What Hubert Davis said after UNC basketball’s win at Miami
The North Carolina Tar Heels avoided a big upset on the road Saturday at Miami, getting back on track with a 75-72 win over the Hurricanes. But it didn’t come without any drama late.
Holding a four-point lead with under 10 seconds left, UNC was whistled for a foul. Miami went to the line and made the first to cut the lead down to three and then intentionally missed the second. It looked like the ball went off of Harrison Ingram out of bounds, leaving just 2 seconds for the Hurricanes.
But Miami was whistled for a lane violation which essentially ended the game for the Tar Heels after the inbounds.
The win was huge as UNC avoided losing three of their last four but there are some concerns. Outside of RJ Davis and Armando Bacot, UNC is going to need some more from their starters scoring-wise. They also needs some more from the bench which has struggled in Seth Trimble’s absence.
Before we look ahead to Syracuse this week, lets read what Hubert Davis had to say after the game.
On relief after the struggles?
“I like 20-point wins, that would be great. You know, but Miami is a really good team. And we haven’t had very much success against them as of late, and especially here. And so because of their athleticism and their ability to score in a number of different positions, we always know that no lead is safe. And they continued to fight and we made a couple more plays down the stretch to be able to pull out.”
On UNC's approach going into this game
“I said, yesterday, there’s no correlation, as a player and as a coach, I’ve had great practices and then I’ve been horrible in the game. And I’ve been horrible at practices and I wasn’t like that out in the game. And I’ve seen that with the team. I just specifically was answering a question in regards to that we had two good days of practice that it translated out there in the game today. That’s great. And we needed it, we needed everybody to step up. And I feel like everyone that played had maybe at least one impactful play that helped us get a road win.”
On Elliot Cadeau being aggressive
“He’s elite in terms of being able to get to the basket. He just is, you know, it doesn’t matter what kind of defense, his ability to get to the paint and be able to score is just at a high level. And so, you know, one of the things that Miami does consistently defensively, their hard hedges just cause us a lot of problems, and it’s just hard to get into the paint. I just felt like Elliott was really persistent at attacking and trying to get there. So much, so not just for him but for everybody else. We got into the penalty in the second half with 12 minutes to go and I really thought that was, even though we didn’t shoot free throws as well as we normally do, I felt like that was a huge impact for us.”
On Elliot Cadeau's shooting
“That changes a lot. I mean, they were wide open threes and, you know, I’ve told him when you’re wide open, have the confidence to be able to knock it down because your head coach has the confidence and think it’s going down. So shoot it. And those two 3s that he had, and one in the first half and one the second half, it was just really huge for us. We needed everything that we could to be able to win against Miami here on the road.”
Via Inside Carolina
On RJ Davis having more space
“I don’t know if he had more space, I know RJ is working real hard to get open. I feel bad about what I asked him, require of him every day and again, I’ve said this before, I haven’t seen every player in the country, but it’d be hard for me to think of anybody that is playing any better than RJ. Not only does he hit big shots, he was the one the primary defender on Pack. So we’re asking him to defend the best perimeter player, to score, distribute, rebound, take care of the basketball and every day in practice and games. He shows up he’s just one of those special type players that you’re just filled with thankfulness just to be able to be around him and coach and that he’s a part of our team and program.”
Via Inside Carolina
