No. 16 North Carolina head coach Hubert Davis met with the media to discuss the 82-58 road loss at NC State.
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Can you kind of put in perspective, maybe the last eight days, kind of the way things have gone from the high coming off the Duke win to where things are right now. We've got the two best players out and we've lost two of the last three.
What do you mean?
Put into perspective kind of how the last week has been with all the different changes and stuff that you guys have gone through, culminating with tonight's performance.
Well, I mean, I think what you said over the last eight days, I mean, that's life. I don't know how else to put it. I'd like to hear if anybody in this room has had consistent sunny, clear sky, no wind days.
I mean, things, you have to adjust you. The only thing you have control over is how you react and respond. And so we'll get back to work and move forward.Shelby, go ahead and wait for the mic.
It's my understanding Caleb was pretty vocal with the team after the game. I know, again, obviously that's a private space, but if you don't mind sharing just kind of the gist of what he was saying.
I'm not going to share that. I mean, I respect your question. Yeah, I really do. And I do. I think it's a great question. Where I'm coming from is I think, there are things that are set between us as a team and that should stay between us as a team. But I think that's a great question. That needs to be shared with just us.
I guess just as a follow-up, if you don't mind me asking, why was it important maybe for him to speak up and talk to the team and share whatever he was feeling, given the fact that he wasn't able to play?
Again, I don't know where he got all your information. There were a number of guys that spoke. And so there were a number of things that were said. Those are things that will stay with us as a team.
You were even without Caleb and Henri. You talk all the time about energy and effort. Were you satisfied with your teams? How did you evaluate them overall?
Well, I mean, I just felt like our competitive fight wasn't there. Especially from a defensive standpoint, they didn't feel us defensively. They didn't feel our presence at all. We talked about that at the end of the day, it's going to end up being one-on-one defense. Can we defend them without fouling? Are we manning up when the ball goes up in the air on the ground? Can we go get it?
And I don't think we did a very good job of that. I've been consistent with this all year, that our heartbeat, our lifeline, and I tell the team this all the time, there's no other way. There's no other road. There's no other route. It starts with us with defensive rebounding.
That's what leads us to really good offense. And we weren't tough enough. We weren't good enough on the defensive end. Now, we did get offensive rebounds, but the physical presence that you have to have defensively, we just didn't do that today.
How close was Henri to playing, and what's the outlook for him going forward?
His outlook is day to day. Every day he's getting better. In regards to the lower extremities, he's getting better. Also, with his flu, and he's making huge strides every day, and every day we'll evaluate and see when he's available to practice, and then when he's able to practice, see when he's able to play.
Hubert, there was a lot of chirping out there, a lot of flexing and posing by Quadir Copeland and others. How did you feel the tenor of the game was, and did your team, particularly the guards, have enough resistance against him kind of backing them down, especially early in the game?
No, Quadir, I mean, I felt like he controlled the game. I mean, his talent out there is real. I mean, he's a 6'6", 6'7", guard. He's able to handle the basketball, really makes great decisions when he has the ball, whether it's for himself or for his teammates. Because of his length and his size, he can shoot threes, he's got a good percentage, but he doesn't settle for it.
He really is persistent and stubborn in getting to the basket and being able to score, get fouled, pass the ball from that position. He plays off two feet. I thought he was really good tonight, and he's been that way pretty much all year.
How much better is he than he was at Saturday?
I don't like comparisons. I just know that Quadir is a really good basketball player right now.
What would you say hindered you guys offensively tonight? Because I know you went out there with the same group from Saturday against Pitt, but tonight this group struggled a lot more with State's defense than Pitt's.
Yeah, I mean, one, you want to give credit to State's defense. They do a really good job of getting the passing lanes and swiping and getting steals and deflections. And so we knew that we needed to be sound with the basketball on the offensive end and make the easy play.
We just couldn't, outside of Jarin and Zayden, we just couldn't generate any good shots consistently, whether it's off dribble drive, pick and roll, DHO, isolations. We just couldn't generate consistent paint touches, putting two on the ball, and being able to generate consistent, really good shots.
That being said, of the 33 threes that we took, there was a good portion that were wide open, and we just didn't make them. And so going into this game, we knew that we needed the ability to be able to shoot from three and make. And we just didn't do it tonight. All right.
Hubert, a lot was made of Ven-Allen playing against his old team in this one. Just your thoughts on his performance and what you saw from him today.
Yeah, I thought he played well. He's a good defensive player, moves his feet, did a nice job finishing around the basket, and no difference.
Hubert, just kind of thinking about Spencer's question. Would you say that the movement off the ball was better offensively Saturday against Pitt than it was tonight? And if so, what was maybe the image tonight? It seemed like at times the movement was a little bit more stagnant.Well, I would respectfully disagree with that.
I just felt like we couldn't generate ball movement off a dribble drive, DHOs, ball screens, isolations tonight, compared to what we were able to do on Saturday night.
And so, again, you have to give credit to State and just their individual defenders and how they play defense as a team. But we just consistently weren't able to generate those type of shots that we did in the latter part of last weekend.
What have you seen from Zayden in the last two games? First double-double, his career, and the two pretty good games. What do you think worked for him?
I thought he competed. I thought he was physical. I thought his presence was out there. Loose balls, rebounds, finishing around the basket. I thought he played with great energy. That energy led to buckets and rebounds and him getting a double-double.
And so I thought he competed, which I was really happy with. But, I mean, at the end of the day, we didn't win. And so that's the thing that I think about.
