UNC basketball serious about having a ‘hunger and a thirst’ about it this season
In his first three years as head coach at North Carolina men’s basketball, Hubert Davis has ingratiated himself to many UNC fans and frustrated others at times.
Davis and the Tar Heels reached the NCAA Final Four his first year, ending Mike Krzyzewksi’s career at Duke after beating Coach K and the Blue Devils in his last game at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
The national preseason No. 1 pick the next year, the Heels didn’t get into the NCAA tournament. That was hugely disappointing for everyone associated with the program.
Last year was more a return to normalcy – at least from UNC’s perspective – as the Tar Heels won 17 of 20 ACC games to finish first in the regular season and was made a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament, albeit after losing to N.C. State in the ACC tournament championship game.
The lessons learned by Davis those three years?
“Probably the number one thing is that every year is different and every year has a different personality,” Davis said Thursday at the 2024 ACC Tipoff. “It doesn’t matter if you have a number of guys coming back or new transfers or freshmen. Each team has its own identity.
“You have a foundation piece of how you want to play and how the team is going to be like. But there’s also moments of being able to change, to tweak, to pivot, to alter, to fit the personality of what this team is going to be for the team to be successful.”
Last year, the UNC team personality was built, in part, around ageless big man Armando Bacot and the chattiness and energy of Harrison Ingram. R.J. Davis more quietly went about his job of scoring points while freshman guard Elliot Cadeau tried to quickly acclimate his game to the college game and the Heels’ way of playing the game.
The Tar Heels will have a different, if more traditional look, this season, the coach said.
“This is the way I like to have a team,” Davis said. “We have system guys like R.J., Seth (Trimble), Elliot, Jalen Washington and Jae’Lyn Withers, and then we’ve got three freshmen and we’ve got three transfers.
“You have a hunger and thirst that are coming in from a number of different directions. My preference, not that it’s bad, but for me my preference is not having a team full of transfers and a team full of freshmen. I love that diversity on a team and I think that really breeds success. That’s what we have this year and I’m really excited about it.”
The transfer portal and proliferation of NIL packages and contracts may have irrevocably altered college sports. While Davis said Tuesday he does not run a “transactional” program – “Carolina is Carolina,” he said – the coach must deal with the reality of players in the portal with agents seeking top dollar.
With high school players now able to work NIL deals before college, more will be wondering how lucrative those NIL packages can be once playing college ball. Once on college, they might be tempted to leave for even bigger packages.
R.J. Davis stayed. He could have left after last season and entered the NBA draft, calling it, “One of the hardest decisions I’ve ever had to make.”
One reason to stay: “Unfinished business,” he said.
“My overall goal coming to college was to win a national championship,” R.J. Davis said Thursday. “That’s still on the table for me. The main goal for me is obviously a ‘ship. But also to lead these young guys and take that leadership role.”
R.J. Davis, with a smile, said he also would embrace being the “old guy.” Bacot is gone. Davis is a graduate, and has senior status.
“It’s definitely weird, “ he said. “But that’s really my main goal, to make sure we’re aligned with what we want to do as a team … We’ve got a lot of younger, inexperienced guys, so I’m kind of taking them under my wing, showing them the Carolina way and letting them understand what’s at stake and that every game matters.”
Hubert Davis noted Thursday that UNC’s Tyler Hansbrough, named the 2008 ACC player of the year, was the last to return the next season. Now there’s Davis, the 2024 ACC player of the year
“In this age of NIL and the transfer portal to have somebody like R.J. who has been elite, on the court, off the court, in the classroom where he’s an academic All American, and to be able to stay at one institution for five years, that doesn’t happen,” Hubert Davis said.
“What he means to me and this program I can’t put into words.”
As for what his legacy could be at year’s end, R.J. Davis noted he could leave UNC as the all-time leading scorer, passing Hansbrough. He said this year’s UNC team could be the most athletic he has been on, that the pace will be fast and the points should come even as he is targeted by opposing defenses.
But there’s more, R.J. Davis said.
“Winning creates that legacy,” he said. “Obviously, if I break the (scoring) record there will be tears of joy. But it’s my fifth year, my last year. I want to go out there, have fun, just hoop like I know how to.”
That’s what Hubert Davis is hoping for in his fourth season as coach – R.J. Davis hooping like he knows how to hoop. That would be the foundation for another successful season, with a lot of possibilities.
This story was originally published October 10, 2024 at 3:00 PM.
