Hubert Davis on UNC: ‘They’re not playing good defense, they’re playing elite defense’
In NC State’s 67-54 loss to No. 7 North Carolina on Wednesday night at PNC Arena, nothing came easy on the offensive end. The Wolfpack tried several different ways to generate offense, but it couldn’t find a consistent source of points for the entire 40-minute stretch.
The Pack thought it had something with graduate forward DJ Burns’ ability to back down Tar Heels’ star Armando Bacot in the post, but that changed throughout the game. NC State’s guards tried to knock down 3-pointers, but they had practically no luck there.
It wasn’t a pretty contest for NC State, which was riding a four-game winning streak, and North Carolina coach Hubert Davis credited his team’s defense with the win.
“I felt like it was another collectively great effort on the players,” Davis said in the postgame press conference. “I told them after the game, they’re not playing good defense, they’re playing elite defense.”
North Carolina limited NC State to 27.3% shooting from the field, including 10% from beyond the arc. The Tar Heels were able to keep NC State’s prolific shooters cold the entire night, which improved North Carolina’s 3-point defense to allowing just 8-of-68 shooting across its last three games.
Davis said while that won’t win games for the Heels, it sure as well will keep them in the contests.
“It doesn’t guarantee that we’ll come out on the winning side, but it does guarantee that it keeps us in games,” Davis said. “We’re contesting shots. We’re staying with shooters, we’re getting through screens, we’re making it difficult for shooters to come off, and we’re rebounding and boxing out, keeping them out of the paint.”
It did just that against the Wolfpack. NC State was 0-for-9 from beyond the arc in the first half, but it trailed by just 2 points at the break. Why? NC State’s defense did enough to keep the red and white in the game.
But in the second half, North Carolina was able to find a rhythm on offense, which sparked a 15-2 run that broke the game open in the latter part of the half.
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“NC State is so good defensively, one of the things I just kept repeating to them, don’t let their pressure dictate and decide how we play on the offensive end,” Davis said. “In the first half, they sped us up. In the second half, I felt like we were playing at our pace. We were able to shoot better, get into the penalty, make enough free throws to be able to extend the lead.”
While North Carolina’s offense was able to get going in the second half — a 39.3% shooting clip — it was able to clamp down on what was working for NC State offensively: Burns.
The Tar Heels didn’t run a double team at Burns in the first half, which allowed him to get going in the post against Bacot. He was 3-of-4 shooting in the first half with 7 points, which seemed to work in just 11 minutes on the floor.
But the double team came, and it was effective.
North Carolina held Burns to just 1-for-4 shooting with 4 points and one assist as the Tar Heels brought multiple defenders his way when he tried to back down in the post.
“I don’t know how you defend DJ Burns, he’s just so gifted,” Davis said. “It’s just a dilemma every time down the floor: do you guard him 1-on-1 or do you double team? He’s just such a gifted passer, so you try to mix things up, not give him a steady diet. That’s one of the things we did, throw different combinations, different things.”
The various combinations on the defensive end proved to work, and more teams may try to double Burns in the post after Virginia didn’t on Saturday, but the Tar Heels did.
