No. 9 UNC basketball not panicking after loss to No. 14 Kentucky
Some North Carolina fans on social media have expressed concerns about head coach Hubert Davis and whether the current roster can be a championship-caliber team.
Kentucky head coach John Calipari said it is.
“UNC is a Final Four-level team. They are. And, (RJ) Davis is one of the best players in the country right now,” Calipari said. “We were lucky to win.”
Despite Carolina losing two straight, including Saturday’s 87-83 loss to Kentucky, graduate student Cormac Ryan said there’s “not an ounce of panic” on the team. It’s a veteran group that knows how to respond and will get better, he said.
RJ Davis also expressed faith in the Tar Heels, knowing the potential and lessons that can be gleaned from the defeat.
UNC is especially pleased that the areas in which it struggled are easily fixable. The 10 rebound differential and 18 Kentucky offensive rebounds are all about attitude and effort.
Davis had seven rebounds, including six in the first half. He shouldn’t be the team’s leader.
“(An edge) has been missing; was missing, but the great thing about it is it’s not lost,” Hubert Davis said. “We can get better. We can improve. I feel like we have a great bunch of kids that can improve in that area and for that area to be a strength of ours moving forward.”
The season-high 17 turnovers, including one with 11 seconds remaining, come down to focus and composure. Davis and graduate student Armando Bacot shouldn’t combine for 11 turnovers.
Those are also within each players’ control. Kentucky was physical and it played with more of that edge, but the Heels had a lead and chances down the stretch.
“We’re confident in our group,” Ryan said. “We know how good we can be, especially when we clean up some of our own mistakes.”
Hubert Davis didn’t say anything to the team after the game, except that he loves the players and Carolina will move forward. It’s a lesson he took from Dean Smith.
There are a lot of emotions, a lot of disappointment. They’ll give those feelings a time to settle before returning to practice.
It’s fine, though. The Tar Heels don’t plan on letting this rough patch determine the season’s outcome. Hubert Davis feels like the team is a good team, but it’s still on the way to being great.
Some fans may be freaking out online, but the guys who do this day in and day out are not. That’s what matters most.
“We’re going to be in this situation again, where we’re up by one with five minutes to go and be able to learn from this and grow,” Hubert Davis said. “One of the things that coach Smith used to tell us all the time as players is, ‘A mistake is good when you recognize it, admit it, learn from it and grow from it.’ The things that we need to tweak and alter and pivot and change, let’s grow from it.”
