Why these losses hurt twice as much
First thing: This has nothing to do with what direction UNC should or should not take with its basketball program or Hubert Davis. That conversation doesn’t interest me right now.
Second thing: This has nothing to do with what Davis should or should not have done with respect to staffing, recruiting, defensive tactics, offensive scheme, or game management. Those conversations don’t interest me right now.
My top five moments as a UNC basketball fan:
- The Shot: NCAA Finals 1982
- May’s Day: NCAA Finals 2005
- K’s Last Stand: NCAA Final Four 2022
- K’s Final Home Game: ACC Regular Season, 2022
- The Coronation: NCAA Finals 2009
In a program with a history as rich as ours, I’m sure many of you have a very different top five. I’m not going to explain why these five have such a hold on my memory. Please note that I heard my mother curse three times in her lifetime: twice during the Bloody Montross game and once during Tyler’s broken nose game. The joy in her voice on the phone after winning those last two games against K is something I’ll never forget.
For those two wins alone, I could be a Davis fan for life.
I love how Hubert became a Tar Heel.
Dean Smith and Roy Williams advised Davis to attend a mid-major out of high school and work on his game there. They had doubts about his athleticism and how that might limit his ability to contribute on a perennial title contender. During an in-home visit, Davis responded to those concerns: “You might be right that I can’t play at that level, but you won’t know for sure unless you give me a chance.” After a couple of days, Dean offered him a scholarship but warned him that he might not play.
Davis played a little and then a lot. His junior year, Davis, King Rice, George Lynch, and Rick Fox spearheaded UNC’s first trip back to a Final Four since the 1982 national championship. That eight-year drought, combined with the rise of Coach K’s career at Duke, had many UNC fans loudly chomping at the bit to move on from Dean Smith. Ending that drought helped lay the groundwork that would become UNC’s second national title under Smith. Davis, the guy who had to plead for a spot on UNC’s roster, left the program as a first-round NBA pick.
Davis played a huge role in righting the ship with that Final Four run. The year prior, UNC had finished the season unranked while Duke made its third straight run to the final weekend. The ’90-‘91 Final Four was a finger in the eye of a lot of hot take headlines and talk radio (yes, those existed back then) proclaiming Smith obsolete, UNC basketball irrelevant, and Duke the new king of the hill. Lynch was the more complete player. Fox lead the team in points and charisma. Rice, a player infamously booed on his home floor, was the redemption story. Chilcutt was the hard hat grinder down low. Davis?
Hubert Davis was the surprise, the missing piece and final ingredient whose .625 field goal percentage delivered timely buckets again and again. He wasn’t the best player on that team, but Davis was its second leading scorer and my favorite — the player who recruited Dean rather than being recruited to UNC and who made the most of it. For that alone, I could be a Davis fan for life.
I loved Hubert’s work on ESPN.
ESPN had not gone full Stephen A. Smith by the time Hubert got there, but things were definitely trending in that direction. Davis was entertaining and insightful, but he never played to the audience. He didn’t warp who he was to get attention; he never became an act. Being a media figure means a constant deluge of consultant advice to “be more this, be less that.” The name of the game had become “bright contrasts,” polarizing opinions that reduced everything to an either/or choice, everyone either a villain or hero. Davis refused to play that game, and he remained a compelling analyst by remaining true to himself. It was in my mind the embodiment of a UNC education.
I love how much Hubert loves UNC.
I’m a romantic about most things, I freely admit that. Davis met his wife at UNC. Got married in Chapel Hill. Moved back to Chapel Hill after he retired from the NBA. Raised his family in Chapel Hill. Davis makes me hesitate when I want to say, “I bleed Carolina Blue,” because Davis has made UNC and Chapel Hill a centerpiece in his life in a way none of us — certainly not me — could ever dream. I mean, some of us say it. Hubert lives it.
I hate the growing possibility this could be the end.
Losing stings. I am a college football fanatic in addition to a devoted UNC basketball fan. Watching Carolina football lose eight times this year hurt badly. However, with so many new faces on the team and with a bunch of overpaid, self-promoting personalities leading the effort, the pain was contained to the final result. It became something I could roll my eyes at and joke about.
I can’t do that here. Watching this basketball team struggle is excruciating. I realized, while listening to the California game, that it echoes the same emotions I felt watching my kids play high school sports. Intellectually, I know that’s ridiculous. Davis and I are the same age. He’s accomplished more in his life than I ever will, at least in the worlds of financial success and public recognition. But, being a sports fan means irrational highs and lows. This moment feels low to me in a way missing a NCAA tournament or losing to Duke doesn’t approach. This moment feels like a sucker punch from the Fates. I hate this feeling. I blame no one for it.
It’s only a game.
The world has much more important things to worry about than sports. That’s forever true. Romantics like me can latch onto small things that don’t last, that can’t last, and in that sense we’ve only ourselves to fault. UNC basketball was always going to have an existence past Davis, whether that ending comes sooner or later, whether it comes on Davis’s own terms or not. Davis will be fine. He’s as grounded as they come.
There’s time for this group to turn it around. “Us against all y’all” has proven an elixir for a lot of teams. I’m rooting like hell for that, but I’m also trying to be realistic. I know there are fans out there whose emotions relative to Davis are quite different than my own. All I ask is that when you run into romantics like me, people who see in Davis a chance for the things right about UNC and about college sports to triumph, have some compassion. We hate losing as much as you do. And in this case, we maybe hate it even more.
About that Final Four face off against Duke…
My wife and I watched most of that game on a plane, tickets we’d purchased a couple of months prior. We were a source of amusement to the flyers around us, to put it mildly. My wife and I were at UNC when Davis arrived on campus. His play brought us a lot of joy, and the progression of the teams he played on felt like a restoration. Watching Roy and Hubert coach teams to Final Fours and a title felt like destiny. Hubert Davis and his team ruining Coach K’s last home game felt like cosmic justice.
That Final Four game for us brought to a head our lifetimes of rooting for UNC and decades of hating Coach K. Everything on the table, do or die, Rebel Alliance vs. the Death Star. We watched Love’s shot go down standing in baggage claim, and we were so loud that a policeman idling in his cruiser came in to see what the fuss was about. For us, Hubert’s the throughline for our adult basketball fandom, the kid who begged for a spot on our campus and 30 years later delivered the ultimate triumph, with so many great moments between.
We’re rooting like hell for more. Go Heels.
Category: General Sports
