want him to be remembered when, you know, when his time here is done probably firsthand. Um, the word that comes in my mind is commitment in a time where there's been a lot of change in college basketball. Here's a guy that's been here for five years and not only been here for five years, but has been successful and that you can be really real successful at the highest level and you can also still be committed to being and staying at one institution, one program and commitment. That's to me the first word that comes to my mind in terms of his legacy is, um, his commitment and his consistency throughout his career model of, uh, you know, commitment in terms of a guy can stick around through the law. Yeah. You know, despite all the movement, I guess, yeah, that's a complete contrast on you don't hear about that very much of a guy staying at a school for five years and being as successful as he's been on and off the court. That's pretty, that's pretty cool. And, um, my hope is, is that, that's something that is celebrated, something and something that is remembered about him, Hubert, is it just to piggyback off that real quick? Is somebody who's from the old school respectfully? No, I am, I'm old and I'm from the old school for a, for a five year guy like Armando. Just anyone does. There need to be an asterisk for the numbers, those dudes put up. Do you think like I'm saying, anyone, not just Armado, that's not for me to answer. I, I just, I, I want, I wanna stay away from that. That's not for me to, to answer on, I just know that Armando has been here for five years and his play has been historic, whether you want to counter for four or five. It's, it's been historic and his commitment to this program and his university and his community has been unprecedented. Yeah, to ask you about another player. Um, with a lot of experience, Cormac coming in, I imagine you saw like the shooting and the experience when you were trying to get him to come here. But now that you've had almost the full season with him, what, what, what kind of intangible things has he brought to this roster leadership? Um He's, it doesn't matter, shoot around, practice, obviously games, but shoot around and practice. He's locked in. There's no difference of his attention to detail, his energy, his effort, his enthusiasm. You know, one of the things that when I was a, when I was here at Carolina, one of the things that I was very thankful for is I had older players that showed me the way whether it's was my freshman year. Uh Coach Jeff Lebow was a senior just having old or guys as an example every day on how to put yourself in a position to be successful. And I'm just really thankful that our younger guys have Cormac here, um, to see what he does to put himself in a position to be successful every day, how tied he is and to the success of this team. And, um, it's been just been a great example and, and, and I love having them in our locker room on our team and on the floor. Um, I guess thinking about Virginia for tomorrow, obviously, they're currently number one in, you know, opposing points per game. That's kind of been their for, you know, the last several years and things like that, I guess, kind of when you, you know, look at them and just the way that they have been, uh, what are some of the, I guess, unique things that you kind of do in preparation? So you kind of guard against that considering a lot of what they do is kind of, you know, slow down pace and things like that. Just what's kind of unique. I, well, it is unique but I think, you know, the thing that you have to be is you, you have, there has to be a full commitment to be in discipline. It just is what it is. There are gonna be times where you gonna have to play defense for 2030 seconds and can you fully commit yourself to being disciplined defensively every possession for 30 seconds? And if, if it a possession calls for us to play defense for five seconds, then five seconds 20 seconds, 20 seconds, full, 30 full 30. And so having the discipline to be able to do that and then also having the discipline to get the shot that you want on the offensive end and not just taking a shot because now you're on offense, having the discipline to get the shot that you want on the offensive end as well. Sorry. Uh, do you feel there's like, I guess, uh, you know, a degree of balance that comes there considering just like how fast you guys, you know, do kind of play and just kind of like, you think there is kind of a, if that makes sense, like an in game balance of, you know, trying to play to your speed as you like to play it. But then also kind of for the way in which they, well, the good thing for us, I mean, things that we reinforce, I mean, it's, it's no difference, whomever that we play. I mean, obviously, you know, we, you know, we wanna play at our pace and, and, and, you know, specifically, you know, our transition from defense to offense, you know, I, I wanna go whether it's, you know, made miss turn over out of bounds underneath free throw, let's get the ball off the floor, let's let's attack. And so that's something that we always want to do, but we've also, uh, that we've reinforced that and talked about that in alignment with a great shot. Offense and getting the shot that we want and, um, you know, taking advantage of attacking the basket through post or penetration, um taking advantage of getting the ball to Armando and our bigs in the post, uh, utilizing our ability to get to the free throw line and make free throws, uh setting solid legal screens and getting our best three point shooters open. And so those are things that we've talked about whether it, we can get that shot in one second, great. But if it takes 30 seconds, it takes 30 seconds, but just being efficient on the offensive end. And, um, those are things that we have reinforced and talked about all year irregardless of whomever we play the ball, not much better. And, and if there's not an opportunity to go right away, how important is it gonna be for tomorrow to get that thing out quickly? Much better? Uh, you know, we work on it in practice pretty much every day. And I think the area, there's two areas where Armando has really improved in that one. You talked about it, not, you know, he, he, he can get the ball out and he can get it into the, to the right players. The other thing is, and I think it's the most important thing is like he's really comfortable with the double team now, you know, it, he, he's not in a hurry and when double team, he is very patient, very strong with the ball and very confident at where his teammates are gonna be and where he needs to deliver it. And so, um also when, you know, he would play against teams that normally um double the post, his understanding of where it's coming from and also his understanding of when they can't double team like in transition. And so it urges them even more, um especially in transition to be able to get low position underneath the basket where it's difficult to double team them in those spots. You heard it's, it's eight straight losses for you guys in Charlottesville. Is that ever become part of your message this week as you guys are getting ready? Like, is that a, is that a motivational talking point that you give these guys? No, it's not. I mean, these, they weren't here. They, I don't even know if they were in grade school, but I think 2012 was the last time you won up there. Yeah, I, I, since me being back as an assistant and as a head coach, we've never won up in Virginia. So I don't know how old Elliott and Zadan were at that time, so seven years old, right? He was in first grade. Ok, great. So, um, so I don't, I mean, I, I know that, I think they know that, but our motivation is playing our best. Uh Our, our motivation is continuing to improve and the privilege of playing against a great program in Virginia on their home floor late in the conference season with so much at stake. That's, that's the cool part. That's the fun part. They're coming off a really bad game. I, I imagine you expect to get their best on Saturday. Virginia is Virginia because they bring their best every game. And so whether they are coming off of a loss or a win, Virginia's, they're a good basketball team and, and wonderful program because of the consistency of which they compete and play. And so irregardless of what happened against Virginia Tech earlier this week, we knew that it would be a challenge for us going up to Charlottesville, but also a challenge that we are really excited about uh tomorrow for. Why is it so hard to win there? Is there something because they're good? But like 12 years, is, is there something like the way you have to stay to travel? Like something intangible that, that, that factors because it's not just you guys that have struggled there. Well, if, if, if it was, we would, we would do something differently. Maybe we wouldn't fly today, we would bus up there or take individual cars or um we've stayed at about seven different hotels, hotels. I'm not superstitious. I don't, you know, for whatever reason, we haven't had success on up there, but that really doesn't matter what matters is tomorrow and what matters is our preparation, our practice the last couple of days and what matters is our play tomorrow and we'll, we're excited about competing against them and excited about the challenge. Take one or two more. You were another kind of broad uh kind of about here. Something about the transfer portal as a whole when you get the portal, how sure can you be that a guy is gonna be a good fit, especially chemistry, the intangibles, all those kind of things, your care. I don't, I don't think you can be 100% sure, but I, I think you have to do your due diligence in terms of in any recruitment, whether it's, you know, transfer portal or high school, you know, our process in, in terms of recruiting is just somebody that we need and somebody that we want that that's the same. I I would say the transfer portal, it goes a lot faster in terms of, but in terms of, you know, um our evaluation obviously as a player, but more importantly, the person, um his family, his former teammates, his former coaches, um his, you know, tho those are factors that are weighed heavily in terms of us, determining whether we feel like this will be, you know, a good fit or not. And so with Harrison, with Cormac, with Pax, with James, all of them, um those are things that we looked at in determining that we would love for them to be a part of this program. I think the one thing that it, that is extremely hard. And you cannot predict is how they will react on this stage. It's different. The, the light is bright here. The stage is big and there's other programs that are on this stage, but no one's higher than this stage. And so to predict how they will react, being on this type of stage, that's something that you hope they can, but you can't, you can't really predict. All right, thanks everybody. We'll get our Monday in. All right. See you guys later.