Art Chansky’s Sports Notebook is presented by The Casual Pint. YOUR place for delicious pub food paired with local beer. Choose among 35 rotating taps and 200+ beers in the cooler.
Pick your poison why Carolina is (likely) not going back to the Big Dance.
Unless the NCAA tournament bubble explodes due to global warming, the Tar Heels took their last gasp at trying to reach a second straight Final Four with the ACC Tournament quarterfinal loss to Virginia Thursday night.
You may not find these choices on social media, which is ready to fire the UNC coach after the subpar 2022-23 season failed to meet almost every expectation. But let’s give you four more reasonable opinions.
Tony Bennett is in his 17th season as a college head coach, the last 14 in Charlottesville, where he has turned the program into a national power that rivals the Ralph Sampson era 40 years ago. By comparison, Hubert Davis is in his second year in the same job and the difference shows.
Or Virginia twice beat a more talented Tar Heel team with Armando Bacot playing sparingly in both defeats due to sprained ankles. In what may be Bacot’s last season of college basketball, his last two last chances to win the national championship ended with him hobbling around the court.
Or, for goodness sake, admit last year was lightning in a bottle after four months of being slightly better than the first four of this season, where the larger sample sizes are of teams perpetually on the bubble. And Roy Williams’ last two teams had a combined losing record and included his first NCAA first-round ouster ever.
Or the “noise” Davis talked about since last summer was a serious sign of distraction in everything from trying to replace a Brady Manek with a Pete Nance to none of the subs getting enough playing time to help out in the crunch of important “one or two possession” games late in the season.
So pick your poison, but forget firing a coach who everyone knew lacked head-chair experience to match his love and devotion to his alma mater.
Bennett comes from coaching royalty and his mastery of recruiting players to fit his style and their detailed execution of his system was self-evident in how they outfoxed UNC in Greensboro.
The one time Bacot was healthy for the Cavaliers, Carolina won rather easily and might have done it twice more with Mondo on two good legs.
If you think last year’s run to the title game was more than just a hot month, review how the Heels shocked ranked Duke twice, Baylor and UCLA and luckily avoided a Purdue team that had beaten them earlier in the season.
The “noise” is far more about what college athletics is today than who’s talking and who’s listening. Assuredly, Davis will try to rebuild his program with all carefully selected freshmen and transfers.
And if he can’t replicate a standard that mentors Smith and Williams set, UNC won’t have to fire him.
Featured image via Todd Melet
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I wonder if the two players who received player of the year votes ahead of Amondo would have if they were double and triple teamed everytime THEY got the ball? Plus why ding Amondo when teams were able to pack the paint and our shooters failed to hit shots? How can a player under those circumstances, who has set all time records at Carolina, and at the tournament last year, be ignored two years running?
Great article by Art. But the offense looks terrible, the defense is worse, and the in-game adjustments are null and void. Pete Nance could be a great player on a team that knows how to use him but he caught crap for not shooting like Brady Manek. But if everyone goes back and watches, our offense is not entertaining (or efficient) at all. We dribble and shoot like the NBA, which is horrible and not entertaining at all. Our players get blamed for everything but it’s not AT ALL their faults. We look the same now as we did at the beginning of the year (when we weren’t playing any decent teams). We have more top 50 players than any team in the conference except Duke, who beat us twice with a brand new coach and freshmen players. But it’s all good. Hubert is definitely entitled to a raise and contract extension like Mack, who lost ALL of his last 4 games. Hubert only lost his last 2, so he should get a 2 year extension! Maybe he can go out and hire 3 or 4 big-time analysts like Mack.
I wonder how Ol’ Roy is feeling about his hand-picked replacement. I wonder if Wes Miller would be through for the season or NIT bound if he had Love, Davis, Nance, Bacot, Black, Johnson, Styles, Dunn, Trimble, Washington, Nickel, and so on. And I really wonder if Miller would have found playing time for McKoy? Styles would be a force on defense (and probably on offense) under Wes, but instead he’s not even an option anymore. The Transfer Portal stinks and doesn’t reward loyalty and hard work, but watch Hubert go for it!!! He’s been so successful with it, including a player that left, one that he NEVER plays, and one the he never played to his strengths.
Go Heels!
The main problem I saw in this year’s team was attitude. There was a stubbornness to keep doing things that were not working at the expense of sound basketball. If the three is not falling on a particular night (cough, Caleb Love) there are many other ways to contribute to the team. Same for Pete Nance. These times were opportunities to show their versatility. Instead, they kept firing away as their team circled the drain. If they had defended, rebounded and assisted with the same vigor that they shot the 3, we would be in a much better position now. Work hard fellas. It will be even harder next year. Oh, Puff put on 10 – 15 lbs. if you are going to play forward. Don’t take a beating, administer one.
This isn’t Carolina basketball. The bench is not utilized at all. High percentage shots left with Roy Williams. Working the ball inside constantly with having plays called and executed. Baseline screens for a lob, backdoor cuts, high low plays. As great as Michael Jordan was Dean Smith never allowed him to throw up 20 plus shots a game. This is a disservice to Carolina basketball, to the recruits who come to Carolina, and the fans. This is a circus out of control without a true leader. It’s time to end this experiment while the lights are dim, and not out. Thank Davis and show him the door. Restore Carolina basketball and tradition that everyone respects and admire.
There were too many times this year when UNC’s veteran laden team looked like it had no idea what to do in late game situations when the game was on the line. Virginia runs a system. What is UNC’s system? Chunk up 3’s and hope? What are we on defense? Are we aggressive and active or …not? What happened to the UNC fast break? Remember when UNC actually sought to play and develop its bench? I am very much afraid we are going to lose some very good players to the transfer portal. Coach Davis will be given his chance but he has to face the hard reality that UNC has lost its edge.If that is to change it’s on him and his staff to change it.
Not everyone is able to sit in that chair and be successful. From watching them play this year it was not a well-coached college team. I felt at times, that it was a scaled-down version of an NBA offense. The reason it works in the NBA is the ability of players to knock down shots from outside consistently.
UNC did not have that ability on the roster to be consistent. Which underclassmen move on to other opportunities in the portal?
Nice analysis Art. I’ll add something unmentioned. Throw out the worst loss, Indiana by 12, and the best loss, Pitt by 1, and the average loss is 6 points. That’s how close the team playing one of the toughest strength of schedules (4th or 5th of tier 1 schools) was to winning those games.
Coach Davis will learn from this year I believe. And I agree with you Art, no one will have to send Hubert packing.
Those already screaming for a replacement are the same ones that know nothing about sports or coaching. I pay no attention to such ill formed gibberish.
Heh, I’m so used to throwing out the extremes it didn’t occur to me that it made no difference in this case. Add the other two in and it makes no discernible difference, the average is just a shade over 6 points per loss.
It’s hard to win with 3 players that can score and 2 that that doesn’t try to score.