Chansky's Notebook: Accountability

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Maybe Hubert Davis should sit down all five starters for the Clemson game.

Sure, star Armando Bacot and best-all-around player R.J. Davis do not deserve it, but if Hubert wants accountability for the TEAM then the top five may be better off watching the opening tip from the bench.

After the losses to Pitt and Duke, which granted were a play or two away from victories that might have changed the narrative, how the Tar Heels began their third straight loss at Wake Forest demands accountability from a group underperforming in a number of ways. Bacot was distressed after the game but unspecific about the problems.

Had they played their buns off and still lost to a very well-coached opponent, such accountability might not be on the table. But perhaps not getting the hosannas that come with all the digital dynamics and the downbeat of the drum line will send a message that Carolina Basketball is bigger than any one person. Hubert Davis certainly knows it’s bigger than the head coach. His mentors Dean Smith and Roy Williams would not hesitate to sit anyone if he wasn’t properly representing teams and former players over the last 60-plus years.

There is an old coaching maxim that goes like this: “The best way to get a message into a player’s head is through his butt. Put his butt on the bench until he is willing to compete the way he is supposed to.”

Davis played in a different era, and he is clearly struggling with all the “noise” in today’s college basketball. After an unusually long meeting with the team at Wake Forest, he listened pensively to each question at the press conference like he was thinking about how to answer it.

He said he wasn’t just talking to his players, he was talking to their friends, families, agents and phones. When you put on that uniform there is no escaping the attention that comes with wearing it. During the Duke-Miami game Monday night on ESPN, the banner along the bottom of the screen that said “North Carolina-Wake Forest Tuesday at 7 pm” never went away.

North Carolina is a brand built over decades, like Duke and Kentucky and Indiana and Kansas and UCLA. If your team is not playing up to expectations, there is nowhere to hide. You watched the game: were expectations being met against the Deacons? Careless passes, hurried shots and defenseless defense.

It’s always a 200-minute game, five players for 40 minutes each. Those who play should be those who have earned it. The starters can certainly come in at some point, but right now accountability is more important than winning.

Featured image via Inside Carolina/Jim Hawkins

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Chansky’s Notebook: Accountability

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