John Calipari praises RJ Davis, calls North Carolina a Final Four level team
Kentucky won in yet another classic matchup between them and North Carolina this weekend in the CBS Sports Classic. However, while his team came out victorious, John Calipari didn’t take anything away from the Tar Heels and how good they can be by the end of the season.
Calipari applauded UNC following the 87-73 win for UK in Atlanta on Saturday. He started by noting the play and caliber of their leading scorer, RJ Davis, after he put up yet another 20-plus point outing on Kentucky inside State Farm Arena.
“I thought, defensively, we did some good things,” Calipari said. “Davis is really good.”
“Davis? I’m like, ‘You’re one of the best players in the country right now,'” said Calipari. “Three-level scorer – layups, midrange, and three.”
Davis had his fifth straight game of 26 or more points with 27 against Kentucky. He has scored 20 or more in seven of North Carolina’s 10 games and is averaging a career-high of 21.7 points per game. That’s also good for Top-15 in the nation in scoring and is one of the best averages of any Tar Heel, albeit early in the season, of the last few years.
Davis has also been nothing short of consistent. Over his last six, he has shot 45.4% from the field and 37.9% from three on at least eight made fields goals in every game and at least two made threes. In his last four, he has made three or more triples in each including one game with four and one with five.
Long story short, it’s the best scoring stretch in the career of the senior guard for the Tar Heels.
However, North Carolina has more than just Davis. They obviously have Armando Bacot down low, a pair of quality transfers in Harrison Ingram and Cormac Ryan, and good complimentary pieces throughout their rotation.
With all that considered, Calipari has no doubt that we could see North Carolina in Phoenix come March.
“Let me say this – UNC is a Final Four-level team. They are,” said Calipari. “They’re good, they’re good.”
This is the kind of win that will mean a lot to Calipari’s young group of Wildcats moving forward. It’s also one that he knows that his team was fortunate to get considering how hard that the Tar Heels pushed them in the final minutes of the game.
“We were lucky to win but I’m happy for this young group because they really worked hard,” said Calipari.
Hubert Davis: North Carolina is good but has a long way to go
North Carolina took their third loss of the season on Saturday against Kentucky in the CBS Sports Classic. With them hitting the double digit mark in games played, that’s a solid checkpoint for any team to evaluate themselves and, in the eyes of Hubert Davis, the team is somewhere in the middle.
Davis took stock of his Tar Heels following their 87-83 defeat to the Wildcats in Atlanta. He has full belief that he has a high-caliber group on his hands. However, he is also well aware that there’s a lot of growth left for UNC to do from here.
“I feel like we’re good but we’ve got a long way to go,” said Davis. “We have a lot to improve on and a lot to learn from.”
“I always tell the guys when things happen to you, whether it’s good or bad? The only thing that you have control over is how you react and how you respond,” said Davis. “We have an opportunity to react and respond moving forward for the rest of the season.”