UNC basketball’s victory over Arkansas as much of a must-win as any November game can be

Hubert Davis is never one for foul language or sideline outbursts and, most of the time, his natural demeanor could be described as a basketball version of Fred Rogers; a coach who usually projects an outward air of calm and cool and Sunday School niceness.

At least, that is, most of the time. Usually. But not all the time.

Davis, North Carolina’s third year head coach, did not wait for the end of the question here on Friday after his team’s 87-72 victory against Arkansas. The question, or the part of it he heard before interjecting, was this: At halftime, was it calm in the locker room, with UNC —

And that’s when he cut it off.

“No, no, nope, nope,” he said. “Not at all. No. I was — all of us. It was straight-forward, and direct. Voices raised. And made sure that it was clear what we were trying to say and the manner in which we were saying it.”

It’s important to understand the context, and the stakes. The Tar Heels entered halftime here on Friday losing by three, 38-35. Not a big deal, on paper, but the three-point deficit felt like a lot more, given that UNC allowed a 12-point lead to disappear over the final 10 minutes of the first half. It was a stretch full of defensive lapses and inefficiency on offense, with an inability to stop Arkansas’ Tramon Mark on one end and to respond on the other.

And it was all happening less than 24 hours after a two-point overtime loss against Villanova — a defeat in which UNC spent a considerable amount of energy and emotional capital. It was UNC’s first defeat of the season, and Davis was anxious to see how his team might respond. And, indeed, he spent a lot of his Thursday night address emphasizing the significance of that response.

It all started well enough for his team on Friday. UNC led 23-11 midway through the first half.

And then? Well, and then came the cause for the raised voices at halftime.

Suddenly, the moment felt a lot bigger. And not just in the context of this game or even this week, but for the direction of Davis’ program, which reached the high of highs toward the end of his first season, in March and April of 2022, before it crashed last season, when UNC became the first team ever to miss the NCAA Tournament after entering a season ranked No. 1.

Because of that, there’s an urgency now for the Tar Heels, and for Davis. His roster turned over, with the arrival of five transfers and two freshman, to go along with returnees Armando Bacot and RJ Davis, and everyone spent the months and weeks entering this season insisting that this was a new start; that the chemistry and cohesion were better and that the results would be, too.

But then came the overtime loss against Villanova and the final 10 minutes of the first half against Arkansas. And, suddenly, it looked dicey for UNC, which faced the specter of going 1-2 during this trip to The Bahamas — the specter of coming all this way only to lose consecutive games after a relatively easy victory against Northern Iowa at the start of the Battle 4 Atlantis.

“We didn’t want to come away 1-2 for this tournament,” Hubert Davis said, stating the obvious, but there was something about his tone that suggested he understood the stakes; that the cost of losing two games here could have extended well beyond the black and white of a won-loss record.

To be clear, college basketball seasons are long, marathon endeavors. They begin in early November and end in late March or early April for those programs that share the kind of aspirations UNC harbors year after year. And so there will be much more important games for the Tar Heels than the one they played here on Friday, on a court atop a tropical-themed carpet, in a ballroom-turned-arena, with a few thousand spectators spread across temporary bleachers.

Still, though, this was about as close to a must-win as any November game can be.

Davis’ team needed it, yes. His program needed it more, in these early-season days of proving that last season really was a one-off; that whatever plagued it then really is in the past, for good, and that it’ll remain there.

“I don’t know what a must-win November game (is),” Davis said, “six games into the season.”

Yes. But then he was reminded that he’d just said it himself, that UNC couldn’t afford to come here and lose two out of three games here. That would’ve been a bleak juxtaposition to the usual ambiance of Paradise Island. It would’ve been a bad way to spend Thanksgiving week. And a good way to ensure that the buzzards so quick to begin circling Davis at the slightest sign of struggle would continue hissing, as a lot of them did on social media and Internet forums on Thursday.

“This was an important game,” Davis said. “It is. I’m not taking that lightly. This was a very important tournament; this was a very important game. We have a non-conference stretch that is real. And so this was really important to us. And so I’m glad that we were able to respond.”

It wasn’t just his team that was different in the second half. Davis, too, increased his outward intensity and at one moment, after taking umbrage with a no-call, pulled off his glasses and stormed up and down the sideline, stomping at the court, clenching his fists, his face contorted into a snarl of angst and disgust. For a moment there seemed to be an internal dialogue going on within him, after two days of frustration with officiating: to get a technical, or not to get a technical. That is the question.

Davis did not. He did, though, continue with the gesticulations, looking at times like he was back on the sideline in New Orleans at the 2022 Final Four. Those two games a year and a half ago revealed a different side of Davis — “it’s live action, Tracy!” he memorably told CBS sideline reporter Tracy Wolfson — and he was that version of himself for long stretches Friday.

His team, meanwhile, responded to whatever he said at halftime. RJ Davis scored 21 of his 30 points during the second half. Seth Trimble made two of the most important shots — a pair of 3-pointers — since arriving in college. Defensively, UNC played with an urgency that hasn’t always been there, either this season or throughout Hubert Davis’ first two. There were a lot of things to build on.

Harrison Ingram, a transfer from Stanford who is among the Tar Heels’ newcomers this season, wasn’t quite sure what Davis was saying during intermission, “but he was yelling,” Ingram said. “Yes sir, he was just yelling ... I don’t know. It was great. That’s what I came here for.”

It might’ve been the cleanest, most PG-rated rant Ingram had ever heard.

“No curse words,” he said. “I haven’t heard him curse yet.”

By the time Ingram was recounting the moment, Davis was back with his team. The Tar Heels had to figure out the logistics of their travel back to North Carolina, and decided on a Saturday morning departure from The Bahamas. It was going to be a lot happier of a return flight than it looked like it might’ve been at halftime here on Friday.

That, though, is the margin for a team and a program that’s trying to establish itself. On Thursday, a two-point overtime defeat against Villanova felt bigger than it probably should have. A day later, maybe the same could be said of UNC’s response against Arkansas. But maybe not, given the bad vibes that could’ve enveloped the Tar Heels had they not found their way.

They did, though, and Davis, who went to the national championship game in his first season as head coach; whose first UNC team ended Mike Krzyzewski’s career and ruined his final home game, felt proud enough to put this victory alongside his most satisfying. At the least, it relieved some early-season pressure.

“I’ve only been a head coach for two and a half years,” he said. “This is the happiest I’ve been as a head coach, because of their response. To come back after a tough loss, like yesterday, within 24 hours, and play against an unbelievable team like Arkansas and be able to make plays down the stretch at both ends like they did, in a very physical and tough environment?

“I’m just so proud.”