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#UNC coach Hubert Davis press conference after victory over Pittsburgh
Feb 9, 2025
#UNC coach Hubert Davis press conference after victory over Pittsburgh
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0:00
guys said that they were not desperate
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to win today but played like they were
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desperate to win and it showed up mostly
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in that last Scramble for the ball that
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Drake got his hand on how would you
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characterize the desperation that they
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played
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with
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well this is apart from supposedly the
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comments that they make I I think you
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should play like that every day every
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possession whether it's shoot around
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practice game
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um that's when we talk we always talk
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about it as a team it's not a sense of
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urgency but it's a sense of
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emergency um to make plays on both ends
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of the floor whether it's at the
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beginning in the game or at the end I
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did um after the game briefly talk to
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the team and and told them I hope they
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have a clear picture of what how little
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things make big things happen you talk
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about that extra effort
1:00
um it's not going to be on the stat
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sheet but you know Drake got a
1:03
deflection when it looked like they
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could have gotten um a you know
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offensive player behind him uh then
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getting a deflection disrupting their
1:12
play Seth and and Drake diving on the
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floor take a time off the clock and them
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having to go the length of the floor to
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be able to try to score at the end of
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the game um the uh rebounds with two
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hands strong um even though we didn't
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make the free throws we were able to get
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stops and get the free throw I mean get
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fouled and get to the free throw line
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just those you know the execution of the
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out of bounds play where we wanted to
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get the ball to Seth and RJ because
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they're our two best free throw shooters
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and we were able to execute there those
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are things that are not going to show up
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you know in the Highlight Rio but those
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are big th little things that made big
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things happen and I told him how proud I
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was of him in the in the last I guess
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kind of off week of uh not having a game
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outside of the I guess ex those the
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things that you guys worked on what was
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the guy's approach to practice from your
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point of view like how did they approach
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having that you know gap between them I
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thought their approach was good you know
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I I you know not having a midweek game
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gave us
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for at least half of the week to be able
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to practice on us as opposed to
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practicing and preparation for a team
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and so you know I've talked to you guys
2:30
at Great length about us doing the
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little things that make big things
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happen and the only way you can change
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that is to cons you know constantly
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drill and and create good habits and I
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feel like not having that midweek game
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and being able to have practice as
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opposed of preparation for a game helped
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us develop some some good habits that
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really played a huge part um in US
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winning
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tonight the the way you guys were able
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to play through the post at the start of
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the game uh Vin got going it seemed like
3:01
that was at least an emphasis of what
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you wanted to do and some of the guys
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said that it felt like you know that was
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something you learned from the first
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game against pit was that that that that
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could be there like how did y'all go
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about wanting to do that and how did you
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think you accomplished accomplished that
3:15
with the early buckets yeah I thought we
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did a really good job at the beginning
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of the game um getting points in the
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paint through Vin you know um the game
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at pit in the second half they they
3:27
switched everything and and we just
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couldn't find consistently good shots in
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the second half and so going into this
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game if you know they were going to play
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that defense that means their guards are
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going to be on our bigs and so when
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teams switch you have to look for an
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advantage whether it's in the post or
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the perimeter we felt like we had an
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advantage in the post and we wanted to
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take advantage of that and we were able
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to do that um at the beginning of the
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game and then and then they got out of
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it and um but you know establishing Vin
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in the post at the beginning of the game
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I thought gave us life and confidence
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and got us off to a really good start
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just to follow up really quickly sorry
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Michael I keep cutting my off um was
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that something when you went through the
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tape from the first pit game you saw
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that like oh there was a switch that we
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could have explored yes 100% yes and um
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as I said before when team
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switch it it takes you out of your
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offense and so you have to get into to
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an offense where you can create where
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you have an advantage and um we believed
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we had an advantage in regards to our
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perimeter players being able to create
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not only for themselves but for their
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teammates but it's at its best when you
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can also throw the ball into the post
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and we were able to do that Hubert V had
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blood on his jersey after the game and I
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asked him where it came from and he said
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I don't really know but it was just that
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kind of game uh so how could you know
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playing and winning a physical game like
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this help prepare you for the short
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turnaround
5:00
um to Clemson on Monday night well we've
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been in a lot of these games you know um
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I think it's the 10th six and four and
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one possession games now one possession
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games and
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so we've been there before and you know
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in the Huddle um and on the court I
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think one of the things
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that that gives them confidence is that
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they've been in the situation before
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obviously sometimes it hasn't gone our
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way but there have been times that that
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it has and one of the things that I've
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told them I said you know you guys have
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the answers to the test we just got to
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write them down on the paper and we knew
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what we needed to do in terms of getting
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stops um um executing on the offensive
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in it wasn't just Vin J wash was getting
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ready to check in he didn't know he had
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blood on top of his eye and so I had to
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tell him to go see Doug and so um that's
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a good game when you're when you're
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bleeding you have no idea how you you
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got cut I like those type of games on
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that note Elliot said afterwards with
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all the with all the close games you
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know exactly where you want the ball to
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go you know exactly what type of Defense
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you want to run yeah he says that could
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probably help you in the ACC tournament
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and moving forward in what ways do you
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think this team is comfortable waiting
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the
6:19
game well
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um I I think our team is comfortable
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because we've had a ton of experience in
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those situations a so I was really proud
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of them uh specifically this game
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because we made some defensive changes
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that I thought played a good a huge part
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for us down the stretch we started um
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doubling ball screens with low and so
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that kept them out of the middle that
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disrupted their play um that was huge
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for us uh also late in the game we
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switched every ball screen and so we
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just had a man on man and so we weren't
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in our regular ball screen coverage and
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so made those adjustments at the end got
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them out of their Rhythm and I think
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that played a huge part in us being able
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to get some
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stops hbert what did it mean to you for
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RJ to have the game-winning bucket but
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also be that Steady Hand being really
7:13
efficient tonight yeah I like RJ out
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there um
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um sweeted let's uh let's see if we can
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get an extra year for
7:25
RJ you know that'll be fun but no I just
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feel so comfortable out there with him
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uh you know we've been through a lot
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together and his um experience and his
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leadership um as a coach makes me feel
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comfortable um when you have an
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extension of somebody out there on the
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floor that will do anything that he
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needs to do in order to help the team
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win you talked about getting stops
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scoring um assists um I'm just really
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happy for him and you know to come in
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the locker room and see everybody with
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smiles on their faces but um especially
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RJ that puts a smile on my face coule
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more talk about how important it was to
8:04
be aggressive and that's kind of what
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he's focused on this last week can you
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talk about how pivotal his performance
8:10
was tonight specifically in regards to
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being aggressive yeah he you know he's I
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mean obviously he's one of the better
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players in the country we need him to be
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aggressive we need him um we need the
8:20
ball in his hands you know teams have
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been playing him differently this year
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they've been putting bigger guards on
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him and being physical with him and so
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we've tried creative ways to be able to
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free him up to be able to get shots he's
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playing with probably his you know his
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his best confidence of the Year lately
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um just playing with a great Pace about
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him and making you know just really good
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reads and decisions and um he's playing
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at a high level last three make him
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quick Rod Andrew Shel cuber you touched
8:51
on it a little bit with Drake's
8:53
deflection at the top of the key D all
8:55
loose balls being forcing that extra
8:57
possession with the out of bounds play
8:59
yeah is hustle a skill and if so what
9:01
makes it a skill I do think so I think
9:04
playing hard is a
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skill I I do um it makes the world a
9:10
difference when you're playing with Max
9:12
Energy effort enthusiasm and a will and
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a want to I 1,00% think that's a skill
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and that's something and I think it's a
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skill that needs to be brought every day
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because you're in control of
9:27
that and everybody makes mistakes and I
9:31
tell the guys all the time I don't mind
9:33
mistakes I'll never get upset with
9:35
mistakes if it's made with effort um
9:38
nobody's a perfect person I'm not a
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perfect coach I don't expect them to be
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perfect players but I do expect them to
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give everything that they have and I
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give them everything I have and that's
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all you have control over and so I I do
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think it's a skill Andrew we talked to
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you just last week up in Pittsburgh
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about how they closed that game and you
9:58
alluded to some other things any games
9:59
that lead to that point but here in the
10:01
last 19 seconds you you guys missed two
10:03
friends oneon-one but still manag to get
10:06
the win is that is that a moment like a
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layering experience for your team to go
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through that deal with that bit of
10:13
adversity and still find a way to win I
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do I I think our team throughout the
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entire year one of the consistent things
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this team has has been fight you know
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whether it's coming back
10:26
from 18 or Miss missing two front ends
10:30
of a one in one and still understanding
10:32
that we've got to lock in and we got to
10:34
get a stop in order to win
10:37
and consistently in the huddles whether
10:40
it was a full timeout or a 30 second
10:42
timeout the guys kept saying this over
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and over again we've been here before
10:48
we're not losing this game we've been
10:50
here before we're not losing this game
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and so um not that they hadn't said that
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before but just hearing that
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consistently amongst a number of people
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um you just see the confidence in them
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that they could pull through and make
11:04
the play that they needed in order to
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get the win last one Shelby Seth and RJ
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were telling you that your pregame
11:10
speech to the team was particularly
11:11
impactful it really resonated with them
11:13
could you just share a little about what
11:14
you're talking about in terms of choice
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to play for UNC to put on the Jersey
11:19
that sort of message yeah um you know I
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I I always tell them that you really
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only have control of two things how you
11:27
react and how you respond and I told him
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at practice yesterday you know how are
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you going to react and how are you going
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to
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respond um at 4:00 the next day and then
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I came in before the game and I said you
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know what guys I I told you those are
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the only two things that you have
11:43
control over and I said I didn't tell
11:44
you the full story I said I think in
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some situations you don't have a choice
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and I said when you decided to come here
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and you decided to be in this locker
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room and you put on that uniform and you
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run out of that tunnel and you play on
11:57
that floor you don't have a choice
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you don't have a choice in terms of uh
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playing um with the energy and effort um
12:07
on both ends of the floor you don't have
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a choice you have to box out you don't
12:11
have a choice in talking on defense you
12:13
don't have a choice of making the extra
12:15
pass you don't have a choice of
12:16
attacking offensive glass you don't have
12:18
a choice setting a solid and legal
12:20
screen you don't have a choice you put
12:23
on that uniform and your responsibility
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is to every day give everything that you
12:27
have thank you coach thanks