Hubert Davis wants North Carolina to place with ‘sense of emergency’

North Carolina needs more than urgency with where their season still stands.

Hubert Davis spoke on the Tar Heels’ latest response following their 67-66 win over Pittsburgh on Saturday. He said how they played is how every player should regardless of the circumstances – yet it was all the more important for them after having lost four of their last five.

“I think you should play like that every day – every possession, whether it’s shootaround, practice, game. That’s what we talked (about),” said Davis. “We always talk about it as a team. It’s not a sense of urgency but it’s a sense of emergency to make plays on both ends of the floor, whether it’s at the beginning in a game or at the end.”

Davis could tell that sense was there in the things that his team did that wasn’t in their box score. They made extra plays on both ends that made a difference in them earning a much-needed win in conference.

“I hope they have a clear picture of how little things make big things happen. You talk about that extra effort? It’s not going to be on the stat sheet,” said Davis. “Drake got a deflection when it looked like they could have gotten, you know, an offensive player behind him. Ven getting a deflection, disrupting their play. Seth and Drake diving on the floor, taking time off the clock, and them having to go the length of the floor to be able to try to score at the end of the game. The rebounds with two hands, strong. Even though we didn’t make the free throws, we were able to get stops, get fouled, and get to the free-throw line. The execution of the out of bounds play where we wanted to get the ball to Seth and RJ, because they’re our two best free-throw shooters.”

“Those are things that are not going to show up, you know, in the highlight reel but those are big things, little things that made big things happen,” Davis said. “I told them how proud I was of ’em.”

A one-point win isn’t much of a margin but it was all of the margin that North Carolina needed. With it, they split the season series with Pitt after just losing to them by eight back a game before. It also should have them slightly improved on the bubble with them now sitting at 14-10 overall and at 7-5 in the ACC.

Still, there’s still a lot to do for the Tar Heels over this final month ahead of the postseason. That means that sense of emergency has to keep being there, including tonight in an important game on the road at No. 23 Clemson.