CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — North Carolina coach Hubert Davis on Monday acknowledged “this is a huge week for us,” while calling on an architectural anecdote to help illustrate his messaging to his team, as the Tar Heels enter the final days of the regular season in ACC basketball.

“The higher the building goes up, the deeper the foundation that the building has to have,” Davis said on the league’s weekly videoconference call for coaches. “New York, with all the skyscrapers, as big as those buildings are, the foundation has to go deeper.

“And so for us, for us to continue to have success, what it actually has to require is we have to go deeper. We’ve got to go deeper into those little things. We’ve got to be better boxing out. We’ve got to be better taking care of the basketball. We’ve got to be better at shot selection. We’ve got to be better in talking in transition. And so I’ve actually communicated with them that this is a time to dive even deeper into those little fundamental discipline things to continue to try to improve.”

UNC (19-11 overall, 12-6 ACC) rides a season-long five-game winning streak into Tuesday night’s road assignment at Virginia Tech (13-16, 8-10). The Tar Heels are one win shy of posting 20 victories in a season for the 65th time, and the fourth in as many seasons under Davis.

Carolina’s rematch with No. 2 Duke awaits at the end of the week on Saturday night at the Smith Center, one last monumental opportunity to close a regular season that remains marked by a number of missed chances to secure significantly profitable results. Cooper Flagg and the Blue Devils are likely to arrive in Chapel Hill this weekend playing for the outright ACC regular-season title, just as the Tar Heels did last March at Duke’s Cameron Indoor Stadium.

Hubert Davis instructs the Tar Heels during Saturday’s rout of Miami. (Photo: Jim Hawkins / Inside Carolina)

UNC will finish anywhere from fourth place to seventh place in the conference standings this time around, depending on how things shake out across the ACC this week. The Tar Heels are tied for fourth with Wake Forest and SMU (both 12-6 in the league), but the Demon Deacons hold the tiebreaker there, having defeated UNC and SMU. Carolina beat SMU in January, so the Tar Heels have the head-to-head advantage against the Mustangs, if there’s a tie between those teams.

“I’m grateful, I’m confident, and I’m excited for what’s to come,” UNC guard Seth Trimble said Saturday, after the Tar Heels cruised past last-place Miami 92-73. “We have really good opportunities in these next few weeks. And as long as we stay together as a team, we stay playing for each other and we just enjoy each other and we enjoy the moment, I think it can take us a really long way.”

UNC’s winning streak includes recent road victories at Syracuse and Florida State. The Tar Heels are averaging 90.8 points over the last five games, the first time Carolina has scored 80 points or more in five straight ACC matchups since February 2018. And across the last four games, UNC has hauled in a plus-59 advantage on the boards, out-rebounding NC State, Virginia, Florida State and Miami by a combined margin of 148-89.

Altogether, UNC has won six of its last seven games. The Tar Heels have won four straight by double digits, while producing an average victory margin of 15 points per game during their five-game winning streak.

But there’s certainly much more needle-moving work that needs to be accomplished between now and March 16, Selection Sunday for the NCAA Tournament field. Carolina still has just two ACC victories against teams in the top half of the mediocre league (SMU and Georgia Tech). And since being blown out Feb. 10 at Clemson, the five opponents the Tar Heels have defeated have a combined conference record of just 26-64 in ACC play.

“You want your players individually to get better and to improve, and you want your team to improve,” Davis said Monday. “And I feel like we’re headed in that direction. But there’s a long way to go. This is a huge week for us, and Virginia Tech is a really good basketball team. It’s very difficult to play them anywhere, especially on their home floor.”