ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE BASKETBALL TIPOFF MEDIA DAY

October 12, 2022

Hubert Davis

Armando Bacot

RJ Davis

North Carolina Tar Heels

Press Conference

Q. Armando, after experiencing that losing season in your first year of the program, what's it been like just being a part of this program building itself back up to where it is right now?

ARMANDO BACOT: Yeah, I mean, it's been amazing to see just from my freshman year to now where we're at, just because a lot of people tried to count out North Carolina and tried to say that we're done, and I feel like we're just back where we started.

Q. Coach Davis, I've been talking a lot to the other ACC coaches today about the expectations for you entering your second season. I was talking to the Georgia Tech head coach who joked if you guys can't go 40-0 people would be disappointed. I was wondering what kind of pressure you're feeling if any going into the second season.

HUBERT DAVIS: There isn't any pressure. A number of people have asked, have I, have we approached this year any different than last year. The answer to that is no.

Last year there were a number of things that we wanted to achieve and we wanted to do. Four of them have always been a foundation part of Carolina, even when I was playing, the nine years I was an assistant coach, and now the two years as the head coach. We want to win the regular season ACC Tournament, we want to win the tournament title, we want to get to the Final Four, and we want to win the National Championship.

So the reality is last year we were one game away from winning the regular season title; we were one game away from playing the ACC Tournament title; and we were one rebound away from winning the National Championship.

At the beginning of the year, as they opened up their lockers for the first practice of last year, there was a picture of the New Orleans Superdome in there. I wanted them to see where we were headed in April. The hard work and the preparation, the practice that had to be put into place to put ourselves in position to do that.

It's the same approach this year compared to last year. The only difference between last year and this year is the outside noise. Last year the outside noise didn't think we had a chance. The outside noise this year thinks we do have a chance.

The things that I have talked to the players and the team a number of times daily is that there's negative noise, and that's criticism, and there's positive noise, and that's praise. Even though they come from different directions, they're still noise.

To focus on what is real and our preparation, our practice, at the end of the day we'll be happy with the results at the end of the season.

Q. Last year was a pretty impressive year for you guys. You guys got all the way to the championship game. What was the main lesson that you guys basically learned and encapsulated from last year's run that you can incorporate into this year?

ARMANDO BACOT: Yeah, I mean, I would say just coming off how we played in the last year of the season, I think the main thing we can take away from last season is kind of what our identity is and what we need to do to win and what we don't need to do so we don't lose.

HUBERT DAVIS: I mean, one of the things that we always talk about that's the first thought of the day of every practice for the last 60 years is it's amazing what can be accomplished when no one cares who gets the credit.

One of the things, many things, that I'm so proud of all of them was their perseverance and their toughness and their resiliency. I've always told them that in life, not just in basketball, you're going to get knocked down. You are. Not if, you are.

And when you do, you have a choice of whether to point fingers and make excuses and not get back up, or you can get back up.

This team did a great job last year of always getting back up and competing. I'm just so proud of them. We have such great kids, great players, and it's a joy and a privilege and an honor to be around them every day.

Q. RJ and Caleb, has there been any discussion at all about repeating history from the 2017 team that won the championship and becoming the redeem team part 2?

RJ DAVIS: I mean, we definitely talked about it, just how the year ended last year, and coming back again this year, I feel like me and Caleb are going to be up there with the best back courts in college basketball.

Just the way last year ended and how we're approaching this year, it's the same mindset, but it's more of like we know we have a target on our backs. We know what's at risk. It's kind of like a championship or bust mindset.

I know what happened in 2016, and for them to come back in 2017 and run the whole back and win the whole thing, that's kind of like our approach, as well.

CALEB LOVE: Yeah, we talked about it. Just to piggy-back off what he said, we kind of want to write our own story. This is a new team. This is a new age.

For us to go out this year and do what we've got to do, knowing what happened last year, we're more motivated than ever.

Q. Coach, it's been 10 years since you came back to North Carolina to be a coach. Where do you think you've grown the most since that first year when you were with guys like Marcus Paige, Brice Johnson, Joel James? Where do you think you've grown the most?

HUBERT DAVIS: Well, it's not necessarily where I've grown; it's an appreciation of where I'm at. I had always wanted to be a part of Carolina basketball growing up, and to think that I actually got to play at Carolina, I got to go to school and get an education at Carolina. After I spent 12 years in the NBA my wife and I decided to raise our children at Carolina. My wife and I got married in Chapel Hill.

To think that for the last 11 years I've been a part of this program, whether it's been nine years as an assistant coach and now heading into my second year as head coach, it really does, it puts you in a place of humbleness and thankfulness and appreciation, to be in a place that you have always loved.

I don't look at it as a job at all. I've said it before; this is missionary work. It just gives me a platform and an ability to be in each one of these kids' lives and to give back everything that Coach Smith gave to me.

I said this, I spoke to a group -- I haven't told the guys this. I spoke to a group last week, and I said that I enjoy being around them so much, like I would like to play with them. This is a group that I wish that I was in the locker room or running out of that tunnel or on the floor with. It's because I'm around just great kids.

It's something that you don't take for granted, and I'm very, very appreciative and thankful for that every day.

Q. Coach, last year during the NCAA Tournament your core group of players got the nickname The Iron Five. You return four of those five players back. Is there anybody outside of your core group that has stood out so far?

HUBERT DAVIS: Yeah. One of the things that I'm excited about is the opportunity to have depth this year. I didn't go into the season wanting to play 5.5 guys, particularly towards the end of the season. The players dictate the rotation.

But I love the growth of Dontrez Styles and D'Marco Dunn, and then you bring in the freshmen in Tyler Nickel and Seth Trimble and Jalen Washington and Will Shaver. I love their determination, their growth, and their ability out there on the floor.

Then you talk about Pete Nance, a transfer from Northwestern who's had an unbelievable career in the Big Ten, but he's never been to the NCAA Tournament. So there's a hunger and thirst coming from all different types of directions that's going to allow us to have depth.

As I said before, there were only two games last year that I felt like our lack of depth, that they were tired. One was against Virginia Tech in the ACC Tournament, and then in the second half in the National Championship game against Kansas.

Q. I spoke to several coaches today, and the common theme has been expanding the NCAA Tournament. Do you honestly think that the NCAA Tournament should be expanded to more than 64 teams?

HUBERT DAVIS: You know, that's something that I don't think about, and it's something that I'm not in a position to make those type of decisions. My job is to be their coach and to help this team become the best team it can possibly become.

One of the things I always tell the guys is focus on what is real, and what is real is us and our development and our practice and our preparation, so that at the end of the year we can feel good about where we are.

Whether the NCAA Tournament is expanded or not, at the end of the day, my focus has to be on this team, and that's where it is, and that's where it will be.

Q. Caleb and Armando, we met with you guys over the summer. You guys were flat-out, talking about championship or bust. I hear that same thing here today. How do you keep level to let the season play out the way it is versus what your expectations are, wanting to get back to a National Championship?

CALEB LOVE: We just take it one day at a time, one day, one game at a time. Coach Davis is great at that, keeping us level headed and focused on the task at hand.

HUBERT DAVIS: I got on them a little bit yesterday at practice.

CALEB LOVE: Yeah, that's every practice, though.

It's not a challenge to us because even going through the NCAA Tournament, he kept us level headed because we was on a high note, and each and every game, they would call us Cinderella team, this and that, we're lucky to be here, all that. Even going into Duke they said we couldn't do that.

But like Coach Davis always preaches, a lot of outside noise, and we don't really worry about any of that. We just focus on our team and us getting better and better each and every day.

ARMANDO BACOT: Yeah, like what Caleb said, we're just looking at it one day at a time.

Q. Armando, how important was it after you got hurt and the ankle injury, how important was it as far as getting back to 100 percent over the summer?

ARMANDO BACOT: Yeah, I mean, we've got a great training staff. They did a great job even with getting hurt in the Final Four game of just like helping me rehab. At North Carolina we've got the best resources, so it wasn't that hard. But knowing I was coming back, it allowed me to not have to rush my recovery.

I just was able to just get in the gym and just work on my body and my ankles and everything day by day, and I'm in a great place.

Q. For the players, RJ, how is Coach Davis different this year these first couple weeks compared to this time last year?

RJ DAVIS: I mean, I wouldn't say he's different at all. He comes in every day in practice with the same energy, same passionate person that he is and same motivation that he brings to the team.

I mean, obviously we know this upcoming year is big for us, but that doesn't change the person he is, his energy and what he wants best for us.

I think that's what we all love about him, and that's why we love playing for him.