Why North Carolina baseball is calling on Roy Williams, Hubert Davis at dawn of NCAA regional

CHAPEL HILL — As his North Carolina baseball players delighted in karaoke-style antics during the victorious bus ride back from the ACC Tournament championship game, coach Scott Forbes went about responding to the messages pouring into his phone.

There was an abundance to appreciate and even some at which to marvel, including congratulations from the legendary Roy Williams, the former Tar Heels basketball coach and avid enthusiast of UNC sports across the board.

“It was just really, really cool,” Forbes said this week at Boshamer Stadium, recalling the celebratory scene on the bus. “I’m getting a text message from Coach Williams, and a voicemail. It still blows my mind. He’s a friend, but I don’t look at him as a friend. I look at him as Coach Williams, a Hall of Famer and a mentor.”

North Carolina (38-19) meets Hofstra (30-21) on Friday afternoon to open the Chapel Hill Regional in the NCAA Tournament, before Georgia (35-21) faces VCU (40-18) on Friday night.

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The Tar Heels are hosting an NCAA regional for the 11th time since 2006, but it’s their first at home under Forbes, the second-year coach who has become connected to something of an exclusive support system around UNC that extends beyond the baseball complex.

He talked to North Carolina women’s lacrosse coach Jenny Levy after her team completed an unbeaten season by claiming the NCAA championship on Sunday, the same day Forbes’ surging baseball team won the ACC Tournament by defeating rival N.C. State in Charlotte.

UNC football coach Mack Brown has checked in to commend Forbes on the ACC title delivered by the Tar Heels’ turnaround since late April, a remarkable run of 15 victories across the last 17 games that resembles the magical ride North Carolina achieved in men’s basketball under first-year coach Hubert Davis, whose team advanced to the Final Four and reached the brink of an NCAA championship.

Forbes regularly refers to Davis as a longtime friend, and he recognizes the rewarding parallel paths their teams have taken.

In basketball, the Tar Heels were teetering toward the wrong side of the NCAA Tournament bubble after a loss to lowly Pittsburgh in mid-February. They answered that uncertain moment with an 11-1 tear that unlocked the Final Four and national title game, while defeating rival Duke twice along the way in two epic showdowns.

In baseball, UNC was in danger of not qualifying for the ACC Tournament after falling in a three-game series sweep at Virginia six weeks ago, before finding the 15-2 streak — including three wins over N.C. State — that has secured the No. 10 overall seed in the NCAA’s 64-team field.

“Ever since, this group, you can see the belief, and you can tell that they’re not afraid to play anybody,” Forbes said this week. “They kept believing, because a lot of people didn’t keep believing.

“But we also talked about our basketball team. Coach Davis and I go way back, and he’s a good friend of mine. Just about ‘OK, when y’all were going through that tough stretch, what did you do?’ And he just kept saying, ‘I reminded the guys to keep their eyes forward, eliminate the distractions. Don’t get on social media, don’t listen to what all the naysayers are saying. What we are saying is what is most important.’ And you’ve got to give these guys credit, because that’s phenomenal leadership in our locker room to get where we are today.”

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Adam Smith is a sports reporter for the Burlington Times-News and USA TODAY Network. You can reach him by email at asmith@thetimesnews.com or @adam_smithTN on Twitter.

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This article originally appeared on Times-News: UNC baseball is calling on Roy Williams, Hubert Davis in NCAA regional