UNC's Hubert Davis defends decisions after latest early exit - ESPN

GREENVILLE, S.C. — In the final four minutes of regulation, as VCU chipped away at what had been a 19-point deficit to claw back to within reach of a suddenly sluggish North Carolina, Rams coach Phil Martelli Jr. told his team to keep the energy up, that the Tar Heels were tired.

It was obvious to VCU. On the UNC bench, however, it was apparently far less clear.

In a series of terse exchanges with reporters after VCU's 82-78 overtime win, North Carolina coach Hubert Davis said he didn't think his team was tired, appeared baffled by a question about what went wrong down the stretch, and when pointedly asked why he'd gone with a short six-man rotation in those waning minutes, offered a succinct response: «Because that was my decision.»

The frustration was obvious for the Tar Heels long before Davis hit the dais for his postgame news conference.

Henri Veesaar had chirped at VCU players throughout the game, pointing to the «North Carolina» lettering across his jersey in an apparent response to comments Rams players had made a day earlier suggesting they weren't intimidated by the Tar Heels' «brand.»

But VCU's Lazar Djokovic, the primary target of Veesaar's bluster, connected on back-to-back 3-pointers that kickstarted the Rams' comeback, and by the overtime period, there was little fight left in UNC's big man, who missed a pair of free throws and two jumpers amid the Heels' epic collapse.

«I'd been talking to the big fella the whole game,» Djokovic said. «It kind of got me mad. Hit those back-to-back 3s, and from then on we smelled the blood. We see the look in their faces, and from then on, we just went on a run.»

That run came against the backdrop of a miserable shooting performance by the Heels, who connected on just