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Hubert Davis is out as the head basketball coach at North Carolina, according to multiple reports.
Davis’ exit ends a five-year run for the former North Carolina shooting guard as the head coach of his alma mater. Davis was a longtime assistant under Roy Williams and took over the program upon the coaching legend’s retirement following the 2021 season.
In his first season as head coach, Davis guided the Tar Heels to the 2022 Final Four and two of the most iconic wins in program history. North Carolina defeated rival Duke in head coach Mike Krzyzewski’s final home game at Cameron Indoor Stadium. It then beat Duke again in the first-ever meeting between the programs in the Final Four.
That run by an 8 seed before a loss to Kansas in the national championship game signaled a promising start for Davis in his first season as a head coach at any program. But each of North Carolina’s four subsequent seasons have ended in disappointment, most recently with Thursday’s first-round NCAA tournament loss to VCU.
The sixth-seeded Tar Heels held a 19-point second-half lead over No. 11 seed VCU, but faltered down the stretch and ultimately lost in overtime.
VCU’s win marked the sixth-largest comeback in NCAA tournament history and the largest-ever in the first round. The loss for North Carolina featured multiple player and game-management miscues down the stretch. It evoked memories of the 15-point halftime lead UNC surrendered in the championship-game loss to Kansas.
Prior to this season, North Carolina missed the tournament altogether in 2023 after starting the season ranked No. 1 in the country. It rebounded in 2023-24 to win the ACC regular season and earn a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament. But it suffered a loss to Alabama in the Sweet 16.
Now the Tar Heels have failed to advance out of the first round of the NCAA tournament in two consecutive seasons. And they’ve fallen behind Duke in the annual race for ACC supremacy.
For a program with six NCAA championships that expects to compete for a title every year, this is not the standard. And North Carolina has made the difficult decision to part with a beloved former player to seek a new head coach.
The question now in Chapel Hill becomes who will take over? North Carolina has prided itself in keeping the job in the UNC family and done so since the retirement of legendary coach Dean Smith in 1997.
Smith’s assistant Bill Guthridge succeeded him as head coach for a three-year stint before retiring in 2000. After initially failing to lure Williams from Kansas, North Carolina hired former player and then-Notre Dame head coach Matt Doherty to take over for Guthridge.
Following Doherty’s failed three-year stint, North Carolina did hire Williams, a UNC alumnus and former assistant and Smith disciple. Williams took over in 2003 and righted the program, winning three national championships and advancing to five Final Fours before handing the reins to Davis upon his retirement.
But UNC may be forced to take a different route in a 2026 landscape revamped by the transfer portal and NIL. Now that Davis is out, there will be pressure in Chapel Hill to extend its search beyond the North Carolina family to get the program back to national title contention.
Continue reading...
Davis’ exit ends a five-year run for the former North Carolina shooting guard as the head coach of his alma mater. Davis was a longtime assistant under Roy Williams and took over the program upon the coaching legend’s retirement following the 2021 season.
In his first season as head coach, Davis guided the Tar Heels to the 2022 Final Four and two of the most iconic wins in program history. North Carolina defeated rival Duke in head coach Mike Krzyzewski’s final home game at Cameron Indoor Stadium. It then beat Duke again in the first-ever meeting between the programs in the Final Four.
That run by an 8 seed before a loss to Kansas in the national championship game signaled a promising start for Davis in his first season as a head coach at any program. But each of North Carolina’s four subsequent seasons have ended in disappointment, most recently with Thursday’s first-round NCAA tournament loss to VCU.
UNC has failed to live up to high standards
The sixth-seeded Tar Heels held a 19-point second-half lead over No. 11 seed VCU, but faltered down the stretch and ultimately lost in overtime.
VCU’s win marked the sixth-largest comeback in NCAA tournament history and the largest-ever in the first round. The loss for North Carolina featured multiple player and game-management miscues down the stretch. It evoked memories of the 15-point halftime lead UNC surrendered in the championship-game loss to Kansas.
Prior to this season, North Carolina missed the tournament altogether in 2023 after starting the season ranked No. 1 in the country. It rebounded in 2023-24 to win the ACC regular season and earn a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament. But it suffered a loss to Alabama in the Sweet 16.
Now the Tar Heels have failed to advance out of the first round of the NCAA tournament in two consecutive seasons. And they’ve fallen behind Duke in the annual race for ACC supremacy.
For a program with six NCAA championships that expects to compete for a title every year, this is not the standard. And North Carolina has made the difficult decision to part with a beloved former player to seek a new head coach.
Who will replace Davis?
The question now in Chapel Hill becomes who will take over? North Carolina has prided itself in keeping the job in the UNC family and done so since the retirement of legendary coach Dean Smith in 1997.
Smith’s assistant Bill Guthridge succeeded him as head coach for a three-year stint before retiring in 2000. After initially failing to lure Williams from Kansas, North Carolina hired former player and then-Notre Dame head coach Matt Doherty to take over for Guthridge.
Following Doherty’s failed three-year stint, North Carolina did hire Williams, a UNC alumnus and former assistant and Smith disciple. Williams took over in 2003 and righted the program, winning three national championships and advancing to five Final Fours before handing the reins to Davis upon his retirement.
But UNC may be forced to take a different route in a 2026 landscape revamped by the transfer portal and NIL. Now that Davis is out, there will be pressure in Chapel Hill to extend its search beyond the North Carolina family to get the program back to national title contention.
Continue reading...
