Hubert Davis has a 3-point plan about NIL.
Speculation abounds over UNC’s sudden drop out of the polls from the No. 1 ranking, the fastest that has ever happened.
Some say it’s because Brady Manek is no longer around as the best stretch forward long-ball shooter in college hoops to open the lane up for Armando Bacot’s rebounding and drives from the guards.
Some say it is all the adulation the Heels received after having a torrid month of March that vaulted them from the wrong side of the NCAA bubble to the championship game loss to Kansas.
Some say it is the prospect of NIL money that is making it harder to keep their eyes on the ball in favor of marketing deals to profit from their Name-Image-Likeness attached to certain paying sponsors.
Davis has an interesting answer when asked about NIL, which he strongly favors because he believes athletes deserve a piece of the billion-dollar pie that college athletics has become.
He tells his players there are three boxes they have to check to put themselves in position to make money. And he knows this as fact, since he had a nice revenue stream while playing for the NBA’s New York Knicks.
Davis says they have to be performing on the biggest stage, which he did at Madison Square Garden in New York and his team does while wearing the argyle and blue of Carolina basketball.
No. 2, the better individuals are playing, the more money they can command from NIL sponsorships.
And No. 3, their team must do well to profit the most.
He said it worked for him in New York, while draining NBA 3-pointers and the Knicks were going to the playoffs every year.
When he was traded to the Raptors, he and the team were struggling on the court and Toronto is hardly NYC. He got no deals.
So far, the only box the Tar Heels have checked is that they are playing on the biggest stage, which continues Saturday in their ACC home opener against Georgia Tech in the Smith Center at 3:15.
Bacot is the only player to talk publicly about his NIL money. Caleb Love has a new deal, and other players have made smaller sums with local companies in Chapel Hill and the state.
But, according to their coach, the bigger bucks will come by checking those other two boxes.
Featured image via Associated Press/Chris Seward
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Thank you for finally chanting. You chant this time is somewhat better than your chant that the Tar Heels would beat Clemson by 3. The NIL is part and parcel of the Transfer portal issue. The best way to solve both issues is for any 18 year old athlete to sign a two year contract with the University before the freshman year. As a part of the contract, the student agrees that the University will manage all NIL contracts during the first two years, in order to screen out illicit offers. At the end of the second year, the student can sign a one year contract, or the student can enter the transfer portal. At the end of the third year, the student can sign a one year contract for the senior year, or enter the transfer portal.
On a slightly different topic on what ails the Tar Heels, it is very easy to understand the team’s dysfunction. We have one player who cannot shoot but only plays defense. We have another player who shoots all the time, but cannot make shots. In an earlier parlance, this player would be called “a ball hog.” So, in any game, the Heels start out playing 3 against 5. This is very much like what Dean liked to do as an experiment. One time, against Clemson, Clem’s son fouled out all of its players, and had to play with the remaining 4 players. Dean happily agreed to play 4 on 4 the rest of the game.
Happy Hubert’s idea of playing 3 on 5 will not work. Hubert needs to rotate 9 players into the game, with at lease 4 shooters at all times. It may be time to go back to Dean’s 2 post player setup.
Leaky Black is one of the best players on the team. His defense takes points away from the opposition. To suggest that we are playing “3 of 5” is simply a joke. Leaky could start for any college BB team in the country. To date, Leaky has shot 7 points per game to go with 6 rebounds, and is shooting at a 50% clip and 39% from three. So much for your “one player who cannot shoot”.