UNC-Kentucky Hubert Davis Q&A: 'Significant Win for This New Group'

Suffocating defense and Derek Dixon’s late heroics helped No. 16 North Carolina steal a win over No. 18 Kentucky, 67-64, on Tuesday night at Rupp Arena. 

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With under a minute to go, Dixon drilled a step-back 3-pointer to take a two-point lead before following it up with the game-winning layup with 16 seconds remaining on the very next offensive possession.

The true freshman finished with nine points off the bench, while Henri Veesaar powered the Tar Heels with 17 points and 10 rebounds. Caleb Wilson added 15 points despite finishing 5-19 from the field, and led UNC in rebounds with 12 for his fifth double-double of the season. 

On another night where the Tar Heels struggled at times to score, shooting 26-for-64 (40.6%) from the field and 6-for-20 (30%) from three, their defense came up huge down the stretch. UNC forced 13 straight Kentucky misses, keeping the Wildcats without a made basket for a period over 10 minutes late into the second half. 

Watch Hubert Davis‘ postgame press conference from Tuesday night in full, and read some of his noteworthy comments below.

What did you like about the minutes Dixon provided for you down the stretch? 

Hubert Davis: “I thought he was really good defensively. He’s a big guard, and we were having trouble, especially in the first half, guarding their pick-and-roll action, keeping them out of the paint. I mean, they had 42 points in the paint. Felt like 30 points in the paint in the first half. But I thought he did a really good job defensively, continuing to dribble drive, keeping them out of the lane and making them take tough shots, rebounding the basketball, and then him just running the team. There was situations where we ran a play, and we just didn’t get what we were looking for, and in those times you just need players to step up and make plays, and Derek made a number of them. I’m really happy for him.”

On the 10-minute span where Kentucky didn’t make a shot, were some of those just them missing, or what did UNC do well to cause some of that disruption? 

“From a defensive standpoint, we weren’t making mistakes. I mean, Kentucky is an unbelievable team, but I felt like, especially in the first half, they were scoring off of our mistakes. And I felt like we were sound and simple on the defensive end, we were standing between them in the basket. We were giving them one contested look, and then we were boxing out and rebounding. And so, I always go back and say that rebounding is the most important factor in the outcome of a game, and we got 20 offensive rebounds — we outrebounded them by nine. So to me, that was the ball game.”

It seemed like Caleb Wilson struggled from the floor. What did you see Kentucky do that limited his scoring? 

“Caleb is not just a scorer. I mean, he’s a dude, okay? So, I mean, this guy can score, he’s an elite passer, he led our team in assists. More teams are now loading up on him, double-teaming him, trying to make him a passer more than a scorer. That actually benefits us, because he’s such an elite passer, and we always talk about making plays, not just in scoring, but what can you do out there on the floor that can be a benefit to the team. He checked the number of boxes there, and I think, like some of the shots that we got, was because of how much attention is paid on him. So he was fantastic tonight.”

Road wins against ranked opponents are resume builders. Though it’s early, how significant is it to win against a team that will likely play in the NCAA tournament? 

“I think it’s significant for this new group, this new team, for them to win in this type of environment. I just think it’s good for them. I told them after the game that I just want to give them just a taste of what it’s like to put on that jersey and play in this building against this type of team and program and be able to come up big. And so it’s just great for our growth as a young team. We’re only eight games in, but it’s just real good for our team.” 

North Carolina had 20 offensive rebounds tonight to score 22 second-chance points. How much has that been an emphasis, especially after failing to do that well against Kansas and Michigan State? 

“I’ve been really harping on that one. I really feel like we can be a great offensive rebounding team. I haven’t been harping on it; I’ve been telling them every second of the day, every day that we meet, how important it is to the success of this team. Even if we didn’t get it, we kept the ball alive. And also, what it does is, if you go to the offensive glass, the other team has to box you out, so they can’t get out in transition. So I mean, there’s just a number of things benefits for us to be able to do that, and that was a huge determining factor of us being able to come away with the win tonight.”