Former Tar Heel player, long-time assistant to Roy Williams. He’s never been a head coach at any level.
Sounds like the Heels went after several big fish, but got told no in every case. I think they were very interested in Jay Wright
I kind of wondered if that would happen. The trend right now in the high-profile programs is to promote from within, almost like a going-away command from the departing head coach who wields a lot of power.
North Carolina basketball reminds me a lot of the “Michigan man” in football. They want one of their own to always be leading the program.
I was seeing Hubert’s name mentioned very prominently from the beginning. I think they put a lot of weight on Roy’s recommendation.
What Jeff Goodman says about this
Not that Jeff Goodman knows everything, but he said on Twitter that they definitely gauged the interest of big names. Their own fans were really laughing at Indiana not being a true blue blood. Said their hire proved that. IU’s hire is more impressive on paper than hiring someone who has never been a head coach
Alabama finally decided to get away from the practice of hiring within their family when they hired Nick Saban. That seemed to work out well for them🙂
History indicates that it is hard to predict what will happen with assistant coaches. Kansas took a chance with a never been a head coach Roy Williams.
It really was the easy hire for the AD. If it does not work out he has the built in (but not said out loud) ability to blame Roy Williams.
That being said, Davis needs to win a lot of games soon and needs to get UNC back in the Sweet Sixteen-at least-in the next two years. If UNC goes without a Sweet Sixteen trip for three straight years the seat will get very warm.
Who knows how successful Davis will be at UNC? But, merely getting to the Sweet 16 is obviously not the standard of success there (although I understand and agree with your point).
With all that is in place at UNC, it seems as though you must almost make a concerted effort to NOT succeed there. My guess is, Davis will be successful if he recruits on the level of what has been the norm in Chapel Hill.
When Dean Smith retired, he made sure it was at such a time where they had no choice but to hire Bill Guthridge, his longtime top assistant. Guthridge got to two Final Fours in three years, then retired. They hired Matt Doherty, a UNC alum who was assisting Roy Williams at Kansas. He won 26, 8 and 19 games in his three years and they showed him the door – and hired Roy Williams.
Don’t want to be the guy who follows a legend
First thing Hubert needs to do is to get the players in the transfer portal back to UNC. Mike Woodson, the new coach at Indians already has two back and working on others.
Remember they hired one of their assistants when Dean Smith retired, and if I recall that didn’t work too well. They later hired Williams, who was of course from the Dean tree, but he did have HC experience!
Clearly I remembered things wrong (shocked, shocked I say) it was the next guy who didn’t do well. Until I read Swine’s post I was thinking Guthridge struggled. Clearly he didn’t.
Doherty had been head coach at Notre Dame for one year before UNC hired him so he wasn’t a total HC noob, unlike Hubert. Went to the final of the NIT in his one season in South Bend.
Coach Gut, as they call him in Chapel Hill, won 34, 24 and 22 games at UNC, and got to the FF in that last season as an 8 seed.
Just watched the Hubert Davis interview on College Gameday. Classy. Time will tell, but I predict he will do very well.
Living in Chapel Hill, I can tell you that it is hard to overestimate how much value the Heels place someone from the “family”. I am sure they made inquiries but I would have been shocked if they hired someone who didn’t play or coach at UNC.
Since Frank McGuire came in 1952, every UNC coach has had this connection. That is 70 years!
Huburt is a class act and will do well. They are totally set up to succeed in every way—great tradition, great facilities, a great college town, a great public university with a fairly large AA student body, and the magical Michael Jordan connection.
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