UNC secures first outright regular season title since 2017 with win over Duke

DURHAM — Hubert Davis and the No. 7 Tar Heels were ticked off.

Duke’s Jeremy Roach hit a 3-pointer to make it a one point game early in the second half. RJ Davis air-balled a three on the next play. With the No. 9 Blue Devils poised to retake control of the game, the message was clear in UNC’s next huddle: "Let’s turn this thing up.”

So the Tar Heels did. UNC ripped off a 9-1 run to eventually win, 84-79, and secure its first outright ACC regular season title since 2017. North Carolina trailed Duke for a combined 16 seconds this season after losing both unranked matchups last year.

If you ask Armando Bacot how the Tar Heels kept their composure, the answer's simple.

“Just a different team, man,” the graduate center said. “We don’t really get nervous. We may lose, but we’re not gonna be nervous in any situation. We just came in with that edge to us that we’ve had all year.”

Juxtapose that confidence to two years ago, when the Tar Heels spoiled Mike Krzyzewski’s final home game at Cameron Indoor Stadium. Even Bacot said they had no business winning. That team practically lived on the NCAA tournament bubble before its Cinderella run, whereas this year’s UNC has remained a projected top-2 seed for most of conference play.

Throughout the volatility, though, one thing has remained constant.

“I mean, Coach Davis hasn’t changed,” senior guard RJ Davis said. “Pretty sure you guys know that.”

Bacot was quick to point out a key difference about this year’s squad: Hubert Davis finally has a group of guys that is all his. The roster doesn’t contain any names that Davis didn’t recruit himself. And, maybe more importantly, they all play his style of basketball — intense and emotional.

“I think just in the offseason, the guys that he went after are guys that match his personality,” Bacot said.

Guys like graduate guard Cormac Ryan, who exploded for a career-high 31 points and let the Cameron Crazies know after every single one of his shots. Guys like junior forward Harrison Ingram, who hit the “too small” celebration after scoring within the first 17 seconds and wasn’t afraid to tangle with Duke’s Kyle Filipowski.

Are the two transfers’ fires perfectly synonymous with that of Davis’ or each other? Probably not. But maybe variety is a good thing in this case.

“I’m more of a laugh-y intensity,” Ingram said. “[Ryan’s] more of a serious ‘kill you’ intensity.”

Ryan and Ingram were the only two Tar Heels in double figures. Consider it a full circle moment, then, that Saturday was the first UNC win where neither RJ Davis nor Bacot reached double figures since Hubert Davis’ coaching debut in November 2021 against Loyola Maryland.

Back then, it was the same Hubert Davis with a different mantra: energy, effort and toughness. His latest nuggets? Instructing his players to focus on what is real.

What is real are the seven offseason departures that followed North Carolina’s historical disappointment in 2023. Aggressive roster retooling took place in the ensuing months. There was excitement, but there was also doubt.

UNC received just one of 51 votes to finish atop the ACC, third behind Duke and Miami.

But are media panelist votes real? No. They’re just outside noise to Hubert Davis. What is real, however, are those weekly required meetings Davis began implementing, with one rule: no basketball talk allowed. Hobbies, like Ingram’s 1200 blitz rating on Chess.com, drive the conversations.

What's real is passerby RJ Davis yelling Ryan’s name as the Notre Dame transfer tries to explain his supernova performance in postgame interviews. It’s rookie Elliot Cadeau bouncing up and down, in delight but also disbelief, after hitting a Marcus Paige-esque circus shot in the clutch.

And as of Saturday, it’s victory.

“We’re walking out of here with the W,” Ryan said. “And we’re walking out of here with the whole damn regular season title.”

@danielhwei

@dthsports | sports@dailytarheel.com