UNC leaders should have stood by Hubert Davis. Instead, they quit on him. | Opinion
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- UNC leaders quit on Hubert Davis after the early NCAA exit
- Administration and boosters panicked over optics and fundraising
- His record and historic role merited at least one more season
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UNC basketball coach search
UNC basketball coach Hubert Davis coached the Tar Heels for five seasons but was let go after they were defeated in the first round of the 2026 NCAA Tournament. On April 7, the university hired former NBA coach Michael Malone. Here’s ongoing coverage of North Carolina’s coaching transition.
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One of the injustices of life is that sometimes when a person is fired from their job, it’s assumed that it’s their fault.
It couldn’t be that the employer or manager mishandled the situation, that they misjudged an employee, or that they were unfair or incompetent.
That dynamic is on display at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where basketball coach Hubert Davis was fired on Tuesday. Supporters of the move are careful to praise Davis, 55, as a fine man, a great Tar Heel player and a devoted member of the Carolina family as an assistant to Hall of Fame Coach Roy Williams and as his handpicked successor.
But the consensus is that Davis deserved to be fired. He didn’t win enough, and he lost in the worst way — two recent early exits from the NCAA Tournament, including a second-half meltdown in the first round this year against Virginia Commonwealth University. By the way, two Hall of Fame coaches, Bill Self at Kansas and John Calipari at Arkansas, nearly lost to NCAA Tournament newcomers California Baptist University and High Point University.
That aside, Davis had an impressive record. He was 125-54 in his five years as coach, including a trip to the national championship game. Just two years ago, he was the Atlantic Coast Conference Coach of the Year.
This year, Davis had a legitimate excuse for his team’s stumbling finish. His star player, freshman Caleb Wilson, went out with a left-hand injury on Feb. 10 and then broke his right thumb in practice just as he was set to return. How good would the Duke team be if that had happened to Cameron Boozer?
It also matters that Davis was UNC’s first Black head basketball coach. After a half-century of the program rising often on the efforts of Black players — some of whom the News & Observer’s reporting showed didn’t even get an education in return — Davis’ historic standing deserved more grace and respect than he got.
This isn’t about Davis failing UNC. It’s about UNC failing Davis. His history with the university and his record as a coach were such that he deserved to be given at least another year. The administration’s support should have been announced immediately after UNC’s tournament loss. Instead, Davis was left to twist in the wind for days before he was, in his words, “let go.”
UNC’s chancellor, its athletic director and the team’s boosters quit on Davis. They panicked in response to fans’ grumbling and fears about raising money to pay players through NIL deals. They gave up what’s left of the Carolina Way and the bonds of the Carolina Family in the hope that a new big-name coach will arrive and instantly achieve greatness.
Somewhere, Mack Brown is saying, “Good luck with that.”
Associate opinion editor Ned Barnett can be reached at 919-404-7583, or nbarnett@newsobserver.com
This story was originally published March 25, 2026 at 8:25 AM.
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