With the program in danger of missing its second NCAA Tournament in three years, North Carolina coach Hubert Davis has made it clear he wants to see his team play with a sense of “emergency” — a standard he doesn’t believe they met in Monday’s 85-65 loss to Clemson.
“That’s the type of mindset that you have to have in your preparation, practice and play every day,” Davis said. “And it doesn’t guarantee you that things will work out your way, but without it, you have no chance.”
Davis then paused for several seconds before completing his statement.
“And so from that standpoint, just sad,” he concluded.
UNC trailed 49-33 at halftime and fell behind by as many as 26 points in the second half before eventually suffering its most lopsided loss since an 87-67 defeat by Duke on Feb. 5, 2022 — more than three years ago. It’s UNC’s sixth-largest ACC loss since 2010-11.
The loss comes at a time when UNC can ill afford to miss chances to stack crucial wins thanks to a 1-10 record in Quadrant 1 games. No one necessarily expected the slumping Tar Heels to go on the road and defeat Clemson, which over the weekend beat then-No. 2 Duke, but no one expected them to lay down and get trampled, either.
If anything, the 20-point loss sets off some alarm bells for UNC that it can’t rise to the occasion even given high stakes.
However, Davis maintained that his team still has fight left, even if Monday’s response wasn’t what he was hoping to see. He added that right now his focus is evaluating what went wrong, how to make it right the next game and prioritizing the next game — not looking too far ahead.
“We got knocked down today,” he said. “We got to get back up and we got to move forward, and we have to competitively fight.”
North Carolina’s NCAA Tournament chances are down to 24.6 on Tuesday morning, according to BartTorvik.com — a college basketball analytics website that factors in strength of schedule, résumé and schedule. The good news is the path gets more manageable than the gauntlet it has faced the last few weeks.
According to KenPom.com, UNC is a projected favorite in each of its next six games before a season finale against Duke at home. That type of winning streak may not be enough to get it back to the right side of the bubble, but it could serve as a launch point to making a necessary run in the ACC tourney for a team that has its back against the wall.
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