Hubert Davis Hot Seat Heating Up?

The ground beneath Hubert Davis’s feet may have shifted in California last week.

Summarized by AI ⓘ

What is the story about?

Remember when Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski announced his retirement a year ahead of time? There were a lot of fans around the ACC who thought he wanted a farewell tour. That was always ridiculous. This isn’t the guy who called timeouts on the road in the ACC just so his players could see the other team’s fans leaving early. Savage! The odds of that guy caring what fans around the ACC think about his retirement were always pretty minimal.

Anyone who ever paid much attention to the man knew that he had thought

this through and that there was a plan.

Eventually, it would become known as The Transition. He spent a year partially training Jon Scheyer to take over and also giving him a head start on his first recruiting class, which worked out pretty well.

Since Scheyer took over, he has finished 27-9, 27-9, 35-4 and so far this season, 17-1.

He’s also made, sequentially, a Sweet 16, an Elite Eight and a Final Four.

He’s also put Dereck Lively, Dariq Whitehead, Jared McCain, Kyle Filipowski, Cooper Flagg, Kon Knueppel, Khaman Maluach, Tyrese Proctor and Sion James into the NBA Draft.

Currently, Scheyer is also 25-1 in his last 26 conference games (.961). If you want to go back to 2023-24, the Blue Devils are 40-6 (.860) since then.

Additionally, even Coach K has said that Scheyer might be better suited to the new environment than he might have been.

And while Duke fans have had brief stretches of concern, for the most part, we’ve been ecstatic about his success and that he has kept Duke standards high.

We mention all of this because of what UNC fans are experiencing now. To judge by social media and columns at UNC sites, Hubert Davis’s support is crumbling. We start with the always entertaining Carolina Meltdown, aka IC Meltdown, but as you’ll note below, even long-time UNC fan Art Chansky is concerned. Also weighing in lately: Tyler Hansbrough, Tyler Zeller and Jon Henson, all of whom have expressed concerns about Davis, UNC Basketball and the legacy they all care about.

Is there time to turn this around?

Yeah. Clearly, there is. However, Davis has been defensive in his pressers lately and that’s not a good sign. And for whatever reason, he’s not getting through to his team, at least on defense. We’re not saying he has lost them, but it doesn’t seem like he’s teaching them the things that Dean Smith and Roy Williams taught him.

Our working theory is that while Davis is personally charming – the man just killed it on ESPN before returning to Chapel Hill – he doesn’t have great people skills, and the lack of defensive discipline and Caleb Wilson’s rising frustration tend to support that.

When you add the basketball circus to Bill Belichick’s football circus, it’s a lot to overcome. Thing is, it’s not really AD Bubba Cunningham’s problem anymore. He’s stepping down/moving upstairs in a few months and his replacement, Steve Newmark, who takes full control this summer, will likely make any future personnel decisions (certainly he’ll be heavily consulted, at a minimum).

It’s too early to speculate about who the next coach might be, but this much seems clear: the family tree is just about dead. If Davis resigns or is pressured to step down, realistically that would be the end of the Dean Smith era at UNC. Bill Guthridge, Matt Doherty in his own bizarre fashion, Ol’ Roy Williams and Davis tried to carry it forward.

If it ends up going from 1960 to 2026…66 years was a heck of a run and the weight of Smith’s legacy will probably keep a lot of it in place. If it can survive Doherty, it can survive anything.

Here are a few other things we’re seeing.