Why Davis Pleased by Heels' Defensive Against Louisville

The North Carolina Tar Heels earned an impressive win over the Louisville Cardinals, improving their home record to 16-0 with a 77-74 win on Monday night.

While speaking with the media during his postgame press conference, head coach Hubert Davis credited his team for its defensive performance against one of the best offenses in the nation.

Davis' Thoughts

Feb 23, 2026; Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA; Louisville Cardinals guard Mikel Brown Jr. (0) passes the ball as North Carolina Tar Heels center Henri Veesaar (13) defends in the second half at Dean E. Smith Center. Mandatory Credit: Bob Donnan-Imagn Images | Bob Donnan-Imagn Images

“Their offense is real. I mean, it’s just a lot of ball and player movement," Davis said. "There’s a reason why they lead the ACC in assists, and one of the best in scoring in the league is because just instinctively, they pass, shoot and drive."

"[With] so many gifted guys that can score in many different areas, one of the things that we wanted to do is just make every catch, make every move, make every shot difficult," Davis continued. "And I just felt like throughout the game, they got worn down and tired. And I think that’s why a lot of their threes hit front rim or air ball, because of the fatigue.”

Louisville guard Isaac McKneely entered the contest shooting 40 percent from beyond the arc, but went 0-of-5 from three-point range on Monday night. Davis explained what the defensive strategy was to marginalize the 6-foot-3, 194-pound guard.

Feb 23, 2026; Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA; Louisville Cardinals guard Mikel Brown Jr. (0) scores on a reverse layup as North Carolina Tar Heels center Henri Veesaar (13) defends in the first half at Dean E. Smith Center. Mandatory Credit: Bob Donnan-Imagn Images | Bob Donnan-Imagn Images

“Isaac [McKneely] is a fantastic player… and one of the better shooters in the country," Davis said. "They do a number of different stuff for him, flare screens, wide pins, all kinds of stuff. And so, the way that we were playing defensively, we really wanted to try to take that away and again, make him put the ball on the floor. He can put the ball to floor and finish and shoot mid-range shots, but their shot spectrum, they don’t shoot very many long twos. And so, I thought our guys did a really good job of high alert on him.”

North Carolina did just enough to hold off the Cardinals' surge in the final 10 minutes of the game, although the Tar Heels struggled to put the game away from the free throw line.

“From the big picture, I thought we handled it really well," Davis said. "One of the things that Louisville does do is they’ll pick up, they’ll run and jump, they’ll trap, they get a lot of steals and deflections. And I thought we handled that really well. What we didn’t handle really well was getting to the free-throw line and knocking down those free throws. And there were a couple of possessions down the stretch where they set screens, and we just laid on the screen; Brown and I think Conwell were able to get an open three. But other than those two lapses, I thought we were really good, and I thought we executed really well down the stretch.”

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