Hubert Davis: North Carolina is good but has a long way to go

North Carolina took their third loss of the season on Saturday against Kentucky in the CBS Sports Classic. With them hitting the double digit mark in games played, that’s a solid checkpoint for any team to evaluate themselves and, in the eyes of Hubert Davis, the team is somewhere in the middle.

Davis took stock of his Tar Heels following their 87-83 defeat to the Wildcats in Atlanta. He has full belief that he has a high-caliber group on his hands. However, he is also well aware that there’s a lot of growth left for UNC to do from here.

“I feel like we’re good but we’ve got a long way to go,” said Davis. “We have a lot to improve on and a lot to learn from.”

North Carolina’s record through 10 games is one game better than last season’s start. It’s also one game worse than the season before in Davis’ first as head coach. That’s a decent marker to suggest where this team currently is to open this year with two games to go in the non-conference.

Even so, Davis is hoping that, although his team has three quality losses to their name, the Tar Heels can take notes from each of them in order to be who they want to be by the end of the campaign.

“We’re going to be in this situation again where we’re up by one with five minutes to go. Be able to learn from this and grow,” said Davis.

“One of the things that Coach Smith used to tell us all the time as players is a mistake is good when you recognize it, admit it, learn from it, and grow from it,” Davis said. “The things we need to tweak, alter, pivot, and change? Let’s grow from it.”

North Carolina has already done some impressive things this season. After starting 4-0, two of their next three wins came against ranked teams out of the Southeastern Conference. The other opened them up at 1-0 in the ACC.

Their three defeats are nothing to regret either as their last two came against teams now in the Top-10. One was against a top-five team in UConn in New York City. Their latest came right after in a back and forth battle against UK where they came out on the wrong end in the final few minutes.

At the moment, it’s not a question of how good North Carolina is. It’s clear that they have at least something working in Chapel Hill so. It’s just a matter of how they take the negative with the positives from this start and answer to it as they enter the next 10 games of their season.

“I always tell the guys when things happen to you, whether it’s good or bad? The only thing that you have control over is how you react and how you respond,” said Davis. “We have an opportunity to react and respond moving forward for the rest of the season.”