Hubert Davis is in his third season as head coach at his alma mater and his 12th season on the Tar Heel coaching staff.

Davis, 53 (turns 54 on May 17, 2024), led the Tar Heels to the 2022 NCAA East Regional championship, a win over Duke in a historic Final Four matchup and a berth in the national championship game in his first season as a head coach. The 1992 graduate of the University of North Carolina received two National Coach-of-the-Year awards as UNC won 17 of its last 21 games and came within a few possessions of securing the program’s seventh NCAA Tournament title.

Last season Davis joined Ben Carnevale and Bill Guthridge as the only Tar Heel head coaches to win 20 or more games in each of their first two seasons. He has compiled a 49-23 record in two seasons, including 26-14 in regular-season ACC play.

Davis was named the 20th head coach of the UNC men’s basketball program on April 5, 2021. He became the fourth former Tar Heel player to become UNC’s head coach and the first Black head coach in Carolina men’s basketball history. 

Davis played for Dean Smith at Carolina from 1988-92 and was an assistant coach on Roy Williams’ staff from 2012-21. He played a key role coaching, recruiting and scouting and was the head coach of the UNC junior varsity program for six seasons from 2013-19.

“I said (to Coach Davis) keep what’s good but don’t get stuck,” UNC Director of Athletics Bubba Cunningham told the media at the 2022 Final Four. “Change what needs to be changed to be modern and current. And I think that’s what Hubert brings — a current mentality to the historical tradition and success that we’ve had.”

Davis led the Tar Heels to a 29-10 record in his rookie season as head coach. UNC went 15-5 in the ACC to tie Notre Dame for second place, just a game out of first. The Tar Heels went 7-3 on the road in league play, including five straight victories at Clemson, Louisville, Virginia Tech, NC State and fourth-ranked Duke when UNC won 11 of 13 games to conclude the regular season.

The 29 wins were the second most by an individual in his first season as Carolina’s head coach and equaled the 10th most in NCAA history for a first-year head coach.

The Tar Heels closed the regular season scoring 55 second-half points in a 94-81 win at Duke in Mike Krzyzewski’s final game at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

UNC entered the 2022 NCAA Tournament as an eight seed but played some of its best basketball in winning the East Regional. The Tar Heels had 51 assists on 62 field goals and sank 24 three-pointers in the first- and second-round wins over Marquette and Baylor, when they crushed the Golden Eagles by 32 points and eliminated the defending NCAA champion Bears in overtime.

Carolina trailed UCLA with two minutes left in the Sweet 16 but went on an 8-0 run to beat the Bruins and overpowered Saint Peter’s, 69-49, in the regional final to send the Tar Heels to the Final Four for a record 21st time. 

“I want every player that played for Coach Smith, Coach Guthridge and Coach Williams, whether it’s in person, TV, highlights — I want them to be able to identify and go, ‘That’s the Carolina I went to,’” Davis said during the Final Four. “It’s really important for me that this program, with my own personality in my own shoes, looks exactly like the program that Coach Smith, Coach Guthridge and Coach Williams ran.”

Davis became just the second individual to play for and serve as head coach of the same school in Final Four history; the fourth to take his team to the national championship game in his first season as a head coach; the seventh to play in and be a head coach in the Final Four; and the 10th to lead his team to the Final Four in his first season as a head coach.

The Tar Heels defeated Duke, 81-77, in the national semifinals, the first time the two great rivals ever played in the NCAA Tournament. The game featured a dozen ties and 18 lead changes, 13 of which came in the second half. Over the final 15:42, the margin for either team exceeded a single possession for a little more than just one minute. Carolina would score nine different times in the second half either to break a tie or reverse the lead, including field goals or free throws by all five Tar Heel starters. 

“Hubert Davis may be the nicest person I know, and he’s the best father I’ve ever seen,” Jay Bilas said to the Washington Post in New Orleans. “He’s a perfect balance of cutthroat competitor and incredibly nice, thoughtful, empathetic person. He is an amazing person, and I’m not at all surprised knowing him that he is having this level of success this early.”

“I tell the parents, ‘I’m not your son’s parent, but every decision I make will be filtered through what is in the best interests for your son and what I think you would do for your son,’” says Davis. “So, the same way I care for my three children is the same way I care for the players. I just want things to work out for them. Being a father helps me relate to the players because that’s the way I coach.”

Davis led Carolina to wins in March and April over the No. 4 (twice), No. 9 and No. 11-ranked teams in the AP poll. He won the Big House Gaines Award (National Sports Media Association) and John McLendon Award (CollegeInsider.com) as National Coach of the Year. 

Each of Carolina’s starters made significant contributions to the team’s success in Davis’s first season as head coach.

Armando Bacot earned third-team All-America and first-team All-ACC honors, setting the single-season UNC record with 511 rebounds and tying David Robinson’s NCAA record with 31 double-doubles; Brady Manek was named the top transfer in the country, coming to UNC after four seasons at Oklahoma, led the ACC in three-point percentage and averaged more than 18 points in three games vs. Duke; RJ Davis and Caleb Love alternated at point and shooting guard – Davis had 12 assists in the NCAA first round and 30 points vs. Baylor in round two; Love scored 30 against UCLA then 28 in the Final Four win over Duke; and Black became a lockdown defender, earning ACC All-Defensive team honors.
 
“It shows how much he cares about us and cares about the game,” Love said during the NCAA Tournament. “We knew all along his passion, and we carried that with us. We feed off him and his energy. That’s why you see us playing so hard for him.”

“I just think Hubert is perfect for the job,” Williams told USA Today during the Final Four. “He’s the nicest person I’ve ever known but then he’s also fiercely competitive. When you put those two together, it’s a pretty good mix. It’s why I asked him to join our staff. But he hasn’t just had me as an influence. He had Coach (Dean) Smith, Don Nelson and Pat Riley from when he was a player. He’s got all of us, but then found a way to make it his. This run, he’s put his fingerprints on it. It’s his team. He’s put Hubert Davis’s stamp on North Carolina basketball. He’s been absolutely sensational.”

In nine seasons on the bench with Williams, the Tar Heels played in eight NCAA Tournaments, advanced to the Final Four and national championship games in 2016 and 2017 and won the NCAA title in 2017. The Tar Heels went 228-95, including 107-60 in Atlantic Coast Conference regular-season play, winning the regular-season ACC title in 2016, 2017 and 2019 and the ACC Tournament title in 2016.

Carolina earned three No. 1 seeds and a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament in those nine seasons. The four-year run from 2016-19 was the best four-year NCAA seed average in UNC basketball history. 

Davis helped coach 15 players who have played in the NBA, including 11 first-round draft picks – Cole Anthony, Tony Bradley, Reggie Bullock, P.J. Hairston, Justin Jackson, Brice Johnson, Cameron Johnson, Walker Kessler, Nassir Little, Day’Ron Sharpe and Coby White.

Brice Johnson and Jackson were consensus first-team All-America and first-team All-ACC selections; Jackson was the 2017 ACC Player of the Year and Cameron Johnson earned first-team All-ACC honors.

Jackson and Cameron Johnson rank one-two in UNC single-season history in three-pointers. Johnson transferred to UNC from Pittsburgh and blossomed into the 11th pick in the first round of the 2019 NBA Draft.
Davis also coached Marcus Paige, who earned second-team All-America and first-team All-ACC honors as a sophomore in 2014 and set the UNC career record with 299 three-pointers, and Joel Berry II, the 2017 Final Four Most Outstanding Player. 

Anthony set the ACC record for most points in a college debut and had the second-highest single-season scoring average by a Tar Heel freshman.

White set the UNC single-season record for most threes by a freshman and became the seventh pick in the first round of the 2019 NBA Draft.

Prior to beginning his coaching career, Davis worked for seven years with ESPN as an analyst and co-host of the College GameDay program. 

Born in Winston-Salem, N.C., Davis grew up in Burke, Va., where he attended Lake Braddock High School, the same high school UNC and US Soccer star Mia Hamm attended. Davis was a high school football teammate of future Olympic hurdles gold medalist Allen Johnson.

Davis played in 137 games as a Tar Heel from 1988-92, during which time UNC went 102-37, won the 1989 and 1991 ACC Tournaments and played in the 1991 Final Four. He scored 1,615 points, an average of 11.8 per game. He still holds the UNC record for career three-point percentage at .435 (197 of 453). He scored in double figures 80 times with 23 games scoring 20 or more points.

“In 1987-88, I went with Coach Smith into Hubert Davis’s home,” says Williams, who was an assistant at UNC when Davis was being recruited. “Coach Smith said, ‘I don’t know if you’re ever going to be able to play here, Hubert, and I don’t want to do this.’ I got in the car with Coach and I said, ‘Coach, I think he’ll play more than you think he will because I think he’s so competitive and so driven.’ Hubert told Coach Smith, ‘You’ll never know unless you give me a chance.’ Coach Smith a couple days later called him and said, ‘I listened to what you said and I’m going to offer you a scholarship to North Carolina.’ Hubert committed to Coach Smith right then.”

He scored in double figures in each of his last eight NCAA Tournament games, averaging 18.5 points in those games. That included 19 against Temple in the 1991 NCAA East Regional final and 25 against Kansas (coached by Williams) in the 1991 Final Four.

Davis averaged 21.4 points and earned second-team All-ACC honors as a senior. He scored in double figures in 32 of 33 games that season, including 20 games with 20 or more points and 30 or more in four games. He netted a career-high 35 points at Duke on March 8, 1992. That 35-point game was part of a seven-game stretch late in the season in which he averaged 28.7 points.

The New York Knicks selected Davis with the 20th pick in the first round of the 1992 NBA Draft. He played 12 seasons in the NBA, scoring 5,583 points, an average of 8.2 per contest. He made 728 three-point field goals and enters the 2023-24 season second in NBA history in career three-point percentage at .441.

Davis averaged double-figure scoring in four different seasons – a career-high 11.1 with Dallas in 1997-98 and with the Knicks in 1993-94 (11.0), 1994-95 (10.0) and 1995-96 (10.7).

He scored a career-high 32 points twice – as a second-year pro with the Knicks vs. Minnesota and in 2000 with Dallas against Seattle.

In 1993-94, he was fourth on the Knicks in scoring behind Patrick Ewing, John Starks and Charles Oakley as New York won 57 games and advanced to the NBA Finals, where they took Hakeem Olajuwon, Clyde Drexler and Kenny Smith to seven games (Doc Rivers and Greg Anthony were also Knicks that season).

He shot 40 percent or better from three-point range in eight seasons, including 1999-2000, when he led the NBA with a career-best 49.1 percent as a Maverick. 

Davis shot 80 percent or better from the free throw line nine times. He connected on 83.7 percent of his career free throw attempts.

Davis played for NBA head coaches Pat Riley, Don Nelson, Jim Cleamons, Leonard Hamilton, Doug Collins, Rick Carlisle and Larry Brown. His NBA teammates included Anthony, Chauncey Billups, Ewing, Michael Finley, Richard Hamilton, Michael Jordan, Jason Kidd, Steve Nash, Dirk Nowitzki and Rivers. 

“Hubert carved out a remarkable career in both longevity and achievement,” said ABC/ESPN analyst and former NBA head coach Jeff Van Gundy when Davis was named head coach. “He will go down as one of the GREAT shooters of his era and had an underrated pick and roll game. Hubert was what you want in a player...dependable, reliable, trustworthy and his work ethic were second to none. Hubert’s character, basketball acumen and love of UNC will drive him in his quest to continue the long and storied championship tradition that he helped create as a player and as an assistant coach. I have no doubt that Hubert will be the next in line of Hall of Fame coaches from Chapel Hill with an NCAA championship in the near future.”

Hubert’s uncle, Walter, starred at UNC from 1973-77 and was a six-time NBA All-Star. He was the NBA Rookie of the Year in 1978 with the Phoenix Suns, who retired his jersey number.

“I’ve never known a finer person in my entire life, who has a switch he turns on and can be as competitive as anybody around,” says Williams. “He loves this program and has the same passion I do, and he’ll be better than me.”

Davis graduated from UNC in 1992 with a degree in criminal justice. He and his wife, Leslie, have three children – Elijah, Gracie and Micah. Elijah plays on the basketball team at the University of Lynchburg, and Gracie is a freshman at Carolina in 2023-24.
 

WHAT COACHES, TV ANALYSTS, NBA EXECUTIVES SAY
“Hubie not only was one of the most accurate shooters in Mavs history, a 3-point wizard long before they were common, but he has a heart of gold who cares about his teammates, the organization and the community.
 “UNC players and the entire global UNC community will benefit greatly from Hubie’s wisdom.”
Dallas Mavericks Proprietor Mark Cuban
 
“Hubert is a natural leader and a first-class person. He has an incredible passion for the University of North Carolina and guiding young people.  Hubert’s ability to teach the game of basketball is illustrated by the success of the teams he has coached early in his career.  He is also an incredible communicator.  Those two aspects of his personality are a great formula for success.  That’s what he will be as the head coach of the Tar Heels.” 
Leonard Hamilton, Florida State Head Coach

“I had the honor to work alongside Hubert for many years at ESPN, and I simply don’t know a better person. Don’t let the smile and laugh fool you, Hubert is a cutthroat competitor with an uncommon understanding of the game. And he bleeds Carolina Blue. Hubert is the real deal.”
ESPN Analyst Jay Bilas
 
 “When you send your child to play for someone, you want to trust that what you see is what you get. That’s Hubert. He always knew that Hubert truly cared about him. Through his struggles, he saw who cared. And Hubert was the head of that, and that’s why we could not be more thrilled to be part of the Carolina Family.”
Cole might be 50 or 60 years old, and he will always be part of that Carolina Family. That’s something you can’t put a price on. They take tremendous pride in the Carolina world of being part of that family.”
Greg Anthony, NBA veteran, father of Cole Anthony 
 
“Happy for my brother Hubert Davis. So many people don’t understand that UNC isn’t a basketball program, it’s a Fifth-Generation family. Hubert is the connector because he played for Coach Smith and coached with Roy. He’ll do well.”
NC Central Head Coach LeVelle Moton
 
 “Having worked with Hubert Davis at ESPN, he has been so passionate over Carolina Basketball. He has great knowledge of the game plus he knows what it means to wear the Carolina Blue.”

“This is a super person. He is classy in every way, and he really bleeds the colors of Tar Heel blue. He has such a passion. …I talked to Roy Williams yesterday. He raved about Hubert. He raved about him. He didn’t have to rave to me, because I know. I’ve worked with him. He’s a super person as well.

“I tip the hat to North Carolina saying, ‘We’ve got a guy right here. He’s given his heart and soul to our university, heart and soul. He has earned the right to represent our school.’”
ESPN Analyst Dick Vitale
 
“Hubert Davis is as fine a person as I know. His integrity and character are beyond reproach. I’ve seen him coach and develop players both on and off the floor. He is truly a gifted coach, teacher of the game and mentor. Any parent would love to send their son to play for Hubert. He makes everyone he meets feel important because they are important to him. Humble. Genuine. Fiercely competitive. Puts others before himself. Loves North Carolina. He has the utmost respect and appreciation for all he learned from Roy Williams, and his NBA experience will be a huge benefit too. I can’t imagine a better choice. Hubert will crush it as the Tar Heels head coach.” 
ESPN College Gameday Host Rece Davis
 
 “It’s far more significant than just another hire. Duke has never had a Black head coach. Kansas has never had a Black head coach. Kentucky had one. UCLA hasn’t had a Black head coach since the 1980s. All those programs have had a whole lot of Black players. But I can count the Black head coaches on one hand. The Hubert Davis hire matters. It means something that he’s the first Black man to lead that North Carolina program…Hubert Davis is a great step forward.”
ESPN Commentator Stephen A. Smith
 
“What Hubert’s done with his first year, to get his team to do that is magnificent.”
   Former Duke Head Coach Mike Krzyzewski, April 2022
 

WHAT THE TAR HEELS SAY
“I appreciate what Coach Davis shows us through the examples that not just he sets, but all the coaches do. They’re all family men, they all are in their kids’ lives. They just take pride in being big brothers and fathers to us. And we really all appreciate that.”
Armando Bacot
 
“Coaching is his passion. Not very many people are as genuine as him. He really gives off a high spirit. He’s about his religion, his family, and all of that, and I am as well, and seeing how successful he is, I just want to follow in his footsteps.”
Leaky Black
 
“What makes him so good is his passion, he’s a real genuine guy. Coach Davis really looks out for his players, and he sees us as family. That goes a long way. I could go to him about anything. He pushes us and motivates us, because he knows we want to accomplish our goals and get to the next level. He’s going to do whatever it takes to help us get there.”
RJ Davis
 
“Coach Davis wants to be involved in your life; he reaches out, tries to understand every player for who they are and gets to know them and just helps us through any situation. As a coach, he pushes you hard every day, he brings the same energy every day. Throughout the year, when we were down or when we were winning, he was the same guy every day. We’re up 20, he’s yelling at us. We’re down 20, he’s yelling at us, but he’s not yelling at us in a bad manner. He’s yelling at us as encouragement and trying to get us to keep playing hard.”
Brady Manek