Hubert Davis Press Conference: 'Timely Threes' Help Defeat Florida State

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — Caleb Wilson filled the box score with 22 points, 16 rebounds and six assists to the be the sixth-ever Tar Heel to record a stat line of 20-10-5. His stat sheet stuffing propelled No. 12 North Carolina past Florida State, 79-66, and secured a victory in UNC’s ACC opener on Tuesday night at the Smith Center. 

The Tar Heels attempted 29 threes, the second most this season, with Kyan Evans leading the charge on 12 attempts. Though UNC shot 7–for-29 (24.1) from deep, the transfer guard was responsible for making five of them, a feat he did only once last season.

“Offensively, to be the best that we can be, we’re going to have to consistently knock down shots from three-point range,” Hubert Davis said after the game. “I don’t think we shot a great percentage tonight, but I thought we had timely threes that really helped us, and that was huge.”

The Seminoles stayed true to their reputation, shooting 12-for-40 (30%) from deep and 23-for-66 (34.8%) from the floor.

Watch Davis’ postgame press conference in the video below and scroll to read excerpts…

The lineup with Derek Dixon, Kyan Evans and Jonathon Powell really sparked the run in the second half. What do you like about those three guards? 

Davis: “One of the things against Florida State is they’re just really good defensively. They get a lot of steals and deflections. They’ve got length, versatility, athleticism. And so in order to run any type of offense, you need multiple ball handlers, guys that can make plays, get us into our offense. So, when you had multiple guys out there that could do that, that helped us offensively, get into our sets, get to our spots, and be able to get the shots that we wanted.”

Were you pleased with most of the 3-pointers UNC took in the first half? 

“I felt like we passed up some. You just can’t be hesitant. You’ve got to be a confident player, and if you’re open, knock it down. And I felt like at the beginning of the game, we settled for threes because we said we wanted to dominate points in the paint through post penetration, offensive rebound. I felt like our first 10 possessions, seven of them were threes. And so we started to get into the paint, and that generated better threes in the second half, and I felt like we were able to knock down those.” 

Veesaar and Wilson garner a lot of attention when they are on the court together. How big a weapon is it for UNC when they open up the floor for others? 

“It’s a huge weapon. It is on both ends of the floor. I mean, defensively, we have the ability to do switches where they can guard guards out on a perimeter. Their length is real… I referenced that when I played, like the number one thing that, that I struggle the most is going up against guys with length. And we have length, not just those two, but Jarin at the three, our positional length, Luka… Jonathan Powell.” 

How did you guys handle Florida State’s offensive style, which takes such a high volume of threes?

“We knew they were going to shoot a lot of threes. There’s a couple things that we talked about, not over helping, because I think sometimes they would get into the lane to generate a three, as opposed to trying to score around the rim, which would be difficult against our length. And so there were times that I felt like we over-helped, which opened up threes, and then just the threes off of offensive rebounds. Those are ones where you feel like you got to stop, and we didn’t.”