Hubert Davis says North Carolina's bye week will address needed improvement

The North Carolina Tar Heels are playing some of their best basketball of the season, currently on a three-game winning streak ahead of their matchup on the road versus Syracuse. Following their game versus the Orange, they will receive a much needed break, not playing again till the first day of February. On Monday, head coach Hubert Davis detailed what that week off will look like for the Tar Heels.

“That week we’ll use it like we have in the past, just addressing the things that we definitely have to improve on and using that time that we don’t have a game for a week to work on us,” Davis said.

An area that the Tar Heels seem like they won’t need much improvement on is their offense, which ranks first in the ACC in averaging 79.6. Their roster is also comprised of three of the conference’s top ten scorers between Armando Bacot, RJ Davis, and Caleb Love, but according to Hubert Davis, both sides of the ball will be worked on during their bye week.

“It also can be a time where we add some stuff, add some different sets offensively, add some different looks defensively in terms of pressure and traps that we have the time to be able to put in that week,” Davis explained.

The Heels could use some defensive improvement, ranking in the bottom four of the ACC in scoring defense. But thankfully for them, their rebounding has been stellar thanks to the effort of Bacot, who ranks first in the conference and fifth in the nation with 11.6 per game as he slowly but surely makes his way up the school’s all-time record.

“And so after we play Syracuse it does give us time where we’re not preparing for an opponent and we can really just focus on us, and I’m really looking forward to it,” Davis concluded.

UNC is likely looking forward to their week-long break with 20 games under their belt already this season. But before their rest they still have to face Syracuse, a team whose also 6-3 in the conference, in a Tuesday night matchup that tips off at 9:00 p.m. ET and airs on ESPN.