Scott Forbes shares what he tells his players being so close to College World Series berth

Looking for its first College World Series appearance since the 2018 season, North Carolina sits just two wins away from Omaha. And coach Scott Forbes and the Tar Heels are getting back to the basics before the Chapel Hill Super Regional.

Forbes has pleaded with his team not to get ahead of itself, not to get too content with being in a Super Regional or even potentially winning that Super Regional.

“We actually talked about that on Tuesday when we met,” Scott Forbes said. “And I asked the guys what’s the first thing, what was our goal in our first team meeting?’ Connor Bovair is sitting right there and said, ‘To win a national championship.’ I said, ‘OK, so our goal is not to get to Omaha for a vacation or a party. Our goal is to win a national championship.’ We got that out of the way at our first meeting.”

North Carolina will take on West Virginia in the Super Regional after the two took very different paths to get there. While West Virginia swept its regional, North Carolina needed extra innings in a winner-take-all elimination game to advance.

But you could easily consider the Tar Heels as the ones with the major momentum, following that thrilling walk-off win against LSU.

To Forbes, none of it matters. Not getting to Omaha, not the win over the Tigers, not anything else that won’t immediately help the team further its progress. Getting to Omaha can’t be a distraction.

“We just started talking about more than ever this year, OK, let’s don’t talk about that, let’s talk about how we’re going to do that and do that every single day, every single day again,” Scott Forbes said. “Is it the process? Yes. Is it the same thing some other coaches do, especially coach (Nick) Saban? Yes. But I believe it works and our players believe it works, so I just said, ‘Hey, I mean everybody knows what’s at stake. But we’ve got Tuesday, we need to concentrate on Tuesday. Then we’ll have Wednesday, Thursday, same thing.’ That really helps our team.”

If the players can stay locked in and ready to roll, they’ll have a good chance to advance.

The focus, though, has to be on each little step along the way.

“You talk about 27 outs, focused on playing every individual pitch instead of looking at that scoreboard or thinking about the results and that kind of thing,” Scott Forbes said.