Hubert Davis vented his frustration. Tar Heels responded with big win over Michigan
It’s starting to look less like Hubert Davis lost his patience and more like he figured out, four games into his head-coaching career, exactly the right button to push.
Whatever the motivation, the results have been spectacular. Since publicly questioning his team’s effort and interest at the defensive end after a disappointing — embarrassing, even — pair of losses in Connecticut, the Tar Heels look like a different team.
They look like they’re supposed to look.
And yes, the offense is still a chaotic mess at times, and yes, they benefited Wednesday from Michigan star Hunter Dickinson being anchored to the bench with foul trouble for most of the game, and yes, they made a lot of questionable shots they had been missing.
But it was the kind of two-way performance that made you ask, where’s this been? And not just this season. In eons. The 72-51 win over Michigan was, in terms of efficiency ratings, North Carolina’s best win since the 2019 senior-night win over Duke.
“We heard all the chatter and the stuff about our team and our defense, and we took it personal,” UNC guard Caleb Love said. “This was a statement game for us. Not because we’re playing Michigan but because a lot of people were talking about how bad we are, or how bad we play on defense. That was a statement game and we’re going to build on this and we’re going to keep on going.”
It couldn’t have come at a better time, with pressure starting to mount on the first-year coach from the usual impatient quarters, although it was as much a function of how hard UNC was to watch as the results themselves. There was no shame in losing to Purdue or Tennessee; the manner in which UNC lost both games, the second in particular, was as frustrating for Davis as it was for fans.
“I guarantee things will change,” Davis said after the Tennessee loss. “I am convinced that not only we can be a good defensive team, I’m convinced that we can be a great defense and it will change.”
Truly, a man of his word. It took all of 10 days.
After Davis vented his frustration in public — and presumably far worse in practice — the Tar Heels made quick work of UNC Asheville last week and then blew the Wolverines right off the court Wednesday in a game that had all the defensive intensity Davis wanted with a healthy helping of explosive offense and opportunities to flex mixed in.
“I was very proud of them for applying what we’ve practiced and we taught and we’ve learned over the past eight days,” Davis said.
Whether some of this jump-shooting offense is sustainable — the Tar Heels went to the free-throw line only three times — is a question for another day.
On this day, it was spectacular.
Love made step-back jumper after step-back jumper, for 22 points on 9-of-16 shooting, Michigan’s big men unable to get out on UNC’s shooters. Dawson Garcia and Bacot both had double-doubles and Bacot almost single-handedly got Dickinson in foul trouble, especially in the first two minutes of the second half.
“Coming off that game against Purdue, it left a real bad taste in my mouth,” Bacot said. “I’ve been itching to play another big-time big in my position. I took it personal. Me and Hunter we’ve been playing on the same AAU team since the seventh grade. So we both are familiar with each other as players. That’s my brother and I love him. But that whole weekend left a bad taste in all of our mouths, and I needed to go out and show I’m the elite defender I know I am.”
It’s one thing to do it one night, on national television, against the No. 24 team in the AP poll, with the Smith Center full and loud, with Dick Vitale sitting at center court accepting the well wishes of fans as he works through his treatments for lymphoma.
It’s another to do it every night, against Georgia Tech and Elon and UCLA alike.
That’s the challenge now for North Carolina, especially since a lot of the scoring Wednesday night came on shots that the Tar Heels don’t exactly have a history of making consistently.
But when the foundation is there on defense, which it was from the start Wednesday, there’s a lot more latitude to freelance at the other end. Michigan never looked comfortable on offense, never got into any kind of rhythm or flow, and North Carolina had everything to do with that.
Davis asked, and the Tar Heels answered.
This story was originally published December 2, 2021 at 12:05 AM with the headline "Hubert Davis vented his frustration. Tar Heels responded with big win over Michigan."
