Hubert Davis challenges North Carolina over finding motivation: 'It's needed at the jump ball'

North Carolina ended their two-game skid over the weekend, as Hubert Davis‘ team was victorious in their showdown against Boston College on Saturday inside the Dean E. Smith Center.

The win advanced the Tar Heels’ record to 13-8 on the season, and 6-3 within the ACC. Still, Davis questioned the effort and motivation of his veteran group afterwards, believing North Carolina has to pick up their play over the next month, or they risk squandering a season that was brimming with potential at the start.

“I don’t know. This group has always found it,” Davis said, regarding North Carolina’s challenges pertaining to motivation throughout the 2024-25 campaign, via his postgame press conference. “I think they’ve found it, when they have needed it. It’s needed at the jump ball. That’s something that’s just going to have to change.”

For all intents and purposes, the Tar Heels should’ve taken care of Boston Colleges handily over the weekend. However, they let the Eagles hang around, and North Carolina needed overtime to notch their 102-96 win at home. It wasn’t a bad performance, but Davis would like to see his team come out and dominate, especially against inferior competition.

Continuing, North Carolina was coming off two one-point losses, where Stanford and Wake Forest delivered their seventh and eighth losses on the 2024-25 campaign. Those aren’t the numbers a championship-caliber team needs to build their resume, and that’s why their coach is disappointed.

At the least, North Carolina was able to defend its home court and win over Boston College, because a loss could’ve been disastrous. In the overtime period, the Tar Heels outscored the Eagles 13-7. That came after Seth Trimble scored in the final seconds to get the score to 89-89.

For the game, Boston College shot 54.5 percent from the field and 58.3 percent from three-point range. That came in a game where the North Carolina defense forced only four steals.

The 96 points that Boston College scored represented the fifth time that North Carolina has given up 90 or more points this season. However, it is the first time giving up 90 or more points since the loss to Florida on December 17th.

That comes in a season where the Tar Heels are allowing 76.4 points per game, which is 297th in the country in scoring defense.

North Carolina will be back in action on Tuesday with a road game against the Pitt Panthers. Perhaps Hubert Davis’ rant will help the Tar Heels get back to their usual effort-level, as that’ll be needed over the back-half of the season.

— On3’s Dan Morrison contributed to this article.