ESPN’s Pete Thamel shares latest on Hubert Davis’s future at North Carolina
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College basketball bluebloods often make NCAA tournament history. Those feats usually have to do with winning games, reaching Final Fours and hanging national championship banners. Recently, the history North Carolina has made has been the wrong kind. And that could lead to the Tar Heels’ program making a significant change.
According to ESPN’s Pete Thamel, North Carolina is considering moving on from head coach Hubert Davis. The conversations come after Davis’ team blew a 19-point lead in the first round of this year’s NCAA Tournament.
“The future of Hubert Davis at North Carolina, right now, is squarely in flux,” Thamel said. “The sides are expected to talk in the upcoming days… do not expect Davis to be fired outright. Any kind of departure would be synchronized… the options here are simple: keep Davis with significant changes… [or] bring in a whole new regime. The tenor at North Carolina, right now, is that there will be a new coaching staff there next season.”
The Tar Heels had never lost in the first round of consecutive NCAA Tournaments (since expansion in 1985) prior to 2025 and 2026. North Carolina’s 19-point lead against VCU, and its 16-point edge over Kansas in the 2022 national championship, are the largest blown leads in NCAA history in those respective rounds.
UNC’s head coaching gig is one of college basketball’s premier jobs. Anyone who’s anyone will be in the running for it, and the allure of Carolina Blue could pry even the most devoted of coaches away from their current program. If the position does open up, it will cause a massive chain reaction throughout the sport.
