Hubert Davis details UNC's defensive approach to limiting Virginia's outside shooting

North Carolina got back to its dominant defensive ways in a win over Virginia, which head coach Hubert Davis detailed in full in his postgame press conference.

The Tar Heels opened ACC play performing as well as any team in the country on the defensive side of the ball. But as a few losses stacked up in February, the defensive metrics slipped a bit. On Saturday, though, UNC was able to put a muzzle on the Cavaliers in John Paul Jones Arena, holding UVA to just 44 total points on 14-44 shooting from 2 and 2-14 from 3.

After the game, Davis specifically explained how the Heels did such a good job limiting a pretty dangerous Virginia team from beyond the arc.

“Everybody does scouting reports and understanding personnel and how you want to play individual players depending on their strengths. And Virginia is one of the best teams in the country and we tried to defend them in a way where we can take away those 3-point shots from their best 3-point shooters and make them put the ball on the floor,” explained Davis. “And then other guys that do a better job of attacking the basket and scoring in the paint to make them be efficient from beyond 3-point range.”

It’s all about forcing the good shooters into bad shots and making the bad shooters take the open ones. But the other taxing aspect of facing Virginia’s offense is their pace. The Cavaliers are notoriously slow, but for a reason, because they like to put pressure on defenses by forcing them to defend for 20-30 seconds every time down the court.

“What is required against Virginia, against anybody, but specifically UVA is a full commitment on the defensive end in terms of whatever it takes defensively to get a stop,” added Davis. “So if it means to defend one of their actions for 30 seconds, then it is what it is. If it’s five seconds, then that’s what that possession calls for.”

It sounds simple but the task is certainly not: to defend with full focus for the entire shot clock every time down the court. And then, of course, you got to grab the rebound to avoid doing the whole thing all over again.

“So, you know, that’s something that we talked about at great length about having a full commitment to whatever we need to do, not only to defend their actions, but to finish the possession with a box out and to rebound.”