"We have time": Hubert Davis shows optimism despite UNC’s 13-10 regular season struggles

Hubert Davis has now mounted his worst record with UNC ever. The Tar Heels lost a key rivalry matchup on Saturday against the Duke Blue Devils, pitting their season record to 13-10 and 6-5 in conference. With that, ESPN bracketologist Joe Lunardi gave North Carolina an 11th seed for this NCAA tourney, which will downgrade when considering the loss against Cooper Flagg and Co.

However, the coach believes that the team can respond well in the coming games. In the post-game on Saturday, Davis said that the team is yet to reach its maximum potential, citing that the team has ample time and perfect opportunity to practice consistency.

"Well, obviously we’re not where we want it to be," he said. "But I go back to how do you react and how do you respond? .... I don’t think we’ve reached our full potential and that’s out there. I’ve seen how good we can be on both ends of the floor, the consistency is the thing that is needed from this group."

"We have time, and we have opportunity to move forward to be able to do that, and we’re very thankful for that last one. I love this team here, I love coaching this group and I believe in this team. I think we can be really good."

Hubert Davis has led UNC to only one win in the last five games. The only win came against Boston College in overtime. Its road wins against Notre Dame and NC State came through a maximum difference of two points.

The Tar Heels have won only one of six ranked games so far, against then-No. 18 UCLA before Christmas. They are outscored by an average margin of 10.8 points in losses against ranked teams and 5.2 points against unranked programs so far.

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Hubert Davis details what hurt UNC against Duke

Hubert Davis highlighted that UNC's failure to protect the ball early in the game sent the team to the backseat early against Duke. He said that the team has struggled with moving the rock and choosing the correct shots.

"Our unforced turnovers is something that we've had a problem with, just turning the ball over," he said.

"We've talked at great length how important it is to take care of the ball in two ways, one obviously unforced turnover, and shot selection. And our live ball turnovers are turning into pick-six plays for the opponent."

UNC's four out of nine first-half turnovers came in the opening six minutes of the contest. Duke capitalized on these mistakes by mounting an early 17-6 lead and a 22-point lead against Hubert Davis's team at the half.