Hubert Davis on North Carolina struggles: ‘Sometimes those situations just happen’

The North Carolina Tar Heels dropped a tight game against the Stanford Cardinal on Saturday. For head coach Hubert Davis the loss symbolized some of the challenges that the Tar Heels have been dealing with at times this season and snapped a four-game winning streak in ACC play.

Following the loss, Davis shared that he feels that the loss came down to getting the little details wrong and that this is something that can happen at times over the course of a season.

“I haven’t looked at the tape but again it goes down to little details,” Hubert Davis said. “And sometimes it’s as simple as we didn’t make a shot and they made a shot. I know when things go right or things go wrong, we want a definitive answer why they went right and why they went wrong. Sometimes — there were times where we had a wide open shot by the right people, and it just didn’t go in, and they took a shot and it went in. So, sometimes those situations just happen.”

Stanford ended up winning the game 72-71 in a game that was close in both halves. The Cardinal shot slightly better than the Tar Heels. From the field, they were 43.3 percent compared to 42.6 percent, from three-point range they were 31.8 percent compared to 27.8 percent, and from the free throw line they made 13 shots at 92.9 percent compared to 20 shots made at 83.3 percent. That helped make up for Stanford turning the ball over three more times than North Carolina.

“And again, we just made too many little mistakes throughout the entire game that put us in this situation. Take nothing away against Stanford, terrific team and extremely well coached,” Davis said. “But we just made too many little mistakes.”

The loss snapped a four-game winning streak in ACC play for North Carolina. It also dropped the Tar Heels to 12-7 on the season and 5-2 in ACC play, where they’re now in a tie for fifth in the conference standings.

Notably, Davis has had the Tar Heels playing better overall recently. Their record, while not overwhelmingly impressive, is made worse by a difficult non-conference schedule where North Carolina picked up losses to five teams that are currently ranked in the AP Top 25 Poll. That includes a difficult run in the Maui Invitational where the Tar Heels took losses to Auburn and Michigan State.

Next, Davis and North Carolina will look to bounce back with a road trip to Wake Forest on Tuesday.