Hubert Davis and the North Carolina Tar Heels' NCAA tournament hopes were hit hard on Thursday night, after the team lost 68-59 to No. 13 Virginia in the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament quarterfinals.

Davis realizes that the chances of North Carolina being involved in March Madness is fading.

“It's not a great feeling,” the second-year head coach said after the game, according to ESPN. “Not the expectations that we had coming into the year. It was definitely frustrating and disappointing, but one thing I can say about this group is we fight to the end.”

UNC entered Thursday's game with an abysmal 1-8 record in the Quadrant 1 games “that top an NCAA tournament resume, with the lone win coming at home against the Cavaliers on Feb. 25 — and that one hovering on the line to fall into Quadrant 2 territory,” wrote ESPN.

The Tar Heels marched all the way to last year's national championship game, but it looks like a completely different team this March. UNC could be the first Associated Press No. 1 preseason team to miss the tournament since NC State in 1974-75, per ESPN.

“Our record is our record,” Davis explained. “And I know that, I think regardless of our record, I think we have shown throughout the entire year that we can compete and play and beat anybody in the country. But it's just, I know we played a really tough out-of-conference schedule, I know that the ACC for whatever reason is undervalued as one of the elite conferences in college basketball. But at the end of the day, we had chances and for eight or nine of the 13 losses we had, we were up in the second half. We had our chances.”

The Tar Heels were led by R.J. Davis, who scored 24 points but shot just 35.8 percent for the 20-13 program. The team made just 8-of-27 3-point attempts in the contest.

UNC big man Armando Bacot also sat out the final 10-plus minutes of the game due to an ankle injury sustained in Wednesday's second-round win against Boston College.

“I'm sad and disappointed for the players that we're in this position,” lamented North Carolina Tar Heels head coach Hubert Davis. “Just very sad for them.”