Hubert Davis explains how North Carolina is preparing for Final Four

North Carolina‘s regular season wasn’t its strongest by any means, but the Tar Heels closed their slate on a high note and have made a memorable postseason run to the Final Four of the NCAA Tournament – which matches them up against longtime rival Duke on Saturday night with a spot in the national championship game on the line.

Heading into Saturday’s game, North Carolina head coach Hubert Davis met with the media and shared how his Tar Heels team is preparing for playing on the big stage at the Final Four.

“Well, in terms of preparation, it’s the same way that we have prepared all year,” Davis said. “There’s no difference. The way that we’re preparing for Saturday is the way that we prepared for Brown earlier in the year and against Georgia Tech in our first ACC regular season game.

“One of the things that I preach to the team all the time is to focus on what is real and what allows us to be the best that we can be, and what is real and what allows us to be the best that we can be is focusing on our preparation for Saturday, our practice, and our play. … And those are the only things we’re talking about, those are the only things that we’re looking at, and that’s going to put us in a position to play our best on Saturday night.”

No. 8 seeded North Carolina and No. 2 Duke are set to tipoff at 8:49 p.m. ET on Saturday at Caesars Superdome in New Orleans, with TBS carrying the national broadcast. The winner will face the No. 1 Kansas/No. 2 Villanova winner in Monday night’s national championship game.

Armando Bacot reveals what ‘pissed off’ North Carolina this season

While North Carolina is now among the last four college basketball teams still playing at this point of the season, the Tar Heels are wanting their respect – especially after naysayers were calling them soft at times during the regular season. Armando Bacot spoke about that with reporters this week.

“When you said it, it definitely pissed us all off,” Bacot said. “I’m not going to lie. Yeah, it was something. It was kind of upsetting just because I didn’t think we were really a soft team; I think we just weren’t playing together. We were going through tough stretches and growing pains as a team. We have a lot of new faces, a lot of new players, new system we were implementing. … We were just really figuring it out.

“But I feel like even getting to this point we just showed how much farther we are from being a soft team. We’re probably actually the toughest team.”