Hubert Davis details what North Carolina has done better during win streak

North Carolina is on their longest winning streak since mid-January with how much better they’ve in several aspects of their game.

Hubert Davis noted several keys to the three-game win streak for the Tar Heels after their latest one at 81-66 over Virginia on Saturday. He mentioned consistency, defense, offensive rebounding, and free-throw shooting all as ways that UNC has made a difference over the last week or so.

“Um, I think our, I think our, our attention to detail has been more consistent. I think, defensively, we’ve been better and consistent. I think getting to the offensive glass has been a huge change for us. We’ve gotten second-chance opportunities. We had 17 points off of – 17 second chance points. I can’t remember what we had – (17 in the first half) against State. That’s been huge. And then us being able to get to the free-throw line and make free throws was huge for us today.”

“We’re doing some things really well and consistently,” Davis said.

Let’s look at each of those statistics for North Carolina from their wins over Syracuse, NC State, and Virginia.

On defense against those three opponents, the Tar Heels have allowed 73.7 ppg. (45% FG, 30.5% 3PT) with each total decreasing over the three. For reference, they’d been giving up 78 ppg. (46.6% FG, 40.4% 3PT) over the seven games prior and had given up 76.3 (43.2% FG, 34% 3PT) this season.

Then, as for the offensive rebounds, UNC has grabbed 38 over this span, 12.7 per game, for 51 second chance points, which has been good for 17 extra points on the board on average.

Finally, from the free-throw line, North Carolina has shot 75.4% from the stripe, with the percentage improving each game, with an average of 17.3 makes on 23 attempts. All of those are at least a bit up from their season’s averages of 15.7 free throws on 21.2 attempts at 73.9% from the line.

All of those things have added up to take a 2-5 skid into a 3-0 stretch that now has the Tar Heels at 17-11 overall. They’ll need them to keep adding up to those wins, though, if they want to finally be off the bubble and back in the bracket come the NCAA Tournament.