The Tar Heels were traveling out of the city — where they had watched former UNC star Cole Anthony and the Magic play the New York Knicks the previous night — to Gainesville for a scrimmage against Florida.
As a player — including at North Carolina under Dean Smith — he had earned a reputation as a cool-headed sharpshooter who’d never seemed rattled or nervous, and he had so far stayed that way in his coaching career.
“That’s the only time and the first time I was like, ‘Wow, this is different,'” Davis said.
A shaky 3-2 start, which included narrow wins over Brown and College of Charleston and consecutive losses to Purdue and Tennessee, has given way to genuine progress in Davis’ first year.
But Davis has been around Chapel Hill long enough to know that isn’t going to be enough long term.
“It takes time,” Davis said on Thursday during a media Zoom.
FORMER UNC HEAD coach Matt Doherty knows something about how Davis feels in his first season.
“I remember the day of my first game coaching at North Carolina, I felt like I couldn’t breathe all day,” Doherty said.
You got people calling and maybe some aren’t happy with playing time and how do you manage all that if you go on a losing streak? People wouldn’t be happy with their seats, their parking passes.
Davis does have an advantage over Doherty, however, having benefited from watching Williams handle the role, up close and personal, for the past nine years.
You don’t have to be Dean Smith or Roy Williams. You’re good enough to get it done.
It’s not uncommon to see a 6-foot-11 Dawson Garcia or a 6-9 Brady Manek on the 3-point line, borderline blasphemous for a school with a tradition of dominance in the paint.
“I like versatile bigs,” Davis said.
But the Tar Heels had to fight hard to come away with the 94-87 win over the Ivy League team.
“There has to be a competitive fire and nature to guard your guy and keep him out of the lane,” he said of being outscored 96-40 in the paint over those two games.
More recently, on Tuesday, the Tar Heels took Furman’s best shot for a half before flexing their defensive muscles in a 74-61 win over a quality Paladins team.
AT THE AGE of 16, Davis’ mother, Bobbie, died of oral cancer.
The grief nearly broke him, but he channeled his pain into sports and earned a chance to play at North Carolina and emulate his uncle, six-time NBA All-Star Walter Davis, who had also been a star for the Tar Heels in the 1970s.
“I was always told ‘No’ throughout my entire life, and when I’m told ‘No,’ or ‘You can’t,’ that adds another couple of logs to the fire,” Davis said.
Davis ended up playing 137 games with the Tar Heels, averaging 21.7 PPG as a senior during the 1991-92 season.
He had a longer career than all but nine of the 19 players who were selected before him in the draft.
He retired following the 2003-04 season and became an ESPN analyst before accepting an offer from Williams in 2012 to join North Carolina’s coaching staff.
The lighthearted vibe Davis has created in a team that added two freshmen and three key transfers, including Manek , has helped the Tar Heels build chemistry on and off the court.
“Once Coach Davis got the job, it was a no-brainer,” Love said, of his decision to remain at UNC.
Under Davis, every player on the roster must visit coaches’ offices three times per week and speak to every coach.
To Davis, Twitter is a distraction in a season where he and his players can’t afford them.
The pressure’s on, will stay on even with a win against the Wildcats on Saturday and will persist in Davis’ effort to join Frank McGuire, Smith and Williams as Tar Heels coaches who have won national titles.
The only thing I need to be concerned about is doing the best job that I can do.