UNC-Pitt Postgame Quotes

POSTGAME QUOTES
UNC 67, PITTSBURGH 66
FEBRUARY 8, 2025
DEAN E. SMITH CENTER, CHAPEL HILL, N.C.

UNC Head Coach Hubert Davis
On playing with desperation…
"I think you should play like that every day, every possession, whether it's shoot around, practice, game…It's not a sense of urgency. It's a sense of emergency."

On what the team learned from the first Pitt game…
"The game at Pitt in the second half, they switched everything, and we just couldn't consistently get good shots in the second half…When teams switch, you have to look for an advantage, whether that's in the post or the perimeter, we felt like we had an advantage in the post, and we wanted to take advantage of that, and we were able to do that at the beginning of the game…Establishing that in the post at the beginning of the game, I thought, gave us life and confidence and got us off to a really good start."

On Lubin being aggressive…
"He's one of the better players in the country. We need him to be aggressive. We need the ball in his hands. They've been putting bigger guards on him and being physical with him, and so we've tried creative ways to free him up."

On what you can control on the court…
"When you decide to come here, and you decide to be in this locker room, and you put on that uniform, and you run out of that tunnel and you play on that floor, you don't have a choice. You don't have a choice in terms of playing with the energy and effort on both ends of the floor, you don't have a choice. You have to box out. You don't have a choice in talking on defense. You don't have a choice of making the extra pass. You don't have a choice of attacking offensive glass. You don't have a choice about setting a solid legal screen. You don't have a choice when you put on that uniform, your responsibilities every day, give everything that you have.

Pittsburgh Head Coach Jeff Capel
On what Carolina did in the first half to succeed…
"They really attacked our switching. We switched against them in the second half– the last time we played them– and they were very prepared for us and really hurt us early."

On what they did to get a grip on the game defensively…
"We stopped switching. They were very prepared for our switching. They were just getting the ball inside, throwing over top against us, and we got out of that."

Ven-Allen Lubin
On the win…
"It's something we can use to get ourselves rolling. Especially since we have a quick turnaround for Clemson on Monday, it gets us on the right path. We just have to get a straight head and move forward."

On the week's preparation…
"Our mindset was just to recover our minds and bodies and just get right for a game like this and come out with a chip on our shoulder as well."

On the end of game execution…
"We've been in these situations and it doesn't really end well. We were just trying to focus in and focus on not fouling and just trying to get the last shot or have them miss the last shot."

On his emotions after the game…
"I could just feel the whole gym including myself holding our breath. When the ball was in the air we were just hoping it didn't go in the hoop."

Drake Powell
On the strategy early in the game…
"We wanted to make our presence known in the post early. We were able to do that through Ven which was pretty big. He is a talented player and we're going to need him moving forward."

On the end-of-game defense…
"It's not something we really work on but when the clock hits the five-minute mark, it's winning time. So it's time to tighten the screws and be sharp on everything. The intensity we had throughout the game, I think that showed down the stretch."

On winning in the ACC…
"The ACC is a tough league to play in. I feel like any team can beat any other team on ay night out."

On guarading Ishmael Leggett…
"I just wanted to make his catches tough and if I was guarding him on that last shot, just try to get a contest."

Seth Trimble
On the effort on the loose ball from the team…
"I was mad at myself for missing the free throw, but I just wanted to win the game. We have been in these situations. We've lost them in these same exact situations. We know what it takes, but you just know you wanna win these types of dirty, grimy games. You have to make that extra effort. I feel like those last two minutes Ven was incredible with his effort plays. Drake was incredible. I made a couple of my own. We did what it takes to come out on top."

On how much did they need this game from a team morale standpoint…
"This was huge for us. We know this is kinda the do or die stage for us. We are not shying away from it. It's not making us nervous. We are just embracing it and taking it one game at a time. We need this run that we gotta take and that started with today. It was a big win for us."

On what made Ven Lubin have a great game…
"Everything. We got him his touches. We didn't adjust during the game last week. We played him. We didn't capitalize on them putting their guards on our bigs. We did that today. We practiced it all week at practice and he feeds from it. He got nine super early points and from that he was incredible."

On what this wins means for the team going forward…
"A boost of morale. A boost of confidence. You know it has been a rough new year. It's been a rough 2025. We have lost a lot of games recently. We knew we were trying to come out on top in all of these games and we are trying to do what we need to do. Just do the little things to get us out on top and it just didn't go our way in a few of these games. But to get this game was huge. And we really need this. It was a huge confidence boost."

Elliot Cadeau:
On closing out a tight game…
It felt really good, because we feel like we've been in that position so many times, and we've been on the wrong side of it, so it feels good to be on the good side of it now."

On the scramble for the ball…
"Yeah, it was just a lot, like everybody was diving on the floor, I think five people on the floor. I was behind the ball, so I couldn't dive on it, because there was already five people on the ball. So I was just making sure that I was just like back, making sure that if they got the ball, I'd be back on defense."

On practice after Duke loss…
I just feel like it was like a normal practice. It was probably more intense because we kind of have more of a chip on our shoulder now, since it was kind of a bad loss for us."

RJ Davis:
On team's break helping them reset mentally…
I just felt like this week off was really good for us. It was huge for our spirits. Obviously, losing four of the last five games is hard, and especially when it's like one-possession games.

On Lubin's Performance…
Ven (Lubin) played extremely well. He was huge for us. You know, we asked him to do a lot, but his presence was felt today—the way he was able to kind of just set the screens and then roll out of the pocket and then finish. It was huge."

On the team's mentality during the final moments…
We were just saying, just to get a stop, like, talk and communicate. Like, HD was like, 'We're gonna get the stop right now. They're not gonna score.' And that was our mindset going into that last possession with 13 seconds left."

Players Mentioned

Elliot Cadeau

RJ Davis

Ven-Allen Lubin

Drake Powell

Seth Trimble

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