‘Desperate mentality’: Tar Heels face quick turnaround as UNC keeps tournament hopes alive

When Ven-Allen Lubin deflected a Pitt inbounds pass with 13.5 seconds left, chaos erupted.

In a Looney Tunes-like sequence with far more serious consequences, bodies hit the deck, arms flailed and the ball pinballed between hands before skidding out of bounds. Seth Trimble and Drake Powell both dove across the hardwood. The ball had touched at least five players across both teams before it finally trickled off Powell and out of play.

Powell lay on his back, hands covering his face in sheer agony. Trimble sat upright, hugging his knees. He buried his head.

Here we go again.

For the 10th time this season — more than any other UNC squad in the 3-point era — North Carolina found itself in a one-possession game. A chance at a game-sealing steal had slipped away, and now, with fewer than eight seconds remaining, Pitt had a shot to win it. Panthers senior guard Ishmael Leggett drove on Elliot Cadeau, drew contact and let it fly. The ball arced toward the rim, tracking cleanly — then clanked off the front iron.

The Tar Heels survived, eking out a 67-66 victory over Pittsburgh at the Dean E. Smith Center on Saturday. The win snapped a two-game skid and, more importantly, kept UNC’s mere NCAA Tournament hopes alive.

“[I was] just praying to God that it wouldn’t go in,” RJ Davis said, laughing. “That’s the main thing. It kinda feels like every time we play at home, it’s a one-possession game and comes down to a game-winner. So I was praying to God that the ball wouldn’t go in this time.”

Trimble added: “I guess guys only hit game-winners on me on this team.”

It’s easy to joke, as Trimble did in self-deprecating fashion, after pulling out a win. But beneath the laughter, the Tar Heels understood the stakes.

North Carolina’s March Madness hopes remain fragile, its resume still in need of repair. With only eight regular-season games left — starting with a pivotal trip to Clemson on Monday, now an even bigger opportunity after the Tigers’ upset of No. 2 Duke — every possession, every loose ball and every dive matters.

And head coach Hubert Davis didn’t just see desperation on Saturday — he demanded it.

He delivered a fiery pregame speech that resonated deeply with the team, said Trimble and RJ Davis.

“I told them at practice [on Friday], how are you going to react and how are you going to respond at four o’clock the next day?” Hubert Davis said. “And then I came in before the game, and I said, ‘You know what, guys, I told you those are the only two things that you have control over, but I didn’t tell you the full story.’

“I said, ‘I think in some situations, you don’t have a choice.’”

He told them the moment they chose to play at North Carolina — a commitment they made on their own — they no longer had a choice. Competing with energy on both ends wasn’t optional. Boxing out, communicating, making the extra pass, attacking the glass, setting strong screens — these weren’t decisions. They were expectations.

“You don’t have a choice,” he said. “You put on that uniform and your responsibility is to every day give everything that you have.”

From the opening tip on Saturday, the Tar Heels played like a team that understood both their coach’s message and the stakes.

They stormed to a 12-3 lead, feeding Lubin inside as he overpowered Pitt’s defenders and took advantage of switches. Establishing Lubin in the post was a clear priority — something Davis and his staff pinpointed after reviewing tape from the first matchup in Pittsburgh, a 73-65 defeat.

Lubin finished with a season-high 17 points and four rebounds — his jersey bloodied, his impact undeniable.

“We don’t come close to winning this game if it wasn’t for Ven,” Trimble said. “He gave us that push in the first half and then kept that high-level play the whole game.”

But desperation works both ways. Pitt, also fighting for its tournament life, wouldn’t go quietly. The Panthers erased an 11-point first-half deficit to make it a one-possession game at halftime.

The second half was a grind, producing nine ties and 12 lead changes. Every possession felt like a fight as, once again, North Carolina toiled to close out the game. UNC struggled at the free-throw line late — shooting 40% from the charity stripe in the second half — giving Pitt a chance to take the lead.

But in the final minutes, the Tar Heels pulled through.

First, Powell deflected a pass with 1:19 remaining — jumping high into the air and using his wingspan to his advantage — that could have led to a wide-open Pitt layup.

“I thank God and I thank Drake,” Trimble said. “Drake is incredible. There’s not too many guys who can make that play. I don’t even know if I can make that play.”

North Carolina called for a timeout and, when it ended, RJ Davis took over. He worked his way to the elbow, then pulled off a slick stepback in isolation. The ball swished through the net, giving UNC a one-point lead.

That would prove to be the game-winner. But rather than bask in the moment — in the dagger that felt so cathartic given Davis’ early-season shooting woes and the inability of the team as a whole to close out so many games like this — Davis credited his teammates for setting the tone.

“I think Drake and Seth, when they dove for the ball, it was a prime example of our energy,” Davis said. “Their energy — the extra effort to get the ball because we wanted to win — just shows how dialed in we were, especially in the last possessions of the game.”

That kind of intensity has been hard to come by at times this season. The Tar Heels have struggled with the absence of players like Cormac Ryan, Harrison Ingram and Armando Bacot — all of whom set the tone with their mentality and attitude.

Ingram was the type of player whom Hubert Davis never had to tell to “play hard.” Bacot’s leadership was undeniable. In UNC’s 2022-23 season, in which the team missed the NCAA Tournament, Bacot hosted an intervention after a tough loss at Wake Forest and declared he’d “die for this school” after a win against Ohio State. Ryan emerged from the 2023-24 preseason with a reputation for punting basketballs and knocking over water coolers when frustrated.

“That’s something that we miss from last year, even though that sounds crazy that we miss people doing that,” Cadeau said of Ryan. “That just shows that, last year, people really cared… that’s kind of something we’re missing on this team.”

Trimble added: “We definitely missed it a little bit this year but, in these last couple of weeks I think we’ve done a good job of holding each other accountable. In a way, we’re making up for it.”

But the Tar Heels don’t have time to ruminate. Their season remains fragile, and another major test looms Monday at Littlejohn Coliseum.

So far, UNC has played 12 games within five points at the 5-minute mark this season. Hubert Davis believes those experiences have built something real.

“One of the things that I’ve told him, ‘I said, you guys have the answers to the test,’” Davis said. “We just got to write them down on the paper.’”

The Tar Heels found just enough desperation to survive on Saturday.

They didn’t just win a game — they bought themselves more time.

What they do with it will decide their season.

“That needs to be the mentality and the mindset going into Clemson and whoever we play after that,” Trimble said. “Going into the rest of the games we have, that has to be the mentality.

It has to be a desperate mentality.”

This story was originally published February 9, 2025 at 6:00 AM.