Everything North Carolina head coach Hubert Davis said ahead of showdown with Ole Miss

MILWAUKEE — North Carolina is fresh off a win over San Diego State in the First Four, earning a date with Ole Miss in the First Round of the NCAA Tournament this weekend.

Less than 48 hours later Tar Heels head coach Hubert Davis was sitting at the podium discussing the upcoming matchup and his team’s second opponent in three days.

The pair will play on Friday at 3:05 p.m. CT on TNT.

Here is everything Davis said during his media availability on Thursday.

On guard Seth Gamble back playing near his hometown in Wisconsin

Davis: He’s really excited about playing back at home. Irregardless if we’re here or not, he has a pretty good following everywhere we go. His family does a terrific job of supporting him, whether we’re at home or on the road. To be able to play the NCAA Tournament here is
really special for him.

You mentioned Seth’s ability. He does a number of positive and great things for us. One of them is being able to attack the basket and get fouled and get to the free throw line. One, because he has the ability to do that. Two, he has the ability to do that consistently and be able to score and finish because of his athleticism and strength. Three, when he gets fouled, he can go to the free throw line and is one of the best free throw shooters in our team and conference. I tell him attack, attack, attack under control because I think good things happen when he attacks the basket.

Overall impressions of Ole Miss and specifically Sean Pedulla

Davis: Ole Miss is obviously talented on both ends of the floor. They hang their hat on the way they play
defensively. They do a really good job of creating turnovers, which allows them to get out in transition where they’re really good in transition. They’ve got athleticism. They’re able to switch any type of action, whether it’s on the ball or off, and try to force you and take you out of your offensive sets and force you into a one-on-one situation. For us, especially over the last month, month and a half, we’ve faced a number of teams that switch 1 through 5 on and off the ball. Obviously, Ole Miss does it at an elite level.

Talking about Sean, he’s just — when I say he’s a basketball player, what I mean by that is from an offensive standpoint, there’s very few guys in the country that can — he is very efficient shooting the ball from 3. He can get to the basket. He has a great mid-range game. Pump fake. Can get to the free throw line. I talk to the team about elite players make routine plays routinely. That’s a perfect description of Sean. He just makes routine plays routinely. He’s tough. He’s competitive. We’ll have our hands full tomorrow afternoon.

Improved rim protection heading into the tournament

Davis: I would say over the last month and a half, our defense has just continued to improve. We’ve talked about containing, contesting. No middle, no paint, no foul. How important it is to protect the paint. One, we don’t have tremendous length and size from top to bottom. So it’s important to keep teams away from the basket because we don’t have a definitive, consistent shot blocker on our team that can alter shots as well. A huge emphasis on trying to protect the paint. Our team defensively not only has gotten better in the last month and a half in that regards, but have seen the benefit of defense and protecting the paint because it allows us to get stops, finish it with a box-out rebound, and then allow us to get out in transition where we’ve been pretty good all season.

Team playing with a chip on its shoulder or not ahead of Ole Miss game

Davis: always talk to the guys about focusing on what is real, and what is real is our preparation and our
play for Ole Miss. I talked to them at great length of turning down and turning off the noise from the phone, the family, the friends, and college basketball fans. And so our eyes are fixed on us as a team. I give them a Bible verse all the time, Proverbs 4:25: Keep your eyes straight ahead. Ignore all side-show
distractions.

The only thing we have control over is us as a team, how we prepare, how we play. If you want to say we have a chip on our shoulder, we’ve had it the entire season because our pursuit is to become the best we can be as a team. That’s something we’ve focused on all year, not just right now.