Hubert Davis’ tweaks have UNC’s offense shining ahead of Final Four game with Duke
On a possession where they had to score, in a game they had to win, North Carolina head coach Hubert Davis called a play for Caleb Love that the sophomore guard had never run before.
Forward Armando Bacot said Davis has been so good on calling plays in halfcourt sets that he was confident it would work.
“It’s usually what we want for Kerwin (Walton), but Caleb been so hot,” Bacot said. “I mean, almost kind of forgot that play. For him to call that play at a big time moment like that and Caleb to hit that shot. I mean, it’s huge. And it just speaks on just how good of a coach Coach Davis has been all year.”
With the score tied against UCLA, Love came off a screen and nailed the 3-pointer that put the Tar Heels ahead for good in their NCAA tournament Sweet 16 win. Davis will need to continue to make the right calls offensively as the Heels take on Duke on Saturday in the Final Four.
Among the unknowns coming into the season about Davis was, after nine years as an assistant coach under Roy Williams, what Carolina would look like offensively. Davis made tweaks to personnel he wanted, most notably his desire to have a stretch-4 in the lineup. But he’s kept a common theme that goes back to legendary coach Dean Smith.
Davis gives his players a lot of freedom offensively, in the same vein that Smith and Williams allowed in the freelance offense.
“We do a lot of improv, just ball screens, ball screens, ball screens, because it’s something that we’ve been successful on,” Bacot said. “A lot of teams, on the road specifically, they don’t want to help off of me and I feel like in the tournament that’s been helping us a lot too... the guards to get in the lane and make layups or kick it out for jump shooters because (opponents) they’ve been kind of loading up in the paint. So that’s what we found our success a lot in the freelance.”
The tweak he’s made, Davis’ personal stamp on the offense, is using more ball screens than Williams ever did. But just like Williams, Davis doesn’t micromanage plays. He’d still rather have the Heels playing instinctively.
“I really love the decision making of our players,” Davis said. “I want them to be instinctive. I want them to use their gifts and talents out there on the floor and I don’t want them to be robots, I want them to be basketball players.”
Until it’s time for them to be soldiers. Davis tends to call plays in very specific situations, including when he needs to refocus the players on what makes them successful.
He learned most of that not from learning under Williams, nor playing for Dean Smith and various NBA coaches like Pat Riley, but, he said, during his time as Carolina’s junior varsity head coach. He said it was because that role put him in a position to make decisions — be it making practice plans, game substitutions, or play calls.
“Those things definitely translate and put me in a position to be familiar with things that I need to be thinking about as a head coach,” Davis said. “I really don’t know where I would be without that experience of, for seven years, being the JV coach.”
After Carolina jumped out to a 9-0 start against Saint Peter’s on Sunday, the offense stagnated for a four minute-stretch. Davis felt there wasn’t enough ball movement, and that they were settling for jump shots.
After Davis got them focused on attacking the basket and feeding the post, the Heels used another 9-0 spurt to increase their lead to 14, and the Peacocks were never within single digits the rest of the game.
“I tell them that I call plays, not for a play to be run, I call a play to put them in some form of organization to allow them to use their gifts and talents out there on the floor,” Davis said. “If I call a certain play and you want to break that play because the defense is playing you in such a way that you feel like it dictates you doing something else — I love that. I encourage that and I hope for that.”
Carolina’s currently No. 18 nationally in adjusted offense, according to Ken Pomeroy. The Heels finished at 52 and 77, respectively, the past two seasons. The biggest change Davis brought is an emphasis on shooting. UNC’s mark of 36.1 percent is the best they’ve shot the ball from the 3-point line since the 2018-19 season when Cameron Johnson and Coby White led the way.
Love said that’s a direct credit to Davis.
“His first year in and people talking about, he’s not the right guy for the job, because of the early season struggles that we had,” Love said. “I felt like he didn’t deserve it. And he’s been great all season with the adjustments he made and stuff like that. It’s crazy the plays that he pulls up and he’s creating stuff for us that opens up everything else.”
Assistant coach Sean May said a lot of the corner 3s Brady Manek gets are designed plays. The same with Bacot rolling in the middle.
“He’s very tactical in the game planning, and there’s a purpose for everything that we do,” May said. “We are playing a different style and a different brand of basketball, but it’s all under the same umbrella. It’s still the Carolina Way. And that’s the only thing that matters to us.”
This story was originally published March 29, 2022 at 4:37 PM.