Hubert Davis evaluates where North Carolina stands this season

Saturday’s loss to Duke dropped North Carolina to 13-10 on the season, and 6-5 in conference play. But is it too late for the Tar Heels to turn their season around?

Heading into Saturday, ESPN bracketologist Joe Lunardi slotted UNC as an 11-seed in this year’s NCAA Tournament. That may drop in the next update given a 17-point scoring differential against the Blue Devils. However, head coach Hubert Davis hasn’t given up on North Carolina’s postseason goals after the disappointing loss.

“Well, obviously we’re not where we want it to be,” Davis said postgame. “But I go back to how do you react and how do you respond? And you move forward, you continue to competitively fight, and there’s so much of a season still left to get better and to improve. The one encouraging thing for me is that I don’t think we’ve reached our full potential, and that’s out there. I’ve seen how good we can be on both ends of the floor, the consistency is the thing that is needed from this group.

“We have time, and we have the opportunity to move forward to be able to do that, and we’re very thankful for that last one. I love this team here. I love coaching this group, and I believe in this team. I think we can be really good.”

The loss dropped the Tar Heels to 3-5 in true road games this season, and have lost four of their last five games overall. The exception came during a 102-06 win over Boston College in overtime.

Most importantly, however, North Carolina is 1-9 against Quad 1 opponents. They’re 12-1 against all other opponents. Coming up, there aren’t many more opportunities to add wins to that total. As it stands, the Tar Heels have just two more matchups on their regular season schedule against teams of such stature: Feb. 10 at Clemson and March 8 at home in the regular season finale against Duke.

For now, UNC will look toward its next matchup — a Saturday homestand against Pitt. North Carolina’s on a bye during the week, so they have some extra time to regroup after the string of losses.

The last time these two teams matched up came on Jan. 28, when the Panthers beat the Tar Heels 73-65 on Pitt’s home court.

Tip-off for the ACC rematch is set for Feb. 8 at 4 p.m. ET live on ESPN2.