North Carolina coach Hubert Davis has been spending the past couple of weeks preaching about the importance of details.
The Tar Heels will certainly need to be detail-oriented this week.
Having already played one of the toughest schedules in the nation, North Carolina now gets unbeaten and seventh-ranked Florida in Charlotte in the Jumpman Invitational on Tuesday night, followed by a trip to Madison Square Garden on Saturday to face No. 18 UCLA, which is riding an eight-game winning streak.
All of this after losing to eighth-ranked Kansas in Allen Fieldhouse, No. 2 Auburn and No. 20 Michigan State in Maui and No. 6 Alabama at home, and earning what has turned out to be a marquee victory over No. 21 Dayton.
“There’s a job and responsibility out there. There is no more, ‘My bad, I’ll get it the next possession.’ Every possession counts,” said Davis, whose team has won back-to-back games against Georgia Tech and La Salle.
"Let’s be detailed in our approach. And I told them, ‘What is detailed in our approach?’ I said, ‘Tying ourselves to the small things, the disciplined details that allow us to be successful.’ Setting screens, executing, getting to our spots, printing the offense, boxing out, making contact first, diving on loose balls, getting to the free throw line, talking on defense. All those things.”
The message seemed to have sunk in. The Tar Heels led La Salle 42-25 at halftime on their way to a 93-67 blowout Saturday.
Now comes two more opportunities — along with a game against Campbell — to pick up a couple of high-impact wins before the Tar Heels dive into the ACC schedule in earnest with a game against Louisville on New Year's Day.
“(Hubert Davis) has been saying, 'Play free. Play free. Play you. Be you," said Tar Heels guard Seth Trimble, their second-leading scorer, before adding: " Guys (are) just realizing that, kind of pushing that stress and what other people are saying to the side.”
Florida climbed two spots to No. 7 this week following its rout of Arizona State, the highest ranking for the Gators since they were No. 6 in the 2019 preseason poll. And they entered this week as one of five unbeatens left in men's Division I basketball — SEC rivals Tennessee and Oklahoma along with Drake and Utah State are the others.
It's only the third 10-0 start in program history following a 10-0 start in 1951-52 and a 17-0 start in 2005-06.
Not only are the Gators unbeaten, though, they are largely untested: Their closest win was 87-74 over Florida State on Nov. 15, and their average margin of victory is 21.1. But they should get a challenge from North Carolina this week, then they face fourth-ranked Kentucky and the top-ranked Vols the first week of January, when SEC play starts heating up.
Xavier took crosstown rival and No. 19 Cincinnati to the wire in a 68-65 loss Saturday, and now the Musketeers have two more games against highly ranked teams to open Big East play this week. First up is two-time defending national champ UConn, which jumped seven spots to No. 11 in the AP Top 25 on Monday, then comes a visit from No. 9 Marquette on Saturday.
The Musketeers' other losses have come against No. 24 Michigan and TCU.
It's a relatively quiet week in the Top 25 with many schools conducting final exams. But there's a primetime clash Wednesday night between No. 14 Oklahoma and the Wolverines, a juicy matchup Friday night when the Bearcats visit the Flyers, and a game Saturday between No. 21 Memphis and Mississippi State, which just fell out of the AP poll this week.
The NET rankings released by the NCAA, along with those released by KenPom and Bart Torvik, had Auburn at No. 1 while AP voters put Tennessee in the top spot for the second straight week. NET and KenPom both had the Vols at No. 2 while Bart Torvik had Houston — despite its 6-3 record — second with Duke third and Tennessee coming in fourth.
The NET had Pittsburgh at No. 12, while the Panthers were unranked in the AP poll. KenPom was high on St. John's at No. 16, another team unranked by AP, while Bart Torvik had Maryland at No. 17 and Texas Tech at No. 18.
Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 all season. Sign up here. AP college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-basketball-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-basketball
Florida forward Sam Alexis (4) celebrate his dunk during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game against Arizona State on Saturday, Dec. 14, 2024, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Kathryn Skeean)
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — A powerful magnitude 7.3 earthquake struck just off the coast of Vanuatu on Tuesday, causing widespread destruction in the South Pacific island nation as the injured began arriving at a hospital and unconfirmed reports of casualties emerged.
A tsunami warning was called off less than two hours after the quake. With communications still down hours later and official information scarce, witness accounts of casualties began to surface on social media and through patchy phone calls.
The earthquake happened at just before 1 p.m. at a depth of 57 kilometers (35 miles) and was centered 30 kilometers west of Port Vila, the largest city in Vanuatu — a group of 80 islands that is home to about 330,000 people. It was followed by a magnitude 5.5 aftershock near the same location, with tremors continuing throughout the afternoon and evening.
It was not immediately clear how much damage was caused as phone lines and government websites remained down. In the first official information published on social media, the Geohazards Department said its monitoring systems remained offline due to power outages.
Residents were urged to stay away from coastlines for at least 24 hours — and until tsunami and earthquake monitoring systems were operational once again. No confirmed reports of damage or casualties were provided, but accounts detailing widespread destruction filtered out on social media and in interviews.
Dan McGarry, a journalist based in Port Vila, told The Associated Press he heard of one death from a police officer outside Vila Central Hospital. McGarry saw three people on gurneys “in obvious distress,” he said.
Doctors were working “as fast as they could” at a triage center outside the emergency ward, he added. But the nation is not equipped for a mass casualty event, McGarry said.
Video shared by the Vanuatu Broadcasting and Television Corporation showed crowds outside the hospital. Phone numbers for the police, the hospital and other public agencies did not connect.
A video posted on social media appeared to show crumpled buildings in Port Vila, including one that had collapsed onto its lower floors and cars parked on the street below. Amanda Laithwaite said her husband was among a group of rescuers attempting to shift the roof of the three-story building because they believed people were trapped inside, but their progress was slow without specialist machinery.
Elsewhere, a building housing a number of diplomatic missions in Port Vila — including those of the United States, Britain, France and New Zealand — was significantly damaged, several of its tenants said. But there were no reports of embassy staff unaccounted for.
The U.S. Embassy's Facebook page said all staff were safe, but the building was closed until further notice. The office had only opened in July, as part of a wider push by the U.S. to expand its Pacific presence in order to counter China's burgeoning influence on governments in the region.
Australia's foreign ministry also said its workers were safe.
A video on social media showed the building with some damage to its structure, including buckled windows and debris that had crumbled from walls to the ground. Other photos and videos showed items and shelves that had tumbled to the floors of shops and landslides that appeared to block some roads.
“We haven’t heard at the moment about any casualties, but I will be shocked if we don’t hear that bad news coming through from Port Vila at some point,” Katie Greenwood, the Fiji-based head of the Asia-Pacific regional office for the Red Cross, told the Australian Broadcasting Corp.
McGarry said a “massive landslide” at the international shipping terminal was likely to impede the country's recovery. The airport's runway is also damaged, he said.
Port Vila's airport could not be contacted on Tuesday, but flight tracking sites suggested all flights were grounded. Some airlines in Australia and the Pacific said they had cancelled or paused flights scheduled for Wednesday and were awaiting news of the airport's status.
Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong told reporters that her country would provide whatever help was needed. New Zealand’s Foreign Minister Winston Peters said 45 New Zealanders were registered as being in Vanuatu and his government was “deeply concerned” about the situation there.
Vanuatu has been led by four prime ministers in four years and is due to go to the polls in January for a snap election. In November, Prime Minister Charlot Salwai asked President Nikenike Vurobaravu to dissolve Parliament so he did not have to face a no-confidence vote as his recent predecessors did.
But Vanuatu is accustomed to natural disasters, including havoc wrought by cyclones and volcanic eruptions. Its position on a subduction zone — where the Indo-Australia tectonic plate moves beneath the Pacific Plate — means earthquakes of greater than magnitude 6 are not uncommon and the country's buildings are intended to withstand quake damage.
—-
Associated Press writer Rod McGuirk in Melbourne, Australia, contributed to this report.
A building damaged in Port Vila, Vanuatu, following a powerful earthquake Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2024. (Tim Cutler via AP)
The inside of a building damaged is seen in Port Vila, Vanuatu, following a powerful earthquake Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2024. (Tim Cutler via AP)
The inside of a building damaged is seen in Port Vila, Vanuatu, following a powerful earthquake Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2024. (Tim Cutler via AP)
A building is seen damaged in Port Vila, Vanuatu following a powerful earthquake Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2024. (Tim Cutler via AP)
A building is seen damaged in Port Vila, Vanuatu, following a powerful earthquake Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2024. (Tim Cutler via AP)
This image made from a video shows a landslide near an international shipping terminal in Port Vila, Vanuatu following a powerful earthquake Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2024. (Dan McGarry via AP)
This image made from a video shows a landslide near an international shipping terminal in Port Vila, Vanuatu following a powerful earthquake Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2024. (Dan McGarry via AP)
