It is the end of an era at the University of North Carolina (UNC) as legendary basketball coach Roy Williams retired from the program after 18 seasons.
Williams coached for a total of 33 seasons (15 at the University of Kansas) and won three national championships with the Tar Heels.
Four days after Williams retired, the Tar Heels announced Hubert Davis as the next head basketball coach; making him the first African American coach for a major revenue sport in program history.
Davis served as an assistant coach for the Tar Heels since 2012 and helped them reach two Final Four appearances. He also holds the record for the highest career three-point percentage at UNC(43.5%) where he played under coach Dean Smith from (1988-1992).
Coach Davis is the fourth coach in school history to be hired with no previous head coaching experience. Throughout many of the speculations on who could be the next coach, Davis was Williams’ first choice for his successor.
“I’m Hubert Davis and I’m a Tar Heel,” Davis said during his introduction to the team.“You can’t do this job if you’re not a Carolina guy it’s impossible.”
Davis exclaimed on how he plans on keeping the tradition the same at North Carolina and building his staff around alumni who already know the system.
“With my staff, I plan on merging the generations. Davis said. I want guys who were coached by both Smith and Wiliams because bringing all that history together is what makes Carolina, Carolina.”
Jack Hall is a junior Business and Economics student at the University of North Carolina and a huge fan of his school’s basketball team. I asked him about the hire of Davis and he believes the program is in good hands.
“Everyone in the Carolina Family knows coach Davis well, and he’s left a massive imprint on Carolina basketball over the years,” Hall said. “We’re in good hands, and we’ve been blessed with a line of hall-of-fame coaches that I’m sure Coach Davis will join in the ranks of. I think everyone in Chapel Hill is going to be quick to welcome Coach Davis!”
Davis has been getting a tremendous amount of support from the basketball world on this new journey he’s about to take.
North Carolina Central head basketball coach LeVelle Moton congratulated Davis via Twitter stating that he’s happy for Davis and he’ll do the school well.
Happy for my brother Hubert Davis. So many ppl don’t understand that UNC isn’t a Bball program, it’s a 5th generation family. Hubert is the connector bc he played for Coach Smith and coached with Roy.. He’ll do well
— LeVelle Moton (@LeVelleMoton) April 5, 2021
Over the years the Tar Heels have built a reputation on championships and wins. With Davis now leading the charge in this new era of basketball North Carolina looks to keep the winning tradition going for years to come.
