Hubert Davis is not only smart, he has savvy.
I am beginning to think that Carolina’s current basketball coach is a combination of his Hall of Fame predecessors Dean Smith and Roy Williams. Spiritual and coy who figures things out like Smith. Emotional with his kids in public, tough in private like Ol’ Roy.
One element that Davis has added to the Carolina basketball program is an adult fantasy camp that Smith and Williams didn’t do, even though Duke has held such a summer camp for 20 years or so.
Whether he or his staff came up with the idea, Hubert pulled it off this summer after his first season and all reports are that it was a raging success with 40 playing participants 35 and older.
UNC hired a private company from Cincinnati who runs these camps, and the model is for everyone associated with Tar Heel hoops to be involved – past, present and future. For example, former UNC coaches and the current staff were like the “front office” of each of the four fantasy teams.
The teams’ head coaches were Armando Bacot, Leaky Black, R.J. Davis and Caleb Love, plus two or three “assistants” from the rest of Carolina’s returning roster, including latest recruit Pete Nance.
They all get paid for “coaching” as part of their NIL rights, but the company running the camp provides the arm’s length so the money doesn’t come directly from the school, which would not be legal.
The camp has the potential to increase to 80 grown men who are still serious about playing organized basketball and often attend more than one camp a summer. They are the fantasy guys, and Chapel Hill is now a stop.
It also can become a “bucket list” item for young, competitive, athletic UNC alumni who get to say they played at the Smith Center and were coached by current Tar Heels. At $5,000 per camper now, it could turn into a half-million dollars of revenue added to the basketball budget.
From all sources, Carolina’s camp was run professionally and smoothly, since that is the private company’s job and expertise. Refs called all the games, and the players went home with gifts and swag bags.
Smith and Williams never did it because they were busy running their own summer camps for kids. While Hubert also had two weeks of his first camp, he got his current players involved as fantasy camp coaches.
R.J. Davis’ team won the championship, and R.J. received the designated bonus of some extra NIL cash.
Featured image via Todd Melet
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