The noise around Hubert Davis isn’t going away, and it won’t until UNC makes a decision, but one of the most respected voices in basketball believes it should.
Hall of Fame coach Larry Brown came to Davis’ defense following North Carolina’s early tournament exit, saying that he believes there were many factors to this loss and Davis isn’t to blame.
“One, he’s a hell of a representative of our school, and everybody that knows him knows that,” Brown said, per Inside Carolina.
“Two, we went undefeated at home. We beat Kansas, we beat Duke, beat Ohio State on the road, beat Kentucky, beat Virginia on the road, lost our very best player [Caleb Wilson]. And if you saw our very best player on the bench, you’d know how much he cared about Carolina basketball, and that must have a lot to do with Hubert and his relationship.”
The season didn’t end the way anyone in Chapel Hill wanted, but Brown is pointing to what this team actually showed when it was healthy. Wins over some of those programs suggest that UNC was a very good team that caught the injury bug at the wrong time.
Fair? Yes, but blowing a lead was unacceptable.
If there’s one thing that Davis has on his side, and Brown brought up, it’s that UNC has an elite recruiting class next season.
“I believe Hubert Davis is the type of person and coach who should continue to lead our program,” Brown added. “We have a great recruiting class on the way, and many of the current players want to stay to play for Hubert. I call on the North Carolina administration to do the right thing and allow Hubert to continue serving as coach.”
In the portal era, that probably doesn’t mean as much, but it’s something to think about. UNC could technically go out and spend a ton of money on portal guys and put together a very good roster. However, losing five-star freshmen would be far from ideal after we saw what Wilson did this past season. There’s sadly a tough decision here for UNC to make.