Hubert Davis praises work Harrison Ingram does ‘in the trenches’

The North Carolina Tar Heels earned their ninth straight win on Saturday, beating Florida State. A huge part of that game, as head coach Hubert Davis knows, was Harrison Ingram and his ability to rebound for the Tar Heels.

Ingram ended the game with 17 rebounds and Davis praised him for how valuable he is to North Carolina in the trenches.

“He is,” Hubert Davis said. “He is and 17 boards but nothing greater than that block toward the end that sealed the victory. I really believe that two threes starting off the game helped us loosen things up, and then that allowed Elliot [Cadeau] and RJ [Davis] to be able to drive and get to the basket.”

The other key thing that Harrison Ingram does is open the floor for North Carolina’s other key inside players. That, notably, includes Armando Bacot.

“You know, he’s huge, because so much attention is on Armando,” Davis said. “They’re double teaming if he’s posted up, they got a guy on the backside. So it’s real difficult to get the ball into Armando and other guys have to step up. But Harrison just, he just checks so many boxes. I mean, it’s just shooting, posting up, passing, rebounding, big plays. He’s just really having a lot of fun out there.”

In the end, Harrison Ingram finished the game against Florida State with 13 points and an assist to go with his 17 rebounds. On the season, Ingram is averaging 12.4 points, 8.6 rebounds, and 2.5 assists per game.

Hubert Davis explains what makes North Carolina good on defense

Following the win against Florida State, Hubert Davis praised the Tar Heels’ defense and broke down why North Carolina has been so good on defense this season.

“Well, one, I think the commitment to how important it is for our success. You know, I talked to them at great length about, you know, there needs to be a commitment in terms of defense and rebounding to put ourselves in a position to be successful, and so, it’s really on the players, their commitment to how important it is to our success. Then, you know, with our ability defensively, we’ve got a number of guys we can play. We’re versatile defensively. We can play a number of different positions that I think really helps us,” Davis said.

“And then our rebounding. You mentioned about our defense, our rebounding has improved as well. I think it’s nine straight games that we’ve out-rebounded an opponent, so we’re limiting teams to one shot every possession. We’re protecting the paint, but we’re also doing two things: we’re protecting the paint but we’re also contesting the three as well.”