CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — Hubert Davis may not be ready to hit the panic button just yet, but his finger is inching a little closer.
“I don’t see any red flags just yet, but I see plenty of yellow ones,” the North Carolina head coach told reporters after the top-ranked Tar Heels’ closer-than-expected win 72-66 over Gardner-Webb University Tuesday night. “There are yellow flags in terms of our toughness, our sustained effort, our commitment to defense, our commitment to the scouting report and the offensive glass, and finally, there are yellow flags in terms of sharing the basketball.”
All those concerns were on full display Tuesday against the Runnin’ Bulldogs. UNC only outrebounded Gardner-Webb’s much smaller four-guard lineup by two, 40-38, and allowed the visitors to find a home in the paint, as GWU won that category by a commanding 32-14 margin.
If Tuesday’s struggles were an isolated incident, it might not be such a cause for concern, but UNC has developed a similar pattern in its other early-season contests as well. The Tar Heels only topped UNCW by 13 and College of Charleston by 16 when the expected margin of victory was much higher.
One possible explanation for these struggles by UNC is the burden of expectations. As Shakespeare once said, heavy is the head that wears the crown, and the weight of their preseason No. 1 ranking may be wearing on the Tar Heels.
“I really felt like at the beginning of the year, there would be a hunger and a thirst (to play well),” Davis said. “But it’s not where it needs to be. It’s not consistent. They did not play with joy tonight.”
Davis added that he was happy to get a win over Gardner-Webb, which is more than a handful of Power 5 teams have been able to claim in the past. GWU has victories over Kentucky, Clemson, Wake Forest and Georgia Tech, along with a few others on its resume, so Tim Craft’s team did not back down from the Tar Heels. In fact, the visitors from Boiling Springs North Carolina were down by just two scores at the final media stoppage after trailing by as many as 16 points in the second half.
Even though Davis is pleased with the win, there are several issues he wants to address at the team’s next practice, particularly the execution of the game plan.
“I told them at halftime it is very difficult to do the exact opposite of what the coaches ask you to do,” he said. “You tell them what to do and then not only do they decide not to do that, but to do the exact opposite. That’s harder to do and it is very confusing to me. I am ready to go practice tonight, but we have to give them the day off tomorrow. I am excited about practice Thursday. Playing time or the lack of it has always been a great motivator, and that will be tweaked over the next few days to make sure that we are doing the things we need to do as a basketball team.”
The Tar Heels will look for a more consistent performance when they host James Madison Sunday in a noon tipoff.
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