Hubert Davis addresses what went wrong early vs. Duke

Hubert Davis might’ve had a feeling it was over before it got started as North Carolina came out on the wrong end of an 87-70 final against Duke.

The Tar Heels never got it going against their rival, despite a second half surge. UNC trailed 47-25 at halftime.

And as Davis put it, his team kept putting the ball in the wrong hands at the wrong times.

“Our unforced turnovers, something that we’ve got a problem with, is just turning the ball over,” Davis said postgame. “We’ve talked at great length about how important it is to take care of the ball in two ways. One, obviously unforced turnovers and shot selection, and our live ball turnovers are turning into pick-six plays for the opponent. So giving teams, just for example, tonight (Duke) got 19 points off of 14 turnovers. 

“Against good teams, that’s just not going to work, and so we just got to do a better job and take care of the basketball. But at the beginning of the game, that was the one key that got us in a hole early at the beginning of the game.”

The Tar Heels have now lost four of their last five games. Davis wants to make sure this doesn’t spiral out of control for the Tar Heels.

Otherwise, this team could be a shell of themselves by the time they play Duke again.

“Yeah, there’s frustration,” Davis said. “What I’ve told you guys this, and I specifically told them tonight, the only thing that you have control over anything is how you react and how you respond. I told them this is a great lesson in life. They’re going to be speed bumps and traffic and wind and rain, and how do you react? How do you respond when it’s a sunny day and when it’s a windy day? 

“And so the thing that I have been proud of this team is its fight. It stays connected, it stays together. It competitively, continues to move forward, and my expectation is for us to continue to move forward. We don’t play for another week, so this is a great week for us to regroup, to come together as a team, to practice moving forward towards the stretch.”

Davis and North Carolina are back in action next Saturday at home against Pittsburgh.