Hubert Davis Reacts To UNC's ACC Tournament Exit: 'Not A Recipe For Success'

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — No. 4 seed North Carolina lost to No. 5 seed Clemson, 80-79, on Thursday night in the ACC Tournament quarterfinals. Failing to play with urgency until the final minutes, the Tar Heels did too little too late to mount a comeback in the second half against the Tigers. Despite Henri Veesaar’s monumental 28-point, 17-rebound stat line, he didn’t get enough help from UNC’s supporting cast.

Watch what Hubert Davis had to say about North Carolina’s inability to handle the Tigers’ physicality in the video below, and scroll down to read his noteworthy comments below. 

Hubert, what do you think were the one or two areas in particular this got away from you guys to put you in the holes you were in?

“Yeah, just the inability to respond to physicality. I felt like it was the same thing Saturday of last week, and for most of the game tonight. Clemson has always been physical defensively, and one of the things I always say is you never let a defense dictate and decide how efficient you are on the offensive end. And I felt like their physicality took us out of our offense, took us off of our cuts, our screens, our moves, and didn’t really respond to that until the latter part of the second half.

“Then also, I’ve been straightforward about — for us to be a good team, we’ve just got to be good defensively. I’ve said defense and rebounding and taking care of the basketball. When you allow a team to shoot 50 percent from the field, especially this time of the year against good teams, that’s just not a recipe for success.” 

Henri brought up when you were down 18, the team played desperate and he said you play good desperate. Is that something you can artificially create at the beginning of a game, something you can take into March in the first half?

“Yes. Specifically, I talked to the team – what is today, Thursday? Tuesday, Wednesday and today, about having that hunger and that thirst. That hunger and that thirst to compete, that hunger and thirst to prepare, to practice, hunger and thirst to play together as a team and as a group as long as we can. We have talked about that at great length.”

Seth Trimble, just his leadership throughout the season, what he’s done, his resolve and his play as you move forward?

“Well, yeah, Seth is one of our leaders on the team, somebody that should be celebrated for obviously his career thus far. But being as accomplished as a player, for him to be a four-year player, committed to his team, committed to this program, committed to this university for four years is something, as I said before, should be highlighted and celebrated. If you were to have someone to lead a team, you would want somebody that’s been in the program for a while, and Seth definitely has done that.”

Just five points from your bench tonight. Was there anything you would have liked to have seen to get them more activated tonight?

“Well, I think Clemson’s bench was really good tonight. They had guys in there that really stepped up. We talked defensively that we were able to guard their actions, but it just basically came down to could we guard them, whether it’s in the post or the perimeter. They took us one-on-one, and for most of the game, they were able to execute and able to score.”

“At the end of the day, it just comes down to getting stops, finishing those possessions with a rebound, and last couple games, we haven’t done that consistently.”