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Adam Lucas
FORT WORTH — Nearly four months ago, Hubert Davis made an important announcement.
After Carolina lost two games in Uncasville, Connecticut, Davis told his team, “I will never again coach a team that lacks my personality.”
What is this personality? Here’s what we’ve learned this season. But Thursday’s 95-63 rout of Marquette in the first round of the NCAA Tournament is a pretty good window into what the perfect setup could be.
Carolina hit the ball well. Caleb Love was great in the first half with six 3s and Brady Manek was almost as good in the second half with 28 points. Twenty-nine of Carolina’s 34 goals were scored by assists (the highest field goal percentage in NCAA tournament history), led by R. J. Davis with 12 assists. buckets for six different Tar Heels. Leaky Black was sensational defensively against Justin Lewis Marquette, limiting him to 2-of-15 shots. Armando Bacot broke the school record for rebounding in a single season.
So it was a beautiful victory. Carolina’s historic number of offenses in many ways, the biggest 8-on-9 win in NCAA Tournament history, almost a post-season cookie for the first time since 2017, which was a very good year.
But attack is not the most important thing in this game.
We all knew the Tar Heels could hit the ball as well as they did on Thursday. What we may not have been so sure about – what we doubted until a month ago – is whether they are strong enough to withstand a team that clearly wanted to push them around.
Marquette pressed. They did it metaphorically and literally, including Darryl Morsell, who made Caleb Love violate the backcourt in the first half. Shaka Smart came in today 3-0 against the Carolinas and it was pretty clear he was practicing the same scouting record that was successful before – being more physical than the Tar Heels.
However, the fatal mistake was that Hubert Davies foresaw this strategy as soon as the match was announced on Sunday evening. That night, standing in his lair, he told his crew that they should be more physical than Marquette. And every single day since that night, he has emphasized the same point:
“There are three types of people: those who don’t want to fight, those who want to fight, and those who are looking for a fight.”
Before Carolina left the locker room on Thursday, Davis reminded them, “I want 17 guys in this locker room waiting to fight when we get out there.”
And they did. Carolina beat Marquette very effectively in her game. By halftime, Morsell was paying more attention to Love than his team, Smart was tweeting at Love from the Marquette crowd…oh and Carolina had a 28 point lead.
“It’s not about X and O with them,” Leaky Black said after playing on Tar Heel Sports Network. “It’s about being tough with them.”
Davis embodied that tough attitude all week. On Tuesday, he stopped training just five minutes into the session when Tar Heel missed a simple quick break exercise.
The head coach of the Carolinas immediately sent everyone to the baseline for several sprints. “So this is how we start training?” he asked. “Workout for the NCAA tournament? This is North Carolina. We don’t do that.”
For most of the week, Davis seemed personally offended that Marquette was actually trying to push his team. Keep in mind that no one from Marquette actually articulated this particular belief. Davis just knew they believed it and wanted his team to be just as offended as he was.
How many chips did he have on his shoulder this week? In an interview before Thursday’s game, he mentioned that he was still angry about losing the 1977 national championship game to Marquette. He was six years old when they played this game. Yes, Hubert Davis is still crazy about the game that was played 45 years ago.
Here’s the secret: this is how you can stay in the NBA for 12 years. Davis knew how to shoot, and Davis was a great teammate, but behind that smile, infectious laugh and likable personality… Hubert Davis desperately wants to beat everyone.
“If someone tries to push us around, we will fight back,” he said. “If we are elbowed, we take us back. If we are kicked, we respond. push us. The only way to change the narrative is to step back or be first.”
It’s a bit like Davis’ old Knicks teams. It wasn’t just a win in Hubert Davis’ first game as head coach of the NCAA Tournament. It wasn’t just a win, it was Carolina’s 25th win of the season.
It was a win with the right amount of personality.