North Carolina
Davis: We are better than that and better than this
Hubert Davis speaks to the media after a 92-85 loss to Wake Forest.
You're not all the way in, Don't show up. Um, can you elaborate on that? Where you going? Well, we did have a long discussion and much needed discussion in the locker room. And one of the things that I like to do is is keep those comments with the guys in the locker room. Um, reason being, is not that I don't want to tell you, but in order to move forward it's best to talk to the people that you're moving forward with. And so, um, I appreciate the question and it was a long and much needed conversation at this particular moment because we're better than that and we're better than this. How would you describe the energy? What are you most disappointed about with your team right now? Especially the way the last three games are played out. I don't lump like all three games. So I just specifically directly talking in regards to this game and the, the only thing that I've ever wanted as a coach is I just want a team with my personality and we just didn't play that way in the first half. The first half, they didn't have your personality. No, I'm not saying that I'm just saying we played nothing like we practiced the last couple of days and we played nothing like I thought we were gonna play and respond today in the first half and we just didn't play the way that I wanted to in the first half. That's a great question. I don't know, you know, one of the things that I did say, I give you one thing that I did say is I I understand that when speaking to the team, whether in the locker room or wherever I'm not just speaking to them in the locker room, there's more voices in the locker room. And I think I've said that before that every time that I speak to the team, I'm speaking to 30- 40 voices, they're not just 18. The voices of families, the voices of friends, the voices of phones, the voices of agents, the voices of workout guys. And that's why that I tell them to turn down the noise from the phone, the family and the friends and that's why I give them um bible versus like proverbs 4 25 and tell them to ignore all sideshow distractions and keep your eyes straight ahead because donald the people and the teams that are able to do that best are the ones that have a better chance of being successful. There are some distractions. I'm not saying that I just told you what I was talking to the team if I'm hearing you. Right, Are you are you, I'm not blaming it on this. But are you asking for more leadership from, from your players? Maybe your veteran guys or older guys? Is that in effect what you're trying to maybe pull out of this? Mm No, I mean in terms of what I pull out of them and again, this goes is filtered through my personality. I just at the end of the day, and another thing that I told him, it's like I never looked at, I never, like looked at stats, you know, I never, everything at the end of the day was just to be the best that you could be and at the end of the day and be happy with the results. And so, um what I want is for every kid on this team and for this team to reach its full potential. That's what I want, and that's the only thing that I want and at the end of the day, wherever that lies, but we can check the box of us reaching our full potential. You need to find a way to make basketball fun for these guys. Again, to me, it looks a little bit like a chore or job for them, but I don't see a lot of joy out there. A number of people have asked me that, um it's interesting um today and shoot around and it's something that we do at shoot around, um, every game is we shoot a half court shot and today seven other guys made the half court shot, but it's not dependent on if anyone hits a half court shot or not. It's just a fun way to end shoot around to understand there's obviously a level of seriousness to this, but it's just basketball, it's just to have fun and enjoy and I always talk to them about. Um there's a difference between happiness and joyfulness and that you should play with joyfulness. I tell them that happiness is is is something that personally happens to you. But joyfulness is an act of thankfulness and appreciation for doing something that you love. Doing. Something that you love with people that you love and doing something that you love with. People that you love at a place that you love. That's what, that's what drives you to be the best that you can be. And so today they were jumping around all over the place and I told them, I said if somebody asked me when's the happiest time that I or joy most joyful time that I feel like you guys have. I would say when we shoot the half court shot at at shoot around. And I told him and I said with this half court shot, there's no noise. You get to shoot the half court shot anytime. Any way that you want to when you want to, nobody is chiming in on how to shoot that half court shot when to shoot that half court shot if you make or miss it. It's just you're free. And I actually talked to them before the game and told them that's the way that I want them to play. I want them to play with that joy and that happiness and and that thankfulness for being in this position and so that's the way I enjoyed playing basketball. I just loved it and loved the people that I was doing it with you guys. Hang on, RJ is ready so I'm holding him right now so I don't want to hold him too long Caleb and be ready to finish up with Coach Davis avoided a performance like this all season. Is this something that you kind of in the back of your mind? Were afraid I was afraid was not at all. I don't look at that. I don't look at we lost by one or we lost by 20 or We fought in the second half and cut it to eight. I don't look at that loss is a loss and we have to find a way to fix to get better to regroup to get stronger to continue for the rest of the season. But I don't look at it in terms of the deficit and I don't look at it as encouragement that you lost a one possession game and I don't look at it as uh discouraged if you lose it by double figures, do I agree with them on doing that. Has it been that way over the course of the season or is that something that's changed? I don't know. I don't know. Alright, thanks everybody gives you a couple more players out in the hall