UNC got bounced from the NCAA tournament Friday 71-64 by Ole Miss. The Tar Heels finished the season 23-14. After 4 seasons, head coach Hubert Davis has a resume that just about any program and coach in the country would be proud of save a couple of places like blueblood schools like Duke or Kansas.
Since Davis arrived at UNC, he’s 101-45 (.692) overall and 56-24 (.700) in the ACC. There has been a Final 4 that had a national title appearance. There was another Sweet 16 appearance, and this year was his 3rd NCAA appearance in 4 years. He’s never won fewer than 20 games. If Davis is coaching at Missouri or Wake Forest, he’s getting a 7-year extension, but he’s at North Carolina.
North Carolina won 5 National Titles from 1982-2017 under Hall of Famers Dean Smith and Roy Williams. No school has more Final 4 appearance than UNC. To top it off, UNC’s arch-rival Duke under Jon Scheyer has arguably the best team in college basketball, just won the ACC and swept the Heels in all 3 games they played this year.
Hubert Davis is at a crossroads as head coach of UNC.
What he’s doing in Chapel Hill isn’t good enough for Tar Heel fans.
The roster this year was poorly constructed. It lacked quality and consistent interior play, and the team was too one-dimensional. If the Heels couldn’t get out in transition, they would struggle.
Here is what really concerns me. This team was still talented, and good enough to be a Sweet 16 caliber one, but the same thing kept happening all season long. Against quality teams, UNC would fall behind big, come back in the 2nd half even occasionally taking the lead, but inevitably lose.
In November/December it happened against Kansas, Michigan State, and Florida. In March it happened against a Duke team without Cooper Flagg. It happened Friday against Ole Miss.
If you’re still doing the same inept things in March that you were doing in November, then your team hasn’t grown or improved.
That’s a reflection of your head coach.
Why did UNC always start slow against good teams? They were clearly talented enough to compete with most of them.
Davis couldn’t figure out this aspect of his team after 5 months, and after underachieving for the 3rd straight year given pre-season expectations where does he go from here?
UNC legend Dean Smith, and Duke legend Mike Krzyzewski both had uneven starts to their careers and became better coaches.
That can still be Davis, but with each passing season where expectations are not met the questions around Davis will only grow.
Year 5 under Davis likely makes or breaks his future at UNC. He either becomes the next great UNC coach, or a modern-day Mike Davis. Remember him of the fluke title game appearance at Indiana? That was also early in his tenure there never to be heard from again.
