© Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
UNC Basketball Program Has Renaissance Man in Hubert Davis
Hubert Davis has done a remarkable job of building on UNC basketball greatness while adapting to drastic changes in the game.
College hoops is changing. Everything from the money involved, to player recruiting, to the amateur status of the players themselves. Like it or not, fans and everyone involved with the sport need to embrace the change. Third-year UNC basketball head coach Hubert Davis, now 7-1 in March Madness action, certainly has.
The last few years have seen mainstays like Roy Williams, Mike Krzyzewski, and Jay Wright depart. The common sentiment seems to be that it’s too much burden on coaches to lead their teams while having to recruit year-round in what is currently a somewhat unpredictable climate.
The transfer portal has changed the landscape of college sports drastically. Perhaps no event is affected like the NCAA Tournament. Nowadays, coaches know they need battle-hardened veterans to cope with the intensity of the games, and many of those who picked up a seasoned talent from last year's transfer portal are seeing such moves pay off; as 247Sports' Travis Branham noted this week, seven of the top transfers from 2023 are still competing in the NCAA Tournament and gearing up for the Sweet 16.
One such transfer two years ago was sharpshooting Tar Heel forward Brady Manek. After four years at Oklahoma, he transferred to Chapel Hill, bringing with him a sweet jumper and a penchant for showing out against big opponents. Against Duke in the Final Four, his 14-point performance included a dagger from the corner.
Manek's emergence was the sign that Hubert Davis had embraced both the transfer portal and the 3-point revolution in basketball as a whole.
As recently as the 2017 national champions, the Tar Heels have successfully run a tall offense with two post players.
But in Davis' first three years at Carolina, he has trotted out the small-ball lineup with a 66 percent success rate. Former inbound graduate transfer Pete Nance was out of position last year, but the Heels seem to have figured out the four-spot with junior Harrison Ingram this year, as the transfer from Stanford is averaging 12.2 points and 8.8 rebounds per game while seemingly only growing in confidence.
And that's not to mention the 3-point weapon that UNC added via graduate transfer Cormac Ryan or the solid contributions that Davis has enjoyed from Jae'Lyn Withers and Paxson Wojcik in their first season as Tar Heels.
The shift in Carolina’s offensive approach, combined with a bevy of experienced transfers, has yielded 81.8 points a game this season and a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament. In other words, while the changes in the college game might be overwhelming to some, Davis appears to welcome them and effectively capitalize on them whenever he can.
UNC basketball will look to add to Hubert Davis’ legacy when they face No. 4 seed Alabama in a Sweet 16 matchup in Los Angeles at 9:39 p.m. ET Thursday.
Stay tuned to All Tar Heels on SI.com for more UNC basketball news.
