Hubert Davis thought UNC played anxious in their season opener against UNCW

With college basketball tipping off on Monday night, several teams made statements in their openers. However, North Carolina wasn’t necessarily among them. The nation’s preseason No. 1 team did win 69-56 over UNC-Wilmington. Still, it wasn’t the dominant performance many expected from an experienced group that was last season’s runner-up.

In Hubert Davis’ eyes, he does think that his team had some opening night jitters that they were playing through. Words like ‘nervous’ and ‘anxious’ were used throughout his postgame press conference when Davis described the Tar Heel’s demeanor.

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“I really think, for whatever reason, it was a combination for our guys. They were nervous and they were anxious…We were moving at such a nervous, anxious type of pace,” said Davis. “I know we have a veteran group but it was the first game. I just feel like a lot of it was a combination of being nervous and being anxious.”

When you look at the numbers, UNC did play pretty well. Davis’ team shot 45.8% from the field compared to the 29.3% that they held the Seahawks to. They also only turned the ball over nine times. With that said, UNCW outrebounded them by five, they shot just 20% from three on only 10 attempts, and UNC finished with just four assists, which was the lowest total for a North Carolina team since 1980.

It’s just one game and there’s no denying the talent that the Tar Heel’s have. In his mind, Davis is just hoping this was just a one-off, opening night issue that will correct itself come their second game.

“My hope is that I think it was (just) first-game anxiousness and nervousness that uncharacteristically put us in a position offensively where we weren’t sharing the ball like we usually do,” Davis said.

North Carolina will get back to work on Friday night when they host the Charleston Cougars. From now until then, though, Davis wants to see his team shake it off this week. If they want to be the team everyone expects they can become, they’ll need to leave Monday night’s energy in the rearview as they continue onward.

“One of the thoughts of the day we always tell them is, ‘Rome wasn’t built in a day but was worked on every day.’ I said this is a great opportunity. We’ve got to get to work and get better as a team,” said Davis.