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PHILADELPHIA — North Carolina is one win away from the Final Four for the first time since its national championship run in 2017. Hubert Davis will attempt to become the first first-year head coach to take his team to the Final Four since Bill Guthridge managed that feat in 1998 when No. 8 seed UNC plays No. 15 seed in the East Region’s regional final on Sunday (5:05 p.m./CBS).
The Tar Heels have never played the Peacocks, although two of Davis’ former UNC teammates – Monmouth head coach King Rice and Monmouth assistant J.R. Reid – have played Shaheen Holloway’s squad three times this season. That connection had not been utilized by Saturday mid-afternoon.
«I haven’t had any conversations with them yet, but King and J.R. are two of my best friends,» Davis told reporters at the Wells Fargo Center. «Our relationship when we played and our enjoyment of playing together, but not just playing together as teammates but just our relationship. I’m sure that we’ll have conversations.
«Walker Miller, who played for King this year, stopped by the team meal last night. It was just great being able to see him and give him a hug. Even though he had a terrific year for Monmouth this year, he’s always a part of Carolina basketball.»
Read and watch all of Davis’ comments from Saturday’s media availability below:
«That everybody is on the same page. They’re connected in terms of their preparation, their practice and their play. They understand where they want to go and how to get there. They’ve identified what allows them to be successful, and everybody understands that, and everyone has accepted their role in a place where they feel like it’s beneficial for them to be the best team that they can be.
«In terms of being connected, that’s what I mean. Everybody is locked in on the same page, and they understand where they want to go and what they want to do.»
«Well, they’re good defensively because they’ve got, one, good individual defenders, and number two, they’re tied together team defense-wise. In terms of size, they don’t have as much size as we do, but they do an excellent job at getting steals and deflections. They do a really good job of changing defenses to keep you off balance on the offensive end.
«And I also think what plays a part is they’re very methodical on the offensive end. And at times I feel like teams that when they play them, because you’re playing defense 20, 25 seconds every possession, by the time you get on the offensive end, you’re so excited you want to shoot the ball and don’t maybe necessarily get the best shot that you want.
«A great benefit for us is we have played against terrific teams like Virginia, Virginia Tech that are methodical in their offensive approach where you have to stay disciplined enough to play 20, 25, maybe 30 seconds every possession and then have the discipline to be able to get the shot that you want on the offensive end.
«I’m thankful for those experiences in the ACC that I feel like will help us and prepare us against a really good Saint Peter’s team.»
«You know, it was interesting to hear their answers, and I felt like they were different answers, like some said after the Pittsburgh game that we lost at home, some say it was Virginia Tech, us winning on the road. And I’m not saying that’s not true. I believe that. But I also believe that what has allowed us to get to this point has been time.
«This has been a year of newness, new head coach, new coaching staff, three new players, transfers, two new freshmen, some tweaks, pivots, changes in our style, both offensively and defensively. I just think it’s shared experiences over time, and I know that everybody wants everything to fit perfectly in November and December, and it just takes time.
«I just felt like the shared experiences and the time that we’ve spent on and off the court has allowed us to grow together, to understand each other, to accept each other, to see the gifts and talents that all of us — different gifts and talents that we all bring to the table that allow us to collectively be the best that we can be, and we’re settled now. We’re in a place of togetherness because of time shared together.
«I just really feel like that’s the biggest thing that has allowed us to be at our best right now.»
«Well, root for Carolina, but hanging in my office I have a picture of my uncle and Mike O’Koren in my office, and my uncle has his arm around Mike O’Koren and he’s crying. It was right after the 1977 championship against Marquette.
«I remember that game. They were up late, and Marquette ended up winning, and my uncle had a broken finger and Coach Phil Ford had a hyperextended elbow and Tommy LaGarde was out of the game because he had torn his ACL and John Kuester was stepping in and playing terrific, and I felt like they should have won a championship.
«But I have a picture in my office with my uncle with his arm around Mike O’Koren. And I’ve known him for a number of years, and not only was he a great player at Carolina and in the NBA but he’s a great coach and a terrific person.»
«I don’t consider us David, I don’t consider us Goliath. I consider us North Carolina and them Saint Peter’s. As I said before, I don’t look at seeds. Seeds mean absolutely nothing to me.
«In the NCAA Tournament you have teams that are successful, and on any given day can win any game. Saint Peter’s has beaten two opponents in the NCAA Tournament, Purdue and Kentucky, that beat us. They have our full attention, and rightfully so.
«They’re a terrific basketball team. They’re playing extremely well. And they have embodied the personality of their coach, and they have a passion and a hope and a desire that has put them in this position.
«And we have that passion and that desire, as well. We’re excited about the challenge of playing a really good Saint Peter’s team.»
«Well, you know, one of the things — first of all, I’m glad that our players and other student-athletes get a chance to financially benefit off their likeness. I have always felt like that is something that needed to change.
«One of the things that I told the guys at the beginning of the year when all this NIL stuff came up, I gave them an example — I told them you’ve got to check three boxes. I said, number one, you have to be in the right environment. And I said, you’re at the University of North Carolina. There’s other people at our level, but there’s nobody higher than us. I said, you can check that box. I said, number two is you’ve got to play well. In order to get any type of NIL deal, you personally are going to have to play well.
«And I said, the last thing, and this is the most important thing, is your team is going to have to play well. I said, when I was with the New York Knicks, it wasn’t — you didn’t call it NIL, but when I was with the Knicks, I had a lot of NIL deals because I was in New York City, I played well while I was there, and we were really good while I was there, and then I got traded to the Toronto Raptors, and that’s an unbelievable organization, but at the time from a record basketball standpoint, it was young, we were struggling, all of those NIL deals went down the hill because I didn’t play well there and we weren’t very good.
«So I said, you’ve got to put things in perspective and be able to check all three of those boxes. If you do that, the NIL deals will come.» So that’s always been my communication to them.
«Oh, it’s huge. I mean, just having a front-row seat to see how Coach Williams does everything, making decisions, putting together practice plans, relationships with players, personnel, recruiting. For nine years I got a chance to just watch the greatest coach that I’ve ever been around.
«And then also — I don’t know if a lot of people know this, but Carolina I think is the only school in the Power 5 that has a JV program, and for seven of the nine years I was a JV coach. So obviously it’s on a much lesser scale, but I did have to go through practice and I had to make — we had games, we had substitutions.
«In a lot less way I had to make decisions. And I think that’s the biggest difference between being an assistant and a head coach. As an assistant you’re always making suggestions, and as a head coach you’re always making decisions.»
«Well, you know, as soon as I took the job, my feet were planted, and the reason being is — it’s two things. Number one, I love basketball, and so I’m doing something that I have done pretty much my entire life. And so, as I said before, this isn’t a job for me, this is missionary work. This puts me in a position to be able to serve and to be able to help out all of these players on and off the court and in the classroom so that they can be successful and they can be the best that they can be.
«The second part is I’m doing it at an institution that I’ve loved my entire life. I just remember at four years old coming to see my uncle play when he was an All-American at North Carolina and just wanting to be a part of the program. So every day I’m doing something that I love at the place that I’ve always loved my entire life. Even when I took the job, my feet were planted because I was in a place where I wanted to be.»
«I appreciate all the NCAA Tournament teams. I mean, just to get to this tournament, you have to have a level of success. I’m proud of every team that participates in this NCAA Tournament. It’s not just us, it’s not just Saint Peter’s. There’s so much that goes behind the scenes to just get through a season, and to be in this tournament and to be successful and to have a run like us and like Saint Peter’s is beautiful to watch and it’s beautiful to experience.
«We’re in a place of thankfulness. We were all talking last night and this morning, and we’re just in a place of thankfulness and humbleness and appreciation for where we are. This doesn’t happen all the time. We’re just enjoying the moment.»
«Well, I always said the foundation of Carolina basketball will never go away as long as I am here, and the reason being is because it’s been tried and tested and proven successful. And I’ve gone through it and I believe in it.
«I’ve always also felt like even though that I believe in what Coach Smith and Coach Guthridge and Coach Williams, I have to do this with my own personality and in my own shoes, so that’s what I have done.
«There’s been some tweaks, some pivots, some changes in how we do things on and off the court, but all of those tweaks and pivots and changes have been consistent with the foundation of what this place is all about, and it’s about relationships, it’s about family, it’s about playing hard and playing smart and playing together.»
«No, you know, there was a number of things that I learned from my time with Coach Smith. To name one, he gave me a chance and an opportunity, and that’s the foundation of who I am.
«I wasn’t a McDonald’s All-American. So you talk about Saint Peter’s kids having a chip on their shoulder, I know what that feels like. I had three scholarship offers, and Coach Smith told me not to come to Carolina because he didn’t think I was good enough, fast enough, athletic enough to be able to play at that level.
«And I just asked him, hey, could you give me an opportunity and a chance, not only to play there but also to get an education there. I didn’t know it was going to turn out like it did, but we wouldn’t know how it would turn out unless he gave me a chance and an opportunity.
«That’s a foundation piece for me. I always tell the players, whoever plays for me, you will get an opportunity and a chance. I don’t know when it’ll be, how, and the manner in which it’ll come, but you will have an opportunity. And that’s one of the many things I learned from Coach Smith.»
«Well, you know, one of the things that I’ve talked to the guys a lot is I’ve given them this Bible verse, Proverbs 4:25, and it’s to keep your eyes straight ahead, ignore all sideshow distractions.
«So what’s straight ahead is Saint Peter’s. So our full attention is on our preparation, our practice and making sure that we play our best against a great Saint Peter’s team.»
«Yeah, I think that you have to have a togetherness and a sense of health within the locker room, a part of the team built on relationships, built on leadership.
«One of the things that throughout the course of the year I felt like we needed is we needed an extension of the coaching staff, we needed a leader. One of the beautiful things that has emerged this year has not just been one leader, it’s been a host of leaders.
«It’s just Leaky brings something to the table, Brady, RJ, Caleb, Armando, Kerwin, Puff, Dontrez. Everybody has brought together their piece, and collectively it has brought together a health, a togetherness about this team that has put us in a position to play our best basketball over the last two months. It’s been really fun to see.»
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