North Carolina hired UNC assistant coach Hubert Davis to replace Roy Williams as the school’s next male basketball coach, the school announced Monday afternoon. Davis, 50, was a Tar Heels guard star under Dean Smith from 1988 to 1992, before a long career as a player in the NBA. He has spent the past nine seasons as an assistant to Tar Heels.
Williams announced his retirement last week, after 18 seasons leading the program. UNC won three national titles under Williams’ direction, and Davis was on the bench for the most recent title in 2017. As a former Carolina player and current assistant, Davis was expected to be one of the top candidates for the position when Williams, 70 , got down.
UNC made three Sweet 16s and a Final Four during his playing career, and his connection to Smith and Williams makes him a certified member of the “Carolina family”.
Davis was heavily involved in recruiting, bench coaching and scouting during his time on the UNC team, after working for seven years in an analyst role at ESPN before joining the coaching post. As a six-foot guard, he was known for 3-point shots during his playing career and exploited that skill in an NBA career with the Knicks, Raptors, Mavericks, Wizards, Mavericks and Nets that lasted from 1992 to 2004 .
UNC Greensboro coach Wes Miller, who is also a former UNC player, should also receive consideration for the position. However, Tar Heels athletic director Bubba Cunningham said that keeping the job within the university’s “family” was not the only factor in trying to make a decision like this “.
But Cunningham also said he wanted the search to be “as fast as possible,” and scoring Davis to replace Williams would give a sense of continuity to a program that has a talented roster and is only four years away from a national title.