Understandably, fourth-year UNC basketball head coach Hubert Davis did not sound like a happy camper following his squad’s second straight Maui Invitational loss. His No. 12-ranked Tar Heels (4-3, 0-0 ACC), ending their stay in the third-place game on Wednesday night less than 24 hours after falling to No. 4 Auburn, 85-72, suffered a 94-91 overtime defeat at the hands of the unranked Michigan State Spartans (6-2, 0-0 Big Ten) in the Lahaina Civic Center.

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The Spartans shot 54.1 percent from the field, tallied 50 points in the paint, and outrebounded the Tar Heels, 37-29.

As for Hubert Davis’ outlook on combating his group’s issues before the Tar Heels host No. 9 Alabama in the SEC/ACC Challenge at 7:15 p.m. ET Wednesday (ESPN), the 54-year-old offered the following thoughts to the media:

“I definitely think this gives time to be able to look and do a deep dive in terms of doing something — maybe tweak, a little pivot, alter, or maybe even change — because what we’re doing defensively is not sustainable, especially against the good teams.

“We’ve always struggled defensively in the first half. Second half, we’ve picked it up. Now, with the level of play that has increased, it’s made it even more difficult…

“We’ve got a game next week, and we’ve got a full week to really take a close look at some things that we’re gonna have to change — or maybe stay the course and work even harder to be able to put us in a position to do better consistently for longer periods of time on the defensive end.”

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