If you poke around a bit online after UNC’s loss to VCU, you’ll find that among the fan base certainly, and possibly around the UNC athletic department if people can be believed, that Hubert Davis’s support has nearly evaporated.
We’ve only seen a couple of posts from people who still support Davis, and even those are lukewarm. Absolutely no one is saying we can’t afford to let Hubert go.
Some posters claim inside knowledge that a decision has been made and that he’ll be gone by Monday.
True? Who knows.
But if it is true, there are some big decisions ahead, and the first one is seismic: does UNC stay in the Dean Smith family or finally let go of the iconic UNC coach?
The family options are pretty limited. Wes Miller was on deck, or at least seemed to be, but he was canned at Cincinnati after a mediocre 5-year run, and he’s also said to be on the verge of taking the Charlotte job.
There are only other two other options we can think of.
King Rice has been an adequate but hardly dynamic coach at Monmouth, where his career record is just 239-243.
The other guy is a riskier hire. He’s currently a Davis assistant. No, not Brad Frederick. Not Jeff Lebo, Pat Sullivan, or Sean May.
The only guy who you could really make an argument for is Marcus Paige, and it would be a pretty hard sell.
Paige is highly regarded for his basketball IQ, his recruiting skills, and his general intelligence, and, unlike Davis in our opinion, his people skills. He’s worked well with the UNC guards, and a lot of people expect big things out of him – eventually.
We’ve always respected the guy. He was a tremendously smart guard and just comes across as an All-American sort of a guy.
That said, it would be an immensely high-risk/high-reward sort of hire, and promoting from within when you’ve just fired the head coach, when the new A.D. isn’t even officially on the job yet, just seems wildly unlikely.
Consider it a (deep) backup plan.
Others have overestimated the job’s modern appeal and suggested going after Todd Golden, Danny Hurley, Chris Beard, or Nate Oats. The truth is that in 2026, Golden and Hurley would be taking a step down and Oats and Beard are damaged goods.
You have to make those calls, but right now, Golden is chasing his second national title and Hurley is working on three in four seasons. What does UNC offer that they don’t already have? Dean Smith? Get real. They don’t need UNC; UNC needs them. It’s like Kentucky assuming every coach in the world wants that job, but honestly, why would you? Carolina is not nearly as suicidal a job, but it’s a rebuild, and the fans are not patient.
Of these four, only Hurley isn’t an insane option. Yes, he’s volatile and, by his own admission, has struggled with his mental health, but he’s a brilliant coach. You’d just have to tolerate his extremes.
That beats the other three by a country mile.
Golden won the national championship with Florida last season, but the bizarre allegations about his personal behavior were never really disproven.
Florida investigated the allegations as a Title IX case and closed it, saying that “…the University of Florida has found no evidence that Todd Golden violated Title IX. The Title IX office has closed its investigation.”
Nowhere in that statement does Florida insist that Golden never harassed women or sent them photos of the Golden Johnson, or any of the many other things of which was accused of by multiple women. If UNC pursues him, caveat emptor, Tar Heel buddies: Blue Heaven could become a happy hunting ground.
Beard was arrested for allegedly beating his fiancée, which cost him his job at Texas. He’s currently toiling away at Ole Miss, a distinct backwater in the basketball world, and that hire would not go over well with the UNC faculty, nor presumably many of the female students.
Finally, some people are saying, get Nate Oats, to which the only proper response is: are you freaking nuts?
Just look at what he’s put Alabama through in the last few years:
- Brandon Miller’s involvement in the 2023 capital murder case (the most prominent controversy):
The Miller situation is the most disgraceful: after an argument, Miller’s former teammate, Darius Miles, sent him to get a handgun, which he did. Then a young woman was murdered on the streets of Tuscaloosa. Oats’s instinct was to protect the program, and he tried to say that Miller “was in the wrong place at the wrong time,” which did not go over well with her family, or, really, anyone else. It was disgraceful.
- The Aden Holloway arrest
On the eve of this year’s tournament, Holloway was arrested for possessing 2.1 pounds of marijuana. Oats originally intended for him to play, but the university shot that down. On a side note, is this how Holloway invested his NIL money? Just asking!
- Physical altercation with opposing player
Last year, Oats shoved Missouri’s Aidan Shaw during a game. A coach shoving a player? Seriously?
- The Charles Bediako clown car
Many other coaches around the country were incensed that Bediako tried to re-enroll after departing for the NBA in 2023. He never made it, but played in the G-League, and then tried to sue his way back onto Alabama’s roster. So far, the courts have said no, most recently, the Alabama Supreme Court.
That’s really minor compared to murder, but that’s who UNC would be getting, and frankly, you’d think the Tar Heels would have had enough nonsense with the scandals of the last decade.
Ideally, they’d want to hire a guy who is proven, who is a solid citizen, and who would respect the school’s traditions. There’s at least one guy who fills the bill in each area, and it’s Vanderbilt’s Mark Byington.
He grew up in Salem, Virginia, and is well acquainted with the ACC. He worked for Bobby Cremins at Charleston for seven years, and was also an assistant at Virginia Tech.
As far as we know, there’s never been a hint of scandal associated with his name, and he’s been brilliant at James Madison and Vanderbilt.
He’d be a terrific hire for UNC.
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