Someone posted an article over the summer – no idea who or where at this point, sorry – and made an interesting argument: once you’re on the hot seat, it’s really hard to get off of it.
Take Tom Crean.
He was highly successful at Marquette before moving to Indiana. At IU, he had some really good seasons but still got some heat. In his next-to-last season, Crean won 27 games and got to the Sweet 16. In his final season, he finished 18-16 and was canned.
Which brings us to UNC’s Hubert Davis.
Our theory about Davis has been that he lacks people skills and like any position where people rely on you for leadership, that’s a must for coaches.
Last season, he had Cade Tyson, Elliot Cadeau, Ian Jackson, Ven-Allen Lubin and Jalen Washington. All of them transferred after the season ended. So how are they doing at their new schools?
Well, Cade Tyson is averaging 21.6 for the Gophers and playing 36.1 minutes a game. Cadeau is averaging 10.2 ppg, 5.1 apg and his three point shooting percentage is up sharply and #1 Michigan was undefeated until Saturday. Lubin is at NC State and averaging 12.7 ppg and 6.6 rebounds. Washington is at Vandy and averaging 10.1 ppg, 5.3 rebounds and his team, now 14-1, is having an historical season (former Tar Heel Tyler Nickel is a teammate and is also a key contributor). Ian Jackson is still having trouble finding a definitive role at St. John’s, but that doesn’t change the message: all of these guys are thriving in new situations. What changed?
Well they’re no longer playing for Davis. That’s what’s changed, and we didn’t even get into Caleb Love’s Tucson resurrection.
Which leads us to this year’s team.
We were going to talk about Luka Bogavac, whose minutes and production were all over the place after Seth Trimble came back from his injury.
But after the last three games, it’s less important.
In no time, UNC has gone from a team that looked like a potential juggernaut to one that, again, seems confused and uncertain.
In UNC’s last three games, the Tar Heels were punked by SMU, survived Wake Forest and lost at Stanford. Against SMU, UNC gave up 60% from the floor and allowed the Mustangs to hit 52% of their threes.
Against Wake Forest, the Heels were up by 15 with 11:01 to play. They won by three.
And against Stanford, Carolina was up 10 with 15:54 to play. Stanford shot 57% from threes and 57% from behind the line.
And also of note, SMU’s Boopie Miller had 27 points and 12 assists. Nate Calmese had 28 points and 9 assists (Juke Harris also scored 28 and the pair combined to hit 20-34/4-6). And against Stanford, brilliant freshman Ebuka Okorie lit it up for 36 points and 9 assists. The 36 set a school record for a freshman in a single-game.
Then there is a sense that freshman sensation Caleb Wilson is starting to get frustrated. His teammates lost track of him in the second half against Wake Forest and he only got two baskets in the second half. When asked why, he said he didn’t know.
Then after the loss to Stanford, Wilson said this: “[t]hey ran the same play pretty much every time down the court… they stuck to exactly what was working.”
Uh-oh.
When he was asked about Wilson’s comments and why he didn’t make adjustments, Davis got a bit…odd, saying this: “yeah I mean…I’m not gonna…again, that would be negligent on my part to answer a question…based on what somebody else said…you know…I don’t know how you asked it, I don’t know the context of which he answered it, I don’t know the tone…which he answered it and so…but Congratulations to Stanford.”
This did not go unnoticed amongst the faithful.
One of our favorite X accounts is Carolina Meltdown and they had a ball with this. If you don’t know, the guy who runs that just reposts stuff from Inside Carolina, and some of it is really amazing this time. We’re just going to list a few. There are more:
To us, the Stanford comments and Wilson’s increasing frustration underscore the thesis of this column: Davis has poor people skills.
He does check a lot of boxes. He played for Dean Smith. He coached with Roy Williams. He doesn’t curse and, as far as anyone knows, he’s not a drinker nor does he indulge in any of the vices we’ve seen from people like Bob Huggins, Chris Beard or Chris Jans or Mark Gottfried or, God help us all, Matt Doherty. It even looks like his kids go to class – at UNC! Can you imagine?
No one, not even the angriest UNC fan, would say that Davis is a bad man. The evidence we’ve seen suggests quite the opposite.
But does he have good people skills?
Look at the transfers mentioned above, who are thriving. Look at Wilson’s inability to understand why he didn’t get the ball in the second half of the Wake game. Look at the lost leads in two of the last three games and finally, look at how three straight point guards just lit UNC up. And don’t forget what Wake’s Harris did or, most of all, what Stanford’s Jeremy Dent-Smith did.
Dent-Smith transferred from D-II Cal State Dominguez Hills and so far this year, he’s averaged 7.3 ppg and shot 34.5% from behind the line.
Since December 20th and prior to the game against UNC, Dent-Smith shot 2-18 from behind the line. That’s 11%. Against UNC? He hit 6-7 of his threes – that’s 85% – and scored a season-high 20 points.
Who goes from 11% in three weeks to 85%? Basically, Dent-Smith punked the Heels.
As we suggested above, this is not a repeat of the Doherty horror show. What it does appear to be though is a man who is now 55 and doesn’t seem to reach his players. It would be foolish to expect that to change now.
Look at his UNC career so far. Yes, he got to the Final Four and championship game his first season, but people forget that that team was pretty erratic until quite late. We remember hearing one indignant fan yell “come on, Hubert!” Heard it over the whole gym, too.
In the following season, Davis finished 20-13 and UNC declined an NIT bid.
In 2023-24, his Tar Heels finished 29-8 but lost in the Sweet Sixteen and we saw a distinct decline from Armando Bacot who had had a terrific career up to that point.
And last year, UNC controversially squeaked into the tournament, winning their first First Four game in a tremendously impressive win over San Diego State, only to follow that up with a dreadful game against Ole Miss.
There has never been consistency under Davis, but at least this season, there is talent. So far however, in our opinion, the talent has not been coached well.
Davis is in his fifth season now and there’s nothing to suggest consistency is about to break out. The Hubert we see now is the Hubert that we’ll always see.
It’s good news for Duke in that it makes life at the top of the ACC easier, but for the ACC at large, it’s a terrible situation. It’s much better to have one our two tentpole teams be really good and right now, it’s hard to say that they are.
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