Hubert Davis Catch-all

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Mulberry Heel said:
Back in the 80s and 90s I loved both college basketball and football. I not only watched all UNC games but on weekends would watch non-UNC basketball games as I was able (especially ACC games on the old Jefferson-Pilot/Raycom network) and enjoyed them. In the 21st Century, with the advent of one-and-done and now easy transfer/paying players my interest just keeps waning. I still watch most UNC games (but not all anymore), but I rarely care to watch any non-UNC basketball games in any conference, including most non-UNC NCAA tourney games.

And mainly it's because, as others have already said, I miss the days of being able to watch players develop over the three or four years they stay at UNC. I still remember watching Warren Martin go from a bench warmer to a significant contributor and seeing that growth over time was one of the main pleasures of the college game. I just get the sense that more and more of it today is just hired guns playing for money and not the team or school, and for bench players they no longer stay in most cases but just transfer out. And I'm well aware that paying players and allowing people like Lubin or Cadeau a chance to shine somewhere else may be more fair, but watching teams of mostly mercenaries that you know will mostly be gone after one season just isn't the same. I know I'm an old fart and that bigs may be right that the college game is as popular as ever, but I don't really care to be honest. For me personally the emotional investment in the team and players just isn't what it was, although to be fair maybe that comes with age and some cynicism about how the world works. I do still hate dook and state with a passion, though. 😁
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Sounds like me. I loved seeing them beat dook, but the losses just don't feel as bad emotionally like they used to because therr really isn't any emotional investment in a team with a bunch of new players every year.
 
Bigs23 said:
Short answer: yes—but with real caveats. Hubert Davis is a good coach, just not universally viewed as elite (yet), especially by UNC standards.

Here’s the honest breakdown:

🟢 Why Hubert Davis is a good coach

1. Strong overall record
  • Career record around 120–50 (.700 win%)
  • That’s objectively very good, especially early in a career.
2. Historic early success
  • Took UNC to the 2022 national title game in his first season
  • One of the best first-year coaching runs in college basketball history
3. Proven ability to win big games
  • Beat Duke Blue Devils at Cameron in Coach K’s final home game
  • Beat Duke again in the Final Four (huge legacy moment)
4. ACC success
  • Won ACC regular season title (2024) and Coach of the Year
🔴 Why people question him

1. Inconsistency year-to-year
  • Seasons like: 29–10 → 20–13 → 29–8 → 23–14
  • That’s good… but uneven for a blue-blood program.
2. No national title (yet)
  • At UNC, the bar is Dean Smith / Roy Williams level
  • Getting close isn’t enough long-term.
3. Underperformance stretches
  • Some teams have:
    • Barely made the tournament
    • Been on the bubble
    • Looked disorganized at times (criticized in recent games)
4. Rivalry record scrutiny
  • Around .400 vs Duke as head coach
  • That matters a lot at UNC.
🧠 The real verdict
  • Floor: Clearly a good coach
  • Ceiling: Still trying to prove he’s elite
Think of him like this:
He’s shown flashes of being a great coach, but hasn’t sustained it long enough yet.

🏁 Bottom line
  • If you’re judging him like a normal program → definitely good
  • If you’re judging him by UNC standards → good, but still under pressure
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Fuck your AI evaluation. Sorry, the machines don’t get to choose.
 
Centerpiece said:
Any UNC fan who is also a maga Trumper
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I did when I worked construction. Please tell me that you've observed enough of what's going on to realize that there is still a large minority of outright racists in our society. Do you think that ,in a state that voted for Trump, there is not some element of the fan base that is extremely irritated by a black man coaching here?
 
finesse said:
I did when I worked construction. Please tell me that you've observed enough of what's going on to realize that there is still a large minority of outright racists in our society. Do you think that ,in a state that voted for Trump, there is not some element of the fan base that is extremely irritated by a black man coaching here?
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I think this response is perhaps directed towards wmheel1287?
 
Just like North Carolinians who didn’t like their president being black, those EXACT SAME folks don’t like their college basketball coach being black.

Anybody who doesn’t believe that is totally ignorant, willfully ignorant or just plain disingenuous.

I’m sure there were boatloads of State fans who struggled with their fandom when Sidney and Keats were coaching there.
 
One of the real black spots on he Hubert's resume is last year's season. I do wonder NOW how much better we would have been had zayden high played.
 
heel79 said:
One of the real black spots on he Hubert's resume is last year's season. I do wonder NOW how much better we would have been had zayden high played.
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I think Zayden is doing an admirable job with Caleb out but the chances that him playing would have materially changed last season are extremely low. He probably would have been our 4th big and not played very much.
 
rodoheel said:
I think Zayden is doing an admirable job with Caleb out but the chances that him playing would have materially changed last season are extremely low. He probably would have been our 4th big and not played very much.
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My eyes tell me something else. We were very weak in the post. He brings energy, rebounding, effort and some offense. But we will never known certainly us helping this team now.
 
Centerpiece said:
Just like North Carolinians who didn’t like their president being black, those EXACT SAME folks don’t like their college basketball coach being black.

Anybody who doesn’t believe that is totally ignorant, willfully ignorant or just plain disingenuous.

I’m sure there were boatloads of State fans who struggled with their fandom when Sidney and Keats were coaching there.
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I think it's important to acknowledge that (i) there almost certainly are some UNC fans that have been predisposed to dislike Hubert because of his race, and/or their perception that he got the job because of his race; and (ii) there is an entirely rational argument, having nothing to do with race, that Hubert's overall results as UNC's head coach simply have not been good enough to have confidence that he is the right guy to lead the program moving forward (and the next few weeks are going to be important in how strong or weak that argument looks at the end of the season).
 
rodoheel said:
I think it's important to acknowledge that (i) there almost certainly are some UNC fans that have been predisposed to dislike Hubert because of his race, and/or their perception that he got the job because of his race; and (ii) there is an entirely rational argument, having nothing to do with race, that Hubert's overall results as UNC's head coach simply have not been good enough to have confidence that he is the right guy to lead the program moving forward (and the next few weeks are going to be important in how strong or weak that argument looks at the end of the season).
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I don't think they're that many people focused on race... and those people aren't worth consideration anyway.

Realistic or not people from recent decades have seen a standard of success and consistency... and the roller coaster doesn't mean that. Many people also know that the longer you stay mediocre the harder it is to get back on top.
 
heel79 said:
My eyes tell me something else. We were very weak in the post. He brings energy, rebounding, effort and some offense. But we will never known certainly us helping this team now.
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As I said, I think he's doing admirably well when being pressed into service with Wilson out. I do think his energy is palpable and we have needed it at times. But there's a reason he has been playing only spot minutes prior to our frontcourt injury situation. He's far less efficient offensively than the top 3 guys in our 4/5 rotation were last year (Lubin, Washington. Withers) and while he brings defensive energy he also makes a lot of mistakes, and commits a lot of fouls, on that end. Even if you think he would have played more last year the chances that his production would have been a material upgrade over the guys who did play are just extremely low.

IMO the big takeaway is that I now would be fairly optimistic that he can be a reasonably effective third big in the rotation next season. Get an elite portal 5, and I would be pretty confident that a rotation at the 4/5 that includes the portal 5, Stevenson, High, and Maximo Adams will be an effective frontcourt.
 
thebruinbleedstarheelblue said:
I don't think they're that many people focused on race... and those people aren't worth consideration anyway.

Realistic or not people from recent decades have seen a standard of success and consistency... and the roller coaster doesn't mean that. Many people also know that the longer you stay mediocre the harder it is to get back on top.
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Is it that you have missed the leaning of people in power nation wide? Would that they weren't worthy of consideration but that's just not true in a practical sense. The argument isn't if there are large numbers that feel that way but, just like in politics, if there are enough to swing the decisions.

I don't agree with your feelings about change but I understand why you feel this way. I don't understand why you're willing to discount some of the motives in play.
 
That was a fantastic win last night. Once we got rolling, that was fun to watch. Our defensive intensity and offensive ball movement were at a high level.

We did get shaky down the stretch which is a bit worrisome as that has happened a few times. Still, great win.
 
finesse said:
Is it that you have missed the leaning of people in power nation wide? Would that they weren't worthy of consideration but that's just not true in a practical sense. The argument isn't if there are large numbers that feel that way but, just like in politics, if there are enough to swing the decisions.

I don't agree with your feelings about change but I understand why you feel this way. I don't understand why you're willing to discount some of the motives in play.
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My concern is that for some people, focusing on the motives of the Hubert critics serves as a convenient way to avoid engaging in the merits of whether we should be satisfied with his results as the head coach. In five seasons we've been seeded higher than 8th in the NCAAT just one time; best case scenario this season looks to be maybe a 5 seed. The run in 2022 was magical but it's no longer good enough to carry the tenure by itself. We need a really strong finish to this season and a deep NCAAT run, or I can tell you that my personal opinion will be that it's time to move on. It would suck to feel like it's giving a "win" to the people who've always been mad because they thought Hubert was an affirmative action hire, but we can't just keep him forever just to spite those people.
 
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