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RJ Davis makes case for North Carolina to make NCAA Tournament

IMG_6598by:Nick Kosko•about 8 hours•

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Jim Dedmon-Imagn Images

RJ Davis made the case for North Carolina to make the NCAA Tournament, despite a loss to Duke in the ACC bracket. UNC was considered on the bubble, but now are one of the first four teams out per ESPN’s Joe Lunardi.

Certainly an uneven 22-14 season, the Tar Heels will be praying for a berth on Selection Sunday. But Davis stated the team has done enough to be a tournament team.

Look no further than the team’s performance over the last few weeks. When you put that in mind, perhaps they are.

“I think we’ve saw in the past couple weeks that we are a tournament team,” Davis said. “I think if you look at the trajectory of our whole season, the way we dealt with adversity, perseverance, and especially these last couple of weeks, we overcame all of that. You couldn’t ask for a better team than that, that goes through that type of adversity, goes through that type of criticism and still perseveres through it all and comes out on top. I think that’s a tournament team for you right there, because that’s what March is about.”

Davis finished the loss with just eight points, two rebounds and two assists. But UNC also had four players in double figures Friday in the 74-71 loss.

As far as how North Carolina planned to wait it out through the weekend, head coach Hubert Davis at least had some fun with it. It was a rough loss, but he chose positivity.

“We’re going to go back home (chuckling),” Hubert Davis said. “The thing that I’ve been proud of this group is — and they’re good questions in regards to the NCAA Tournament, and those are questions that have been asked over a month. For our guys to stay focused on what is real, and that was being the best team that we could become, continue to prepare, practice and play. Whomever we’re playing, keep our eyes focused on the competition right in front of us and be the best that we can be. 

“And for a month and a half, we basically played must-win games. In that situation, our team played the best. That’s pretty cool from a bunch of kids. You want to talk about success or proud, I can go a number of different directions on that one.”