Chansky's Notebook: Checking Boxes

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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Chansky’s Notebook: Checking Boxes

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