UNC men's basketball ends three-game losing streak with scrappy win over Georgia Tech

Saturday’s win was ugly. 

Yes, North Carolina made the shots when it mattered. With two and a half minutes to go, sophomore guard Elliot Cadeau knocked down a wide-open three to take a 62-57 lead. Junior guard Seth Trimble and first-year guard Ian Jackson made six free throws to clinch it. 

In Trimble’s words: it wasn’t the best game, it also wasn’t the worst. 

The victory in UNC’s ACC opener ended a three-game losing streak, but it was too close to a worst-case-scenario. By the end, only three points separated the Tar Heels from starting 0-1 in the conference, a four-game losing skid and flashbacks to the 2022-23 season. 

In No. 20 North Carolina’s 68-65 win over Georgia Tech on Saturday afternoon in the Dean E. Smith Center, the Tar Heels got off to another slow start, committed a season-high 18 turnovers and only connected on 5-of-24 outside shots — UNC’s lowest percentage in a victory since February 2023. 

“We didn’t play our best game,” head coach Hubert Davis said. “But to be able to get a win goes a long way for this group and us trying to find ourselves.”

In the 2022-23 season, preseason No. 1 North Carolina lost three-straight non-conference games in November and then lost the ACC opener against Virginia Tech. That team missed the NCAA tournament. 

This November, UNC fell to Auburn and Michigan State in the Maui Invitational, followed by Wednesday’s loss to Alabama. Something had to change. A mirrored version of two years ago loomed. 

“Losing three in a row, it was hard,” Hubert Davis said. “Our team has been wounded by that.” 

North Carolina was playing “tight and tentative.” The Tar Heels were in survival mode with little time to practice fundamentals. They focused on preparing for the next game with four games in six days, adding in a five-hour time change before playing games for three straight days in Maui. 

There was also the mental toll of three-straight losses over the last few weeks.

“Guys felt pressure from a need to get a win from what the fans had to say, from what the media — the narratives that they’re making up,” Trimble said. “A lot of guys haven’t dealt with that before. In high school, you get written in your local newspaper and that’s about it. Even at a lower division in college, it’s not the same.” 

Graduate guard RJ Davis said everyone is trying to be “too perfect,” himself included. His own shooting struggles were weighing heavily. Although he is the only UNC player to score in double digits in every game this year, he's not producing the numbers expected for a preseason First Team All-American. It's not the same production as last season. He's shooting 35.1 percent from the field compared to last year's 42.8 percent. 

“At the start of the season, I was putting too much pressure on myself, self-sabotaging myself and just trying to be perfect, trying to make every shot,” RJ Davis said. “If I don’t make this shot, then I gotta make the next one — realistically, not even the best players make every shot, so it’s been up and down.” 

He’s still grappling with those struggles. On Saturday, he went 5-15 from the field and 2-8 from three. 

In practices following the loss to the Crimson Tide, Hubert Davis implemented a new plan — a “punishment” that hasn’t been used since the days of Roy Williams. Even two years ago, the head coach didn’t pull out this conditioning drill because, according to Trimble, he was still finding his way as a coach. RJ Davis hadn’t seen it since his first year at UNC. 

“Running 33s.” 

Every drill, the Tar Heels are split into a blue and white team. The loser in each drill had to run baseline to baseline three times — totaling six lengths up then down the court — in 33 seconds. If they didn’t, they had to run it again. 

RJ Davis’ team only lost once, but one 33 was enough. 

“We needed it, more than anything,” he said. “It was holding us accountable. It gives you that fight, that fire, that competitive spirit that Coach Davis wants to have for us as a team. I’m glad we did it. Nobody wanted to lose because nobody wanted to run, so we needed that.”

Those grueling practice sessions might have been enough to pull the Tar Heels out of the slump, at least for now, but there’s still a lot Hubert Davis and his players are concerned about. 

Turnovers are a problem. Entering Saturday’s game, UNC was seventh in the country in turnover percentage. The Tar Heels committed a staggering 18 against GT, with Cadeau contributing seven, allowing the Yellow Jackets to score 15 points. 

For the fifth game in a row, North Carolina fell into an early deficit. Before facing Georgia Tech, UNC only led for about 11 of the 165 total minutes it played. The Tar Heels spent 13:57 trailing on Saturday, but fell behind by as many as eight points in the first half. Hubert Davis is trying out different starting lineups as a result. He's still not settled on the rotation. 

There’s a lot to clean up on the defensive end. The Yellow Jackets scored 15 points off second-chance offensive rebounds. North Carolina allowed Georgia Tech to score eight points in the last minute. Hubert Davis also said the team is too quiet on defense, and he believes no good team can be that quiet.  

Yes, Saturday was ugly. UNC has a lot of work to do. 

But now the head coach said it’s time for the team to “heal.” North Carolina’s current level of play isn’t sustainable. And with a week off from games, the Tar Heels can reset and focus on those fundamentals. 

“We’re just hitting a learning curve right now,” RJ Davis said. “But we gotta give each other some grace because we’re going to be fine.”

@carolinewills03

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