Hubert Davis shares what hitting the 20-win mark means to him

First-year North Carolina head coach Hubert Davis picked up win number 20 of the season on Monday, taking down Louisville 70-63 at home. Now 20-8, the Tar Heels continue to work on their NCAA Tournament resume against ACC opponents in the final weeks of the season.

During the postgame press conference, Hubert Davis addressed what it means to reach 20 wins in his first season as a head coach at North Carolina.

“I haven’t had time to really think about it,” said Davis, laughing about his own answer. “To be honest with you, I think I’m just happy when we win. It is a big deal to get to 20 wins. Obviously, it’s not our goal, and it’s not our standard, and it’s not where we want to stop. But over the last three years, we haven’t gotten to 20 wins. So what I’m proud of is – yeah, I think that’s great that we’ve gotten, thus far, to 20 wins – but how we’ve gotten there.

“This group has gone through a lot. We’ve gone through injuries, we’ve gone through lineup changes, and we’re here. Not necessarily focusing on the 20th win, but just focusing on how much we have had to persevere to get to this point. So I’m really proud of the guys, but I’m not taking a deep breathe and our team is not taking a deep breathe. We’re not relaxing at all, we have tomorrow off and then it’s full-steam ahead in terms of our preparation for a really good NC State team on Saturday afternoon.”

Hubert Davis on need for improvement

Despite the happiness of Monday night’s win, things have not always been that way. Before this miniature two-game win streak over the weekend against Virginia Tech and now against Louisville, the Tar Heels dropped a Quadrant Four game against Pittsburgh.

At that time, Hubert Davis addressed the need for urgency from the North Carolina players as they attempt to make the NCAA Tournament.

“Got no choice here,” said Davis. “Yeah, sorry to cut you off. There’s just no choice. As I said before, you can sit here and whine and complain and point fingers and make excuses and continue to be down on yourself or you can show up the next day and get ready to compete and fight and get after it. And so that’s my expectation, that’s our job, and that’s what this team and this program will do.”