To reflect on the year, Chapelboro.com is re-publishing some of the top stories that impacted and defined our community’s experience in 2025. These stories and topics affected Chapel Hill, Carrboro and the rest of our region.
The 2024-25 season was not what UNC would call “up to its standard.” The Tar Heels struggled for much of the year, then snuck into the NCAA Tournament as the last of the 68 teams in. Many decried the selection as more to do with Carolina’s brand than with its substance. Though UNC won its play-in game, it lost in the first round to No. 6 seed Ole Miss. An offseason of change was on the way.
Monday, Feb. 3, 2025.
UNC had lost four of its last five games, with the most recent being an 87-70 thrashing at the hands of rival Duke in Cameron Indoor Stadium in front of a national TV audience — and despite the 17-point final margin, it wasn’t even that close. The Tar Heels were 13-10, and for the second time in three seasons had tumbled from a preseason Top 10 ranking to the NCAA Tournament bubble.
And now, Hubert Davis had a radio show to do.
As the head coach took the microphone at Top of the Hill on Franklin Street in downtown Chapel Hill, Davis told his downtrodden audience a hard truth.
“The old model for Carolina basketball just doesn’t work,” he said. “It’s not sustainable. It has to build out, because there’s so many things in play: NIL [name, image and likeness payments], the transfer portal, agents, international players. You just need a bigger staff to be able to maintain things, and you need a bigger staff so I can do what I’m supposed to be doing, and that’s coaching basketball.”
During the hour-long broadcast, Davis said the program had already taken steps to fix the problem. Chief among the fixes would be the hiring of a general manager. Though other programs around the country, namely Duke, had already appointed GMs in previous seasons, Carolina had not. UNC’s new GM would be the first to take on such a role in program history.
“It’s needed,” Davis said of the new job. “There’s just so much stuff out there… so much on the plate that will take you away from doing the most important thing: coaching basketball.”
The men’s basketball program was not just behind the times in comparison to its peers at other universities; it was lagging even when compared to other UNC teams. The football program had employed a general manager both under former head coach Mack Brown and new head coach Bill Belichick, and the women’s basketball program named former player Liz Roberts as its general manager prior to the 2023-24 season.
As it turned out, it would take less than a month for Davis to make a hire. Jim Tanner, a UNC alumnus and agent with dozens of NBA and WNBA clients, was named the program’s Executive Director and General Manager on Feb. 25. Tanner graduated from UNC in 1990 after attending on the prestigious Morehead-Cain Scholarship, then attended law school at the University of Chicago and studied under future U.S. President Barack Obama. Some of his professional basketball clients included Vince Carter, Ray Allen and Tim Duncan, as well as several notable UNC alumni such as Tyler Hansbrough, Luke Maye and Justin Jackson.
“His resumé speaks for itself,” Davis said of Tanner, “and his commitment to this university and community make him a great addition to the Carolina men’s basketball program.”
Once UNC’s 2024-25 season ended, with the 23-14 Tar Heels crashing out of the first round of the NCAA Tournament, Tanner’s work was cut out for him. Among the guaranteed departures was former ACC Player of the Year and first team All-American R.J. Davis, who set numerous program records during his five-year career in Chapel Hill. But other big names were expected to exit, and exit they did:
- Starting point guard Elliot Cadeau, a former five-star recruit who had reclassified (in essence, skipped a year of high school) to join the program ahead of the 2023-24 season
- Freshman shooting guard Ian Jackson, one of the highest-rated recruits ever to sign with the program
- Forward Jalen Washington, who began the 2024-25 season as a starter
- Wing Cade Tyson, who UNC plucked from the transfer portal but whose 2024-25 season was a disappointment
- Forward Ven-Allen Lubin, who had previously expressed interest in returning to UNC but who ultimately transferred – to NC State, of all places
With Davis, Cadeau, Lubin and forward Jae’Lyn Withers (who was out of college eligibility) all departing and freshman wing Drake Powell declaring for the NBA Draft, UNC would be losing all of its year-end starters from the previous season, as well as several reserves.
Tanner and Davis quickly got to work in the transfer portal. Soon, commitments to the Tar Heels came from all over the country – and even from foreign soil. Among the biggest names:
- Center Henri Veesaar from Arizona
- Guard Kyan Evans from Colorado State
- Forward Jarin Stevenson from Alabama – a Chapel Hill native
- Wing Jonathan Powell from West Virginia
In addition, Tanner and Davis secured the signing of a talented freshman class, one which included five-star forward Caleb Wilson from Atlanta and guard Derek Dixon from the Washington, D.C. area. And from across the sea came Luka Bogavac, a Montenegrin national who played professionally in Europe’s Adriatic League before coming to Chapel Hill.
With the bevy of new talent coming in and the mass exodus of last season’s players, the 2025-26 UNC roster would look radically different. Only four returning players – guard Seth Trimble, forwards James Brown and Zayden High and reserve John Holbrook – had scored points as Tar Heels. Of those four, only Trimble had started a game.
In total, 11 of UNC’s 16 players were new. Nevertheless, Hubert Davis was still bullish on his team.
“We spent a ton of time with each other on and off the court,” Davis said at the ACC Tipoff event in October. “I always tell the guys that in order to play for me, you have to know me and I have to know you, and the only way that we get to know each other is spend a lot of time together. I’m thankful that we’ve had that time in the summer and in the fall heading into the season, where we have a clear understanding of who we are on and off the court that allows us to be the best that we can be on the court.”
Even after the roster had been finalized, uncertainty still clouded the team’s outlook. Bogavac, who had previously been cleared to play for UNC by the NCAA, did not appear in either of the team’s preseason exhibition games as the university worked through reported issues with his transcript. But just as fan unrest was about to reach a fever pitch, Bogavac was cleared less than two hours before Carolina’s regular-season opener against Central Arkansas on Nov. 3.
Luka Bogavac made his UNC debut against Central Arkansas after being cleared to play that same evening. (Image via Todd Melet)
The open secret hanging over the entire offseason was that Hubert Davis, who would be entering his fifth season leading the Tar Heels in 2025-26, was coaching for his job. Should Carolina disappoint again, a regime change would likely be in order. It made encouraging early results like an 87-74 win against No. 19 Kansas, a 67-64 win at No. 18 Kentucky and an 81-61 win against Georgetown even that more cathartic for Carolina fans.
Two of UNC’s newcomers – the transfer Veesaar and the freshman Wilson – proved to be critical additions. The pair are the Tar Heels’ two leading scorers and rebounders, and against Georgetown they accomplished a feat seen only one previous time at UNC since 1958: each scoring at least 18 points and grabbing at least 15 rebounds in the same game. Those contributions were even more welcome with UNC facing a glaring absence: Trimble, who broke his left forearm in a freak weight room accident shortly after the Kansas game in November.
As it plans to turn the calendar from 2025 to 2026, Carolina is far from the NCAA Tournament bubble, where it resided for so much of last season. Tanner and Davis’s offseason of upheaval appears to have paid off so far.
But they can’t rest on their laurels. Because whenever the Tar Heels’ season ends, that process will start all over again.
Featured image via Todd Melet
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