With the ACC tournament starting tonight, the staff at Tar Heel Blog did some reflecting on this season. Feel free to chime in with your own thoughts in the comments below. Part 2, a look ahead to the NCAA tournament, will post Sunday prior to the Selection Show.
What one thing about this team impressed you the most?
Al: The resiliency of this squad. It seems odd to say when they have so many bad losses (SMU, the California trip, NC State), but this squad did a great job of putting those bad moments behind them. As Ted Lasso would say, “Memory like a goldfish.”
Now, maybe that isn’t great considering they keep having these dry spells, but other teams have been sunk by poor games. It should come in handy.
Max: The response to Caleb Wilson’s injuries; the way the team played through him early in the season, I thought we were headed for big trouble when he went down.
Brandon G: Their resiliency. It always hasn’t been pretty, but they do fight every game and have done well to overcome the adversity that has been thrown their way
Thomas: Their resilience. It sounds cliche, but we’ve seen several UNC teams that seem to pack it in when things start going sideways for them. This team has several gutsy comebacks/close wins, and they’ve done it while often missing players.
Akil: Their poise in clutch situations, especially when facing a deficit. All season long, they were able to play their best basketball down the stretch and execute better than their opponents on both ends when it mattered, with the exception of the two games in California. From the comeback against Kentucky to Seth’s buzzer-beater against Duke and the wins against Louisville and Clemson, they willed themselves into being ahead at the horn — and that’s especially impressive for a team that shot free throws as poorly as this one did.
Brandon A: This feels like a lazy response, but it really has been Caleb Wilson. We’ve dealt with a number of years of UNC players that are NBA bound have been good but not great. Wilson has been perhaps the greatest freshman that I’ve gotten to witness firsthand in Carolina blue. His ability to dominate games on both sides of the ball was really fun to watch, but of course we almost certainly will not see him suit up for the Tar Heels again.
Matt B: Their resilience. It’s a quality that hasn’t always been there for Carolina in recent years, and it was on display in their wins over Kansas, Kentucky, and Duke (among others) as well as their relatively successful stretches without Seth Trimble and Caleb Wilson.
David: Grit’s been covered, so I’ll add team chemistry. With so many new incoming faces, I wondered whether all the personalities would fit and the staff could create a climate for that. Seems to have been very successful on that front, a tight-knit group.
Which player surprised you the most (good or bad)?
Al: Caleb Wilson is the easy answer, so I’ll go with Henri Veesaar. I didn’t expect him to be such a key addition both inside and out, his value really showed through when he missed the NC State game, as I wonder if they lose that one with him playing.
Max: Zayden High; he regularly still does things that surprise me (derogatory), but he has stepped up and played better than I expected in the aforementioned absence of Caleb Wilson.
Brandon G: Looking back at my predictions, the answer is Zayden High who I picked as most improved. I should not need to explain why this ended up being a surprise, though his play since Caleb got injured has definitely been an “improvement”
Thomas: I know this sounds crazy because of the hype he had coming in, but Caleb Wilson was somehow better than expected, at least for me. I thought he’d be good, but you can make an argument he’s the best freshman in UNC history (depending on how one measures that).
Akil: I knew Caleb Wilson was going to be good. I didn’t think he’d be the best freshman in UNC history. So many players like him, up to and at this level, get away with having middling or low feel and basketball IQ, so I thought he might have to work through a little of that, but I was laughably wrong. He’s both an unbelievable athlete and an unbelievable hooper, and that was the case basically from Day 1.
Brandon A: Henri Veesaar has been the biggest surprise. His lack of minutes at Arizona and the role that he played for that team really made it seem like he could’ve been a dud on arrival, but he far exceeded my expectations. Him and Wilson made for one of the most dangerous front court duos in college basketball, and while he will not have his running mate for the tournament, I’m hopeful that he will find ways to dominate on all three levels of the floor.
Matt B: Henri Veesaar. Given his unimpressive numbers at Arizona last year, I certainly wasn’t expecting him to be an All-ACC selection. And who would have thought he’d emerge as a legit threat from deep?
David: Jarin for me. At Alabama, the rep was that he played soft down low, which hurt his ability to be an inside/outside match up problem. He’s been fantastic on defense both down low and on the perimeter, and he’s become much more dangerous in the paint as a finisher and offensive rebounder.
What area do you think Coach Davis showed the most growth this season?
Al: Adaptability. Some of that has been by force due to injuries, but this year more than any other he’s been quick to sit someone if they are having a bad time. Look no further than the lead guard where he had Dixon get more minutes before the conference started, but he’ll play Evans when Dixon is just not showing it. That’s a big reason this squad has won more this year.
Max: I was impressed with the willingness to start Dixon instead of forcing Kyan Evans to remain the primary ball handler after it became apparent that he didn’t quite have it. The willingness to make a change seems like a step in the right direction.
Brandon G: I do think he has done well keeping the team together, and I do think his in game decision making has shown progress from previous seasons.
Thomas: Davis deserves a lot of credit for growing as a coach this year. He’s clearly been able to make some in game adjustments; the Heels were down big to really good Kansas and Duke teams before coming back and winning. And while a 5/6 seed isn’t the standard at UNC, it’s still pretty remarkable considering the amount of games the Heels have been missing one of their top three players.
Akil: He seems to understand his roster better than he has in the past. Every change to the starting lineup and to minutes distribution was timely and justifiable if not objectively correct, and he didn’t fall into the trap of blindly feeding the post just because his best players happened to be bigs and instead maximized them by giving them space to either be playmakers or work off the ball (making 4/5 PnR a key part of the offense with Wilson and Veesaar was awesome).
Brandon A: I’ll be honest: I can’t think of any area where he’s shown measurable growth, but I do not necessarily say that as a dig. This year is just a weird one because of how many new players came in, he had two future NBA players on the roster, and the size issue was fixed from last year. But as far as what he runs and everything like that, I haven’t noticed anything all that different from what he has been doing. I will say that despite adversity he has done a good job of keeping the team from cratering like they could have when the injuries started happening.
Matt B: Team building. You can debate how the credit should be split between Hubert and Jim Tanner, but this was the strongest roster he’s had in his tenure at Carolina. From a coaching standpoint, it’s not easy to mold a bunch of guys who haven’t played together into a cohesive unit. The fact that this group not only works well together on the court but appears to have harmony in the locker room is a testament to Hubert recruiting the right kind of players AND teammates.
David: Whether Davis modified his approach or found a set of players with better ears (or both), this team responded to coaching and changes better than prior rosters.
What area still gives you the most concern about Coach Davis moving forward?
Al: The fact that the team can continue to not be inspired to play some games (again, West Coast trip, State) while others. I get that eventually the players have to get it but it’s a consistent issue with him that they just look past some games and will completely shut it down
Max: I don’t understand why the team can’t hit free throws. It takes practice to get the muscle memory down to where they become near-automatic, and Coach Davis is a great shooter. It doesn’t seem like a point of emphasis, but it feels like it ought to be.
Brandon G: His interviews. Dude is approaching Bill Belichick level bad. We already have one grumpy old man, don’t need another.
Thomas: Can Davis push the Heels up from good back to elite? That seemed within the realm of possibilities this year, but it’s hard to say if UNC would have made that leap if they stayed healthy. UNC lost 3 of 4 at one point before the injuries snowballed; while elite teams will certainly drop the occasional road game, Standford and Cal will probably miss the tournament, and SMU is a bubble team. Those losses look a lot worse in hindsight, although UNC recovered from them nicely.
Akil: I’m still concerned about his defensive approach. Basically all of this team’s best defensive performances came with Seth Trimble out. We saw this with Leaky Black, too — when he had a genuinely great individual defender, the rest of the defense suffered. He appears to sacrifice team defense for one-on-one defense, and that’s just not how basketball works. Also, this defense was 343rd in the country in opponent turnover rate — it’s a trend for Davis, and one that doesn’t lend itself to winning basketball games.
Brandon A: The most concerning thing about Davis is the consistency issue. While I know that you (allegedly) can’t coach effort, there hasn’t been a consistently good team throughout his tenure so far, though the Cormac Ryan/Harrison Ingram team was the closest to it. One or two teams with consistency issues and you can chalk it up as a roster problem, more than that and it is hard to not view it as a coaching problem.
Matt B: In-game coaching. Hubert may be a great leader, but he hasn’t proven himself to be a consistently great strategist. Plus, Carolina has lost or nearly lost multiple double-digit leads this season against teams they should have put away decisively. At least part of that stems from him not making the right adjustments.
David: Davis clearly prefers a player-led team, and that remains the ideal. On the other hand, so much player movement makes that tougher to achieve. And honestly, even 4 year players like RJ and Seth never really became that galvanizing personality. I respect the intention there, but I wonder how this works season to season.
What observation about this season would you like to make that wasn’t addressed in the earlier questions?
Al: I think we are seeing what happens when you give a coach room to grow. Wilson ending up being hurt sucks but in other years when you have Trimble and Wilson miss a significant amount of time, they don’t make the NCAA Tournament.
Max: I would be remiss not to mention that Seth Trimble is still That Dude and the Heels beat Duke on his buzzer-beater in the Dean Dome. Everything else is gravy.
Brandon G: Though I may not be sold on Davis as a coach, and for the record I do think he deserves another season at least now, I do love watching him on the sidelines. Give me his jumping up and down like a crazy dad coaching soccer over Sweaty McGee in Durham any day of the week.
Thomas: I know everything is more fun when UNC wins, but this team is genuinely fun to watch and seems much closer than some of Davis’s other teams, which is kind of remarkable since most of the team is new to UNC.
Akil: I think what you think of this season ultimately comes down to whether you think the SMU/Cal/Stanford stretch was a blip or a symptom. I tend to fall in the latter camp. They did play better as the season went on, but those losses at the time didn’t come out of nowhere.
Brandon A: Kyan Evans was a bust. Davis and Jim Tanner will need to be more thoughtful in their choice of guards moving forward, because not everyone is built for his system, and Evans was clearly not built for it.
Matt B: I wrote this in another post, but I think this season will go down as an all-time “what could have been” year for this program. It’s a really hollow feeling knowing we won’t get to see Caleb Wilson in the NCAA Tournament.
David: UNC basketball this season took firm and irreversible steps away from romanticized notions of what the game should be and towards realistic acceptance of what the game is. I still don’t know if Davis is the long-term solution as head coach, but he’s probably the ideal person to lead the program through that painful acceptance.
Farewell, 2025-2026 regular season. Note: turn up your sound for the following video.
