Davis Reveals North Carolina Caught Off Guard After Losses

• "The Stanford game reminded me very [much] of the Wake Forest game," Davis said. "The only difference is we lost. We led for 38 minutes of the game; we were up 12 a number of times and we had a two-minute stretch that ended up getting us a loss."

To teach his team, the 55-year-old head coach took the players to the New York Knicks-Golden State Warriors game on Thursday at the Chase Center.

• "One of the things I took from it, and I told the team, is the way that they move the basketball from an offensive standpoint is [a] point five mentality," Davis said. "As soon as it touches your hands, they were driving it, they were passing it, they were shooting it. They weren't dribbling it; they weren't holding it and just the ball movement is elite."

Obviously, that lesson did not translate in the 84-78 loss to California two days later, which left the Tar Heels feeling the same way about their issues.

• "I really believe against [California] we were, for the first half, shook from the game against Stanford," Davis said. "By the time that we woke up, we were down 18 or 20 and we started to play better and started to play the way that I know we can play."

• "I really believe that [in] the first half, we were still shook from what happened against Stanford," Davis continued. "I really feel like that first half, we weren't awake."

Davis wanted his players to flush those tendencies out in practice, and he felt that Monday's film study and on-court preparation was productive.

• "Being able to put those things together and put it on tape for them to watch it today, I thought it was good for them," Davis said. "I thought we took a step forward today."

North Carolina has lost three of its last four games, which has sounded the alarms for this team's chances in March. However, Davis believes this adversity will serve the players well moving forward.

• "It would be great to go undefeated, having perfect practices and no turnovers, no injuries and no delays in travel, but that kind of stuff just doesn't happen," Davis said. "So, I always tell the players the two things you have control over are how you react and how you respond. I was not happy with how we reacted and responded against Stanford and Cal."

• "We have 11 new guys on this team, and this is the first time that this group has had to kind of figure it out," Davis continued. "And that's really good. There are going to be bumps in the road, there's going to be traffic, there's going to be speed bumps, and you've got to figure out how to smooth those things out and the areas you have to get better at."

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