Hubert Davis was hyped for NCAA championship game interview

Forgive Hubert Davis if he was a little excited on Monday.

The North Carolina coach who just six weeks ago was the subject of widespread criticism is fresh off a national semifinal win over Duke that ended Mike Krzyzewski's career. When asked to do an in-game interview 12 minutes into a national championship game as the first-year coach at his alma mater, he let the energy fly.

"We're competing out there," Davis told Turner Sports' Tracey Wolfson before she could finish her question. "It's live action, Tracy. It's live action out there. I thought we were nervous at the beginning. Then we started to settle in. We got better defensively. Now we're attacking the basket. We're ready to go."

North Carolina led Kansas, 22-18, at that point before closing the half on an 18-7 run to take a 40-25 lead into the break. Was his energy contagious? It's hard to say.

In-game coach interviews are generally worthless. Coaches rarely want to engage and almost never say anything of interest. But every once in a while one pops. Davis popped on Monday.

The momentum didn't carry on in the second half for UNC as Kansas rallied to outscore North Carolina, 47-29, after halftime to win the game and the national championship, 72-69.