UNC-Alabama Postgame Quotes

Postgame Quotes
Dec. 4, 2024
Chapel Hill, N.C.
Alabama 94, North Carolina 79

UNC Head Coach Hubert Davis
On the game
"I didn't think we played well enough to win tonight, and we didn't do things consistently to put ourselves in a position to win a game like this. When things don't work our way, there are two choices: you can stay down and whine and complain, or you can get your tail back up and step forward and start swinging."

On the keys to success
"We've clearly identified a number of things throughout the season, and specifically coming back from Maui, that for us as a team to have success, it's really tied to two things: our energy and effort."

On the intensity
"The level of intensity and attention to detail have to be there on every possession. And the rotations and subs throughout the game were to try to have a fresh energized group out there on the floor that could execute that. I can talk Xs and Os but you can't get there until you bring that sustained energy."

On defensive confusion
"I don't speak in tongues or interpretations. I'm straightforward and direct. That is something we have had to work on, not just in games, but in practices. We need to be able to consistently execute things that we've been told and taught and are talented enough to do."

On team leadership
"I believe that everyone should be a leader within their own personality. I've never told RJ to lead the same way as Armando, Cormac, Harrison, or Pax. My conversation with each player has been: you have to be a transformational leader within your own personality."

Ven-Allen Lubin
On the primary area of struggle during the game
"The energy and effort on the defensive end. Shots weren't going in on the offensive end. We had a lot of great looks, but we couldn't knock them down. Just kinda hard for us to build a lead and come up to close up the gap."

On what the takeaways were from Maui and why they were not executed
"I think for all of us we need to learn that it takes all of everybody. Just everybody buy in. Just on the defensive end, just make the extra effort, make the extra play. You know just giving it your all. And that is what the coaches have emphasized that we have to buy into and really take."

On how they can execute better in the games
"I think we are all capable of being leaders and just being a voice. It can take one person, it can take two people. It really takes everybody to just buy in to be better."

RJ Davis
On how hard it is playing in the Maui Invitational and then Alabama
"I do not think that is any excuse. There is no excuse in March when you are playing these talented teams. I think it's good for us to play against these talented teams early on in the season. We play a really good schedule and we have to be better on both ends of the floor. And I don't think that is about shooting performance or offense, it's really about effort. The little plays that we are not there. The 50/50 loose balls. Those just add up, and we just get caught up in our head a little bit, so we have to do a better job as a team to just buy in and play with the energy and effort.

On how RJ comes back after this tough stretch
"Be a leader. It sucks right now. We lost a couple games back to back. Obviously it's not the start of the season that we wanted to have, but we still have a lot of games left in the season and a lot of areas to improve on. So for me, it's just being a leader for these guys. I've been there before where things weren't going our way as a team so just the team just staying together through the hard times. It's not going to be pretty and not going to be easy, especially with the teams we are playing so we just have to stay together."

On Ian Jackson's statement of how the team needs to be tougher
"Tougher. Effort. Enthusiasm. Energy. All the above. All those little details that come with basketball. You can't play basketball without any energy or joy. We just need communication. We just have to do those little things and details to be the team I know we can be."

Drake Powell
On factors preventing long term success
"Just togetherness, really, and starting to care more about North Carolina than our last name…"

On lack of effort on defense
"Alabama is a very talented basketball team… but we didn't stick to our principles, and that is what led us to the score…It's about effort plays and toughness. There are spurts of it, but we need to sustain it for a whole game."

On what is necessary to get into a rhythm
"Attention to detail, and just having energy and joy for playing for North Carolina."

Ian Jackson
On the team's takeaway from the tough loss:
"I just feel like we aren't tough enough yet. I feel like there's plenty of times in the game where we could have gone back and forth, and we didn't, you know, and that's just something that internally we got to fix, and we're going to fix, you know, We're just gonna get better as the year goes on, I believe."

On the first half performance and frequent substitutions:
"We didn't play our best half, but it's probably one of the better halves we played in the season. So just trying to find what worked, and HD was trying to play around different things and see what can get us going."

On this being their worst shooting performance from the three this year:
"I trust my teammates. Man, I trust them. We can't dwell on plays, but we'll go back on film and see what kind of shots we do like and what we don't like and fix it. But in the game, we're not thinking about, Oh, it's a bad shot."

Alabama Head Coach Nate Oats

On RJ Davis and their defensive effort
"RJ Davis is one of the best guards in the country…We tried to keep some size on [RJ] Davis. He got his shots up. I think he averaged 22 field goal attempts in the two previous games we've played him, and he had 24 tonight, and we just wanted to make them as tough as we could. And he hit some tough ones."

On defensive effort and gameplan:
"I thought our guys and keeping some size on them, making them shoot very tough shots…was pretty good."

Scoreboard Slider

University of North Carolina Athletics

Players Mentioned

RJ Davis

Ian Jackson

Ven-Allen Lubin

Drake Powell

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