Hubert Davis satisfied with effort vs. Duke, identifies problem

The North Carolina Tar Heels wrapped up the regular season with a frustrating loss to rival Duke. Despite the bad result, head coach Hubert Davis never took issue with his team’s effort or energy on the floor.

After the game, Davis took the time to praise the Tar Heels’ effort. That wasn’t the problem, though. Instead, Davis felt that North Carolina’s inability to sustain their defensive pressure ended up being the major issue.

“I thought our energy, our effort, was on point,” Hubert Davis said. “I felt like defensively, our pressure, especially on the ball, either sped them up and created turnovers, and we forced them into 14 turnovers. Just wasn’t able to sustain that, midway through the second half, towards the end of the game.”

Going into halftime, it was a one-point game. However, in the second half, the Tar Heels offense only put up 27 points and North Carolina couldn’t keep up with Duke’s offense. Still, 14 forced turnovers on the game helped keep it close, despite the fact that Duke was having an excellent shooting night, shooting 56.4 percent from the field as a team and making nine three-point shots in the process.

“Kept going back. I think in the first half, Duke was up was it 13 or 15,” Davis said. “And then we caught back up. Then we took the lead, and then they caught back up. It was just a really high-energy, competitive game out there.”

The loss snapped a six-game winning streak for North Carolina, which was a large part in turning their season around. It’s a stretch that got the Tar Heels to a record of 20-12 and 13-7 in ACC play for the season.

For Hubert Davis, North Carolina’s energy has been key to the team throughout the season. That includes in their recent stretch of success.

“Let me say this, I’ve said before — in terms of chemistry, it has been a 10 out of 10 the whole time. What I have seen is a change in some areas,” Davis recently said. “One is offensive rebounding, but I’ve seen a change in like, the voices. In shoot-around, practice, huddles, locker room. The noise is getting louder. There’s more talking. I’ve noticed that, and that’s something that maybe wasn’t there consistently at the beginning of the year, but it is right now.”

Hubert Davis and the Tar Heels are looking to keep that energy up moving into the ACC Tournament. There, they have the five-seed and a bye for the first round.