NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP - FINAL FOUR: NORTH CAROLINA VS DUKE

April 2, 2022

Hubert Davis

Armando Bacot

Brady Manek

Leaky Black

Caleb Love

R.J. Davis

Caesars Superdome

North Carolina Tar Heels

Semi-Finals Postgame Media Conference

North Carolina - 81, Duke - 77

THE MODERATOR: We're joined by North Carolina.

Q. Caleb, yesterday you told me you came to Carolina for these type of moments. You were recruited by Duke but you said they were the other side now. You came in with a little more than 30 seconds left and hit the dagger 3. What does the moment feel like to you, and how do you feel about the championship tomorrow night?

CALEB LOVE: It means everything to me. I couldn't do it without my guys and my coaches. I give all the credit to them. They put me in the position and it was a team effort. Just one game away from a national championship, what else can you say?

Q. First half, you weren't shooting that well, but second half you shot better from the 3, from the field, and you held Duke to a lower percentage in the second half. What did you think changed?

COACH DAVIS: Well, I feel like in the first half we were settling for jump shots. Especially when Mark Williams was out of the game, I felt like it was an opportunity for us to attack the basket. And we started the game, we just, they weren't bad shots, I just felt like we could get better shots. Then we started penetrating getting to the basket.

I've always said we should dominate points in the paint. If we do that also puts us in the position to get fouled. And we're such a good free-throw shooting team. In the second half I felt like we worked inside/out, whether it was post penetration, but the other part is offensive rebounding. I thought we were great getting second chance opportunities.

And from a defensive standpoint, our emphasis going into the game was to protect the paint. In Durham they had 52 points in paint. At halftime they had 26 of the 37 points in the paint. I said we've got to do a good job keeping them away from getting layups and dunks make them make contested jump shots. These guys were so good defensively, and I'm so proud of them.

Q. Caleb and Brady, they kind of hit a little spurt right out of the gate in the second half. Went up seven. Then you guys hit them with a 13-0 run. What allowed you guys to have that run, and how do you think that changed your mojo?

BRADY MANEK: It was our defense. What we were doing on the defensive end allowed us to get transition points, and a lot of those points of that 13 run came from running transition layups, kicking it for 3. When we got stops on the defensive end and controlled that, we played better on the offensive end.

CALEB LOVE: Like Coach said, we had to stop them in transition and all the points they was getting from the paint. So once we stopped that and we got out in transition because they weren't really a good transition team, we got whatever we wanted.

Q. Armando, how are you feeling?

ARMANDO BACOT: I feel amazing. I feel great. Better than ever.

Q. Obviously a ton of emotion after this game. You celebrated it pretty well on the court. How do you put this in the rear view and get ready for Monday?

COACH DAVIS: That's easy. We're playing for a national championship. One of the things that these guys have done a really good job at is celebrating a win, but also putting that aside and focusing on the task ahead of us.

After we played an unbelievable Baylor team, we were able to set our sights on UCLA. After UCLA, Saint Peter's, after Marquette. These guys have just been fantastic -- because I want them to celebrate tonight. I just do. This is a special moment for them. This is a special moment for our program. So I want them to enjoy themselves. And so that's important.

But we have more than enough time to prepare for an unbelievable Kansas team. And playing for the national championship, if you're not motivated for that, you shouldn't be playing.

Q. You guys were a plus-15 from the 3-point line. Was that a point of emphasis when you looked at the film and came up with the game plan for tonight?

COACH DAVIS: Well, from an offensive standpoint, we have to make 3s. But the beauty for us is that we have a number of guys that can shoot 3. It's not just one 3-point shooter. We've got a number of guys that can shoot the ball.

The thing that I love about our shooters, not only can they shoot, they shoot good shots. And so our emphasis is to attack the basket. First and foremost, we want to feed the ball down to Armando, plain and simple, period, the end. We want him to dominate down low in the post.

I've always felt working inside/out is the way for successful offensive basketball and that's the way we're going to do it. And tonight we took shots that we needed to take. And Caleb and RJ and Brady stepped up, and also Leaky, stepped up and made shots from 3 and put us in a position to win.

Q. Caleb, you certainly had different games this year where you made big shots to help close out. Coming down the stretch of this game, right before you made the 3 with 24 seconds, were you looking, were you putting that on your shoulder to make a play? And how did that play kind of open up for you?

CALEB LOVE: Coach puts the ball in me or RJ's hand and tells us to make a play. RJ and me have been doing it all season. Whoever has the ball, we both made great plays and it just happened to be in my hands, so I made the play. And we came out on top.

Q. Caleb, you said Duke was your dream school growing up. What does it mean to end their season and to beat them in the Final Four, a place that never offered you a scholarship?

CALEB LOVE: That's false. That's false, but --

COACH DAVIS: His dream school was North Carolina. He's living his dream.

CALEB LOVE: Yeah, what he said.

COACH DAVIS: Good play.

Q. No matter what happens Monday night, how will these two games four weeks apart be remembered, in college basketball history, in Carolina history?

COACH DAVIS: I appreciate your question. And it's a great question. But it doesn't help us for Monday. It just doesn't. And so when I talk about the noise and things that aren't beneficial to help us prepare, to help us practice and help us play, I think dwelling on the two wins against Duke doesn't help us against Kansas.

So we put that in a box to think about over the summer. But right now is a day, is a time of celebration and then focus on preparing ourselves to play for a national championship against Kansas.

Q. What's it like to be the guy to hand the all-time winningest coach his final loss?

COACH DAVIS: Again, that's something that I've never thought about and would never think about. All I'm thinking about are these kids, these players. And I told them how happy I am that I get a front-row seat for them to go through this season and these experiences. It's a blessing for me. It's a privilege. It's an honor.

Those are the things that I'm thinking about. Coach K is unbelievable. And that team is the best team so far that we have played. And we just happened to make some more plays tonight.

Q. RJ or anyone, your coach said that early in the season, I think on the first day of practice, he put a picture of the Superdome in your locker room, which is a strong way to set a tone with a first-year coach like that. When you saw that, did you think he was crazy? What were you thinking of getting to this point way back then?

RJ DAVIS: It's crazy to think about. Definitely a surreal moment. It just shows how much confidence and belief he had in us at the beginning of the year. He told us we were going to be in this position so we might as well just tell our parents to book their tickets now to New Orleans.

So looking back on it, and now actually being in this position is something that I'll cherish forever. It's definitely a great feeling right now.

ARMANDO BACOT: I would say our belief all year was strong that we can get to this point. And I mean at some points, I don't know if it was belief or if it was just us being delusional, I mean at every point of the season we knew, like, if we came together as a team that we can get to the championship. And that's what we did.

Q. You talked earlier this week about playing with emotion is something you'd like to see with your team. When you see Caleb playing with a lot of emotion, pointing to the stands and really showing that fire, could you talk about what that does to inject energy into the team and just overall what the emotions really do for your group?

COACH DAVIS: I do. I love -- I don't think you can play this game absent of emotion. I felt like at the beginning of the year consistently we weren't playing with emotion. And then that changed.

And I love seeing Caleb get into the game. I love seeing Brady and Armando, our bench. As I said before, the last two, two and a half months, the togetherness of this team, the health of this team has been at an all-time high. We're so connected on and off the court. And it doesn't guarantee wins, but it does put yourself in a position to maybe do something special. That's what these kids are doing right now.

Q. I wanted to ask you about the big play with Caleb making the 3. Was that just a cycle into a late ball screen? Was that the initial call that you guys wanted to get to it late? Could you sort of explain how that developed, how he was able to hit that?

COACH DAVIS: Our most consistent way against their set defense to be able to create shots was off ball screens. And so whether it was our guards shooting behind the screens a 3 or penetrating, getting into the lane or Armando rolling to the basket, against Duke's defense and drawing Mark out away from the basket, that gave us the best chance to be able to score.

And I remember in the huddle, I told Coach Frederick, I said at the end of the day our guys just need to be able to step up and make a play.

One of the things I love about all of our guys they're always willing to step up. Brady steps up and hits the 3s. Leaky hit a couple of 3s. Armando comes back, sprains his ankle, he comes back in. RJ sustained us the first half in his distributing throughout the entire game. And then Caleb got off to a little slow start. I took him out. He came back in, and he's always been, all year, one of those guys that has just been willing -- he wants that shot. He's actually looking for that shot.

And very few guys in that situation are looking for that type of shot. Caleb is one of them. He has the confidence to be able to knock it down.

Q. Throughout this whole season you've talked about keeping God at the center of the whole entire journey. Through games like this with the pressure so high how do you keep him in mind with the team in mind?

COACH DAVIS: It is. It's a place of thankfulness, humbleness, humility, to be able to be in this position, to be their head coach. I've often said that my job, it's like I'm on a mission field. Like, this is service. I'm trying to help these kids. And I'm just trying to give back everything that Coach Smith and Coach Guthridge gave to me.

Whether it's on the court, in the classroom, in the community, that's my job. If I'm only coaching basketball, then I'm not doing my job. And so I know that Jesus allowed me to be in this position and he's put me in this position to be a light. And that's what I want to do.

Q. You said a couple times, just said again, that you feel like it's an act of service and the history of this program, and that the easy part is the fact that you play Monday night. You get 40 more minutes. Do you feel like you're living a dream right now?

COACH DAVIS: I don't know if it's living a dream. I'm just overwhelmed with thankfulness. I think about the experiences that I've been able to have. I had always dreamed about being part of the program. And to think that I got to play for them, to think that I got to come back and be an assistant coach, and now I'm a head coach of North Carolina and we're in the national championship game -- I wasn't a McDonald's All-American. They didn't even offer me a scholarship until 11:59 with 59 seconds on the clock.

And they gave me a chance and gave me an opportunity. When you look back, everything significant in my life has happened because they've given me this opportunity and a chance to be a part of this program.

My wife and I fell in love there. We got married there. After I played in the NBA, we moved back, raised our three kids there. Now I'm the head coach there. It's just a pretty cool deal.

Q. Could you just walk us through the next 24, 48 hours for Armando? I know his ankle, you don't have a great read on --

COACH DAVIS: I have a read. He'll play. I can read. He will play. Even if he just stands there, he's going to play. We're going to trick Kansas. He'll just sit there in the middle of the lane.

Q. How indispensable is he for you?

COACH DAVIS: It wasn't a surprise to me that he got back into the game. There's been two occasions throughout his career where -- and I didn't even see the play. I don't know if it was an -- it was an ankle. There's been a couple of situations throughout his career where he has sprained his ankle and he's like come back right away. So it didn't surprise me for him to get back into the game.

I know it's going to be sore. And I know the next 24 to 48 hours in terms of treatment is going to be huge. But at this time, I don't think there's a player that isn't hurt a little bit. And so having the opportunity to play for the national championship, after specifically for Armando not making the tournament his freshman year and losing in the first round last year of the NCAA Tournament, I can tell you, I can read that page; he's going to play on Monday night.