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Hubert Davis

My analysis:

1. Although all good people, we do not have a talented and competitive HC and coaching staff. Forget "family," we need talent. Families of top prospects want their sons to be coached up by a quality coaching staff in preparation for the NBA, and they quickly realize that UNC does not offer such a staff. Is there any school that is trying to lure our coaching staff to their program ??

2. Prospects and their families can sense a program in a sharp decline, and they will avoid such programs regardless regardless of NIL. Also, big donors can sense a program in a sharp decline and rightfully demand ROI, so they are less likely to write big checks for NIL.

3. "We" continue to believe that UNC Basketball is special, a blue blood program, despite the fact that only nostalgic fans believe that we currently are such a program. We offer the 5 star players like we are currently a 5 star program (we are not), and then, generally, strike out. I continue to be shocked that Ian and Drake were not flipped to a better program.

4. So we have a mediocre coaching staff that is presiding over a declining program, which is likely attracting mediocre NIL, which results in the mediocre team that we currently have, with only one player currently capable of jumping to the NBA in 2025.

Go Heels !
 
My analysis:

1. Although all good people, we do not have a talented and competitive HC and coaching staff. Forget "family," we need talent. Families of top prospects want their sons to be coached up by a quality coaching staff in preparation for the NBA, and they quickly realize that UNC does not offer such a staff. Is there any school that is trying to lure our coaching staff to their program ??

2. Prospects and their families can sense a program in a sharp decline, and they will avoid such programs regardless regardless of NIL. Also, big donors can sense a program in a sharp decline and rightfully demand ROI, so they are less likely to write big checks for NIL.

3. "We" continue to believe that UNC Basketball is special, a blue blood program, despite the fact that only nostalgic fans believe that we currently are such a program. We offer the 5 star players like we are currently a 5 star program (we are not), and then, generally, strike out. I continue to be shocked that Ian and Drake were not flipped to a better program.

4. So we have a mediocre coaching staff that is presiding over a declining program, which is likely attracting mediocre NIL, which results in the mediocre team that we currently have, with only one player currently capable of jumping to the NBA in 2025.

Go Heels !
Not sure the staff as a whole is mediocre. It has to start at the top. But I get your point.
 
Cincy has a billionaire booster. They are not out of NIL. Wes needs to win this year, he was 63 - 43 coming into this year with 4 no NCAA tournament bid years after 4 years on campus, not many "coached up" wins yet. The fan base has the torches ready in Cincy.

This is a bigger "hot seat" year for Wes than Hubert. If Hubert is let go, I do not think Wes would be on the short list as replacements.
Last I checked, Cincinnati was #16 in the AP with a record of 10-2.
 
Last I checked, Cincinnati was #16 in the AP with a record of 10-2.
I still dont want Wes Miller. We need a HOME RUN hire. We cant "hope" for good results, we need to KNOW the results are going to happen. If we hire inside the family, that leaves ZERO home runs hires. I guess at that point, Wes Miller would be the best option but last time I checked he wasnt recruiting 5 stars or putting players in the NBA either.
 
On the theory that you get what you pay for, I suggest we triple Hubert's salary and watch this team march to the championship.

I mean if we expect to beat the likes of Kansas, Auburn and Alabama, Hubert needs to be paid comparably to their coaches.
 
I still dont want Wes Miller. We need a HOME RUN hire. We cant "hope" for good results, we need to KNOW the results are going to happen. If we hire inside the family, that leaves ZERO home runs hires. I guess at that point, Wes Miller would be the best option but last time I checked he wasnt recruiting 5 stars or putting players in the NBA either.
I agree the only reason I thought Wes should have been the coach was if they insisted on hiring in the "family" then Wes was the guy, but we need to hire a coach to win not a coach we hope can win.
 
I still dont want Wes Miller. We need a HOME RUN hire. We cant "hope" for good results, we need to KNOW the results are going to happen. If we hire inside the family, that leaves ZERO home runs hires. I guess at that point, Wes Miller would be the best option but last time I checked he wasnt recruiting 5 stars or putting players in the NBA either.
I feel what your saying. I wasn't advocating for Wes Miller. I have my reservations about him but I could also be wrong. I don't believe Cincinnati is a destination for 5 stars. Could he recruit 5 stars at CH? Maybe.. maybe not. The next coach has to be an above and beyond X's and O's coach. I haven't watched Wes coach much so I'm not sure he's that. I'm okay going outside of the family for the right person who is proven and has a lot of potential and can recruit. Lately I have been wondering what Penny Hardaway could do at Carolina with more resources than Memphis and at a Blue Blood. Just wondering. Don't cut my throat... "gasp"..
 
Last I checked, Cincinnati was #16 in the AP with a record of 10-2.
Yes they are, will drop some after the recent loss though, their best win is Dayton, they did finally beat cross town rival Xavier as 2nd decent win, Xavier has been much the better team the past 5 years, which also does not play well with their fanbase. Their other loss is to a bad Villanova team.

They have high expectations with this roster, started off conference play with a loss @ Kansas State the other night. Big 12 is loaded. He/they better finish top 6 or 7 in conference, and finally get to the NCAA again where they were a mainstay. High stakes year for that staff.
 
Folks, this is not good, like Hubert, don't like Hubert doesn't matter, this is simply not good basketball. No matter what you may think of Hubert ( I am not talking about Hubert as a person, talking about him as head coach) his seat has been hot since the start of this season. Got a degree of reprieve playing top 5 teams close at the end but having to constantly come back from huge holes in first halves has had a lot of powerful people, let's say nicely "concerned". That seat was already hot because we did nothing in the portal to address our greatest area of need. Now that area of need is glowing like neon at night, glows brighter with every game we play and even the blind can feel the heat.

Simple fact, outside of last season, with Hubert as our head coach EVERY regular season has been really bad, even the first one that magically turned in to our playing in the natty game, we were very much about to miss the NCAAT until we beat duke twice. Even last season we played far to many ho-hum regular season games before going out in round 2.

Many seem to feel that Hubert will get next season to turn this around, last night may have dismissed that talk, the talk seems more appropriate to question if Hubert should even finish this season before stepping down, I am not a fan of in season coaching changes nor are the $$$ people. Mack's fate was clear after that JMU game, last night may well have been Hubert's JMU.

In a game where you look for development, meaning players getting better game by game, we see players actually regressing during the season. The question now becomes how can UNC make a big time splash hire to fix UNC basketball after making such a huge investment in UNC football? WE accepted poor results in football for many years, decades actually but we always had UNC basketball to give us joys. Do we now accept UNC basketball as a program lucky to even make the NCAAT, a program that has to fight non-power 4 programs for the cheap left over recruits?

I think it is clear, Hubert is just in over his head and this staff is just following the leader in to a ditch. This has now become the first season in way over half a century, closer to 3/4th of a century that I am ready for a UNC basketball season to be over. Calling the balls and strikes as I see them I honestly have no hope for this to get better under Hubert and the very sad part is there is talent enough to win on this team that is being held back by our coaching staff, not just such that rabid fans see that but recruits and their families see that. Don't agree, see our portal results for this season, see 2025 recruiting results, see our won/loss record.
 
Folks, this is not good, like Hubert, don't like Hubert doesn't matter, this is simply not good basketball. No matter what you may think of Hubert ( I am not talking about Hubert as a person, talking about him as head coach) his seat has been hot since the start of this season. Got a degree of reprieve playing top 5 teams close at the end but having to constantly come back from huge holes in first halves has had a lot of powerful people, let's say nicely "concerned". That seat was already hot because we did nothing in the portal to address our greatest area of need. Now that area of need is glowing like neon at night, glows brighter with every game we play and even the blind can feel the heat.

Simple fact, outside of last season, with Hubert as our head coach EVERY regular season has been really bad, even the first one that magically turned in to our playing in the natty game, we were very much about to miss the NCAAT until we beat duke twice. Even last season we played far to many ho-hum regular season games before going out in round 2.

Many seem to feel that Hubert will get next season to turn this around, last night may have dismissed that talk, the talk seems more appropriate to question if Hubert should even finish this season before stepping down, I am not a fan of in season coaching changes nor are the $$$ people. Mack's fate was clear after that JMU game, last night may well have been Hubert's JMU.

In a game where you look for development, meaning players getting better game by game, we see players actually regressing during the season. The question now becomes how can UNC make a big time splash hire to fix UNC basketball after making such a huge investment in UNC football? WE accepted poor results in football for many years, decades actually but we always had UNC basketball to give us joys. Do we now accept UNC basketball as a program lucky to even make the NCAAT, a program that has to fight non-power 4 programs for the cheap left over recruits?

I think it is clear, Hubert is just in over his head and this staff is just following the leader in to a ditch. This has now become the first season in way over half a century, closer to 3/4th of a century that I am ready for a UNC basketball season to be over. Calling the balls and strikes as I see them I honestly have no hope for this to get better under Hubert and the very sad part is there is talent enough to win on this team that is being held back by our coaching staff, not just such that rabid fans see that but recruits and their families see that. Don't agree, see our portal results for this season, see 2025 recruiting results, see our won/loss record.

spot on D. well said.
 
The next 7 games are all winnable. If we win 6 of them, AND if Hubert can use that string of successes to right the ship, he should be fine.

But the 4 games after that 7-game stretch will be brutal. Pitt-Duke-Pitt-Clemson - with all but the 2nd Pitt game on the road.

That Pitt-Duke-Pitt-Clemson set could very well decide Hubert's fate.
 
I would be fine with using the question of did this guy play for UNC as a tie breaker looking for a head coach but not as question #1. Let's face it, the talent pool for former UNC players is just not deep if you are looking to hire a head coach. There is no Roy Williams in the wings to bail us out, is there even a Matt Doherty, well maybe Wes is that but I would not be on the Wes bad wagon right now, I just have seen any indication that he is one of the best in the business at least for right now.

I have shared who I want, I want Kelvin Sampson. I would not ask Kelvin if he was interested, I would simply ask him how big the check has to be. No, Kelvin is not the long term solution but he has a good 8-10yrs left in the tank, time enough to allow this fubar of college sports in the day of NIL and transfer portals to settle down as well as time for other coaches to develop to the point they may in time became big time head coaches, a guy like Wes maybe. If I had to keep it in the family, I would call King, he may be able to handle it by now, I would go with him before I went with Wes, I think Wes just needs more seasoning and I am not sure either are the real answers UNC fans want. Stackhouse is a guy that could be interesting but he seems more a NBA guy and I would question if a NBA guy is really what we need.
 
I asked before would you consider Wes Miller at all if he had 0 connections to UNC. Wes Miller being connected to UNC doesn't guarantee him being a better option. But at least he has HC experience.

But whenever there's a coaching change, certain questions need to be asked. It seems like there are some important traditional UNC factors that go into every UNC team.

Fans want UNC to play fast. Wes Miller has never ranked in the top 100 in tempo. Not saying he wouldn't coach a fast tempo. He did his first years at UNC-G. But if playing fast is an absolute requirement, that probably eliminates a bunch of really good coaches from the coaching search.

So for me, there are 2 major questions.
1. Does the next coach (if it gets to that point) have to have direct ties to UNC?
2. Does the next coach need to carry some of the UNC style that we have been accustomed to seeing

How important are these traditions when getting the next head coach?
 
Why is it that every time an up and coming coach beats us we want to bring him to Carolina?
That’s not the case here at all. I’ve mentioned him as a great candidate prior to us playing them, and would still suggest him even if we’d have won.

I was reiterating because some on here probably got a chance to see him first hand for the first time.

But carry on…
 
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I have shared who I want, I want Kelvin Sampson. I would not ask Kelvin if he was interested, I would simply ask him how big the check has to be.
He's doing well, but why would he be interested? Maybe I'm wrong but I imagine the Houston job was always his dream.

That's the case for a lot of decent coaches. Unless money is their main objective AND we are willing to pony up - which is by no means clear - why would a top coach leave the job they now have?

If they have a great gig now and aren't disgruntled, why would they want to risk that? Whereas if they are disgruntled, do we want them to bring that with them in the hopes that they will become gruntled here?

We're not getting Mark Few to leave Gonzaga. We're not luring Brad Stevens from the NBA. I suspect Shaka Smart has found his forever home. Dusty May is in his first year at Michigan. I see no reason to think Nate Oats will leave Alabama. Just to mention some names that routinely come up.

In most cases, I'd guess those other coaches would simply use our offer to help them get a raise where they are.

While I like Wes, I agree he hasn't shown himself to be the answer. So let me ask again: Who's on the List?
 
That’s not the case here at all. I’ve mentioned him as a great candidate prior to us playing them, and would still suggest him even if we’d have won.

I was reiterating because some on here probably got a chance to see him first hand for the first time.

But carry on…
Kelsey is off to a good start at Louisville. Looking at his coaching record, he looks pretty good but not sure fire. And yet he took over at a dumpster fire and is turning it around. So far.

If he proves himself at Lvl, we're back to the "why would he leave" question. Why jump ship when you're already doing well at a storied basketball venue?
 
... at this point it will be a struggle for is to win 20 games.
Sadly, I have to agree. Here's the games we have left (with each team's KenPom ranking). The Heels are currently 33.

H: SMU (43), Cal (131), Stan (93), BC (166), Pitt (25), moo (85), UVA (102), Mia (114), dook (2)
A: ND (90), moo (85), WF (92), Pitt (25), dook (2), Clem (29), Syr (121), FSU (70), VT (152)

So if we only lose to the teams currently ranked higher than us, we are looking at 14-6 (21-11 overall). But I don't have any confidence whatsover that we'll beat everyone ranked lower than us. I'm thinking if (big if, HUGE IF) something doesn't miraculously 'click' for this team, then best case scenario is 12-8 in ACC; 19-13 overall. That will not get us in the dance with how weak the conference is. :(
 
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I wonder if Danny Green might be interested? No experience, but he's learned from some of the best.

A shame he doesn't have coaching experience under his belt already.

While I do think experience is important, all great coaches had to start somewhere. If we want a good example of how an inexperienced coach can pan out - so far, at least - Duke is the obvious place to look.
 
I predicted 12 more losses and last night was one of those 12 at this point it will be a struggle for is to win 20 games.
I was thinking about this earlier. A 20-game season doesn't mean what it used to mean. When you're winning 20 out of fewer than 30 games per season - like Dean did - then a 20 game season is a solid measure of quality. Now it just decent. Above .500, so not bad - but not necessarily worth crowing about.

On a related note, with the loss to Louisville, Hubert's W-L record has slipped below 70%. The only other UNC coach in living memory to fall below that mark was Doherty.
 
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I wonder if Danny Green might be interested? No experience, but he's learned from some of the best.

A shame he doesn't have coaching experience under his belt already.

While I do think experience is important, all great coaches had to start somewhere. If we want a good example of how an inexperienced coach can pan out - so far, at least - Duke is the obvious place to look.
Danny could be a huge asset on the bench.
 
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Was thinking last night, as I was sipping my bourbon and smoking my cigar... Could Roy return for two years? After watching the program this season and seeing the lack of a real roster next season... love the program too much to sit by idle? He could be really refreshed. May have learned more about NIL and the portal over the last couple years. Maybe he has a better coach in waiting this time. Maybe i had too much bourbon when I pondered of this.
 
I wonder if Danny Green might be interested? No experience, but he's learned from some of the best.

A shame he doesn't have coaching experience under his belt already.

While I do think experience is important, all great coaches had to start somewhere. If we want a good example of how an inexperienced coach can pan out - so far, at least - Duke is the obvious place to look.
IMO this staff already has enough coaches without college coaching experience prior to this (Sean May, Marcus Paige... Pat Sullivan was last on a college bench in 2001-03).

The staff didn't have to be former UNC players. Does it have to be now?
 
You can hire the love child of Dean Smith, Phil Jackson and John Wooden. If the NIL is not competitive, you are a bubble team. I HATE the new college basketball world.
 
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Folks, this is not good, like Hubert, don't like Hubert doesn't matter, this is simply not good basketball. No matter what you may think of Hubert ( I am not talking about Hubert as a person, talking about him as head coach) his seat has been hot since the start of this season. Got a degree of reprieve playing top 5 teams close at the end but having to constantly come back from huge holes in first halves has had a lot of powerful people, let's say nicely "concerned". That seat was already hot because we did nothing in the portal to address our greatest area of need. Now that area of need is glowing like neon at night, glows brighter with every game we play and even the blind can feel the heat.

Simple fact, outside of last season, with Hubert as our head coach EVERY regular season has been really bad, even the first one that magically turned in to our playing in the natty game, we were very much about to miss the NCAAT until we beat duke twice. Even last season we played far to many ho-hum regular season games before going out in round 2.

Many seem to feel that Hubert will get next season to turn this around, last night may have dismissed that talk, the talk seems more appropriate to question if Hubert should even finish this season before stepping down, I am not a fan of in season coaching changes nor are the $$$ people. Mack's fate was clear after that JMU game, last night may well have been Hubert's JMU.

In a game where you look for development, meaning players getting better game by game, we see players actually regressing during the season. The question now becomes how can UNC make a big time splash hire to fix UNC basketball after making such a huge investment in UNC football? WE accepted poor results in football for many years, decades actually but we always had UNC basketball to give us joys. Do we now accept UNC basketball as a program lucky to even make the NCAAT, a program that has to fight non-power 4 programs for the cheap left over recruits?

I think it is clear, Hubert is just in over his head and this staff is just following the leader in to a ditch. This has now become the first season in way over half a century, closer to 3/4th of a century that I am ready for a UNC basketball season to be over. Calling the balls and strikes as I see them I honestly have no hope for this to get better under Hubert and the very sad part is there is talent enough to win on this team that is being held back by our coaching staff, not just such that rabid fans see that but recruits and their families see that. Don't agree, see our portal results for this season, see 2025 recruiting results, see our won/loss record.
If they bring back Hubert, then it's evidence to me that they're not all that serious about winning.

I feel like I've been pretty level headed about Hubert, maybe even too nice. He got to a Final Four with a meh team and that's something Roy never did. So I gave him some benefit there. I thought Caleb Love was just a difficult player to coach and be dependent on so I maybe mistakingly gave him a pass for the disaster season following the Final Four. I thought honestly they maxed out in the regular season last year and it didn't surprise me at all they lost to Alabama. Hubert's going to have a disadvantage against most analytically driven coach IMO.

But at some point, you have to have a standard of excellence don't you?

I'm guessing Roy picked Hubert and groomed him to be his successor. It's a flop. Accept it and move on. The signs of great leadership are the ones that can make objective and unemotional decisions. I think it's relatively clear that there's a right and wrong decision here. The right one is unemotional. The wrong one gives a crap that Hubert is a UNC and a Roy guy. At least that's how I view it.
 
If they bring back Hubert, then it's evidence to me that they're not all that serious about winning.

I feel like I've been pretty level headed about Hubert, maybe even too nice. He got to a Final Four with a meh team and that's something Roy never did. So I gave him some benefit there. I thought Caleb Love was just a difficult player to coach and be dependent on so I maybe mistakingly gave him a pass for the disaster season following the Final Four. I thought honestly they maxed out in the regular season last year and it didn't surprise me at all they lost to Alabama. Hubert's going to have a disadvantage against most analytically driven coach IMO.

But at some point, you have to have a standard of excellence don't you?

I'm guessing Roy picked Hubert and groomed him to be his successor. It's a flop. Accept it and move on. The signs of great leadership are the ones that can make objective and unemotional decisions. I think it's relatively clear that there's a right and wrong decision here. The right one is unemotional. The wrong one gives a crap that Hubert is a UNC and a Roy guy. At least that's how I view it.

agreed. by no objective metric has it ever been “OK” for a basketball coach to average 10 plus loss seasons at UNC, and that is exactly what Hubert is giving us in 4 seasons. Not good.
 
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Honestly, if Hubert loves the program so much, the right thing to do (for all sides really) would be to step down at the end of the season.

It saves the university the awkwardness of firing a legacy and Roy’s choice. We can all admit Hubert is not a lifer as a coach like all of his peers. This would always be the only head job he ever has. It didn’t work… time for him to move on. Go back to ESPN… he’d be a huge upgrade over that dolt Jay Williams.

Do the right thing Coach.
 
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