There have been better teams in the history of Carolina basketball. Several have advanced further in the tournament than this season’s Tar Heels did.
But what made this group special to head coach Hubert Davis was how all the different parts, which came from different schools and ranged in age from 18 to 25 years old, all embodied his ideals of connectedness on and off the basketball court.
“You’ve got guys that come in here as transfers, and they dive right into what this place is all about,” Davis said. “So much so that you don’t even think they’ve been here for one year. You feel like they’ve been here for four years.
“The commitment of this team from the start to have wanted to be a team is a thing that has blown me away and has restored my faith that you can have a bunch of guys in a locker room that genuinely enjoy being around each other and celebrate the success of others and really want to be a team.”
Cormac Ryan, who transferred to Carolina from Notre Dame, had shown one final proof of Davis’ faith just minutes earlier. R.J. Davis had been asked about his 0-9 three-point shooting performance in the 89-87 loss to No. 4 seed Alabama. Davis was struggling to get words out when Ryan stepped in to deliver this message:
“There’s just not a true fiber in your being that could actually believe that anything that happened tonight could be the result of something R.J. did wrong,” he said. “Because R.J.’s done something incredible for this team. He’s done stuff that’s never been done before. He’s one of the greatest Tar Heels of all time. And for anybody to come and say anything negative about R.J. is unacceptable.”
This is Carolina Family. pic.twitter.com/ANkROR7Yo6
— Carolina Basketball (@UNC_Basketball) March 29, 2024
Davis is a graduating senior at Carolina, but is part of the last generation of players who can use the fifth “COVID year” and return to Chapel Hill next season. He has not yet announced a decision.
Davis will always be connected to Armando Bacot, who has now fully exhausted his collegiate eligibility. Bacot, who came to the program when Roy Williams was head coach and nobody knew what COVID was, has experienced perhaps the greatest difference between highs and lows during his time at Carolina. From the low of the 2020 season, to the high of the epic Final Four victory over Duke, to the low of the disappointing 2023 campaign, and back to the high of a No. 1 seed this season, Bacot has seen it all.
“I wouldn’t change anything that happened all year,” he said. “It was a special year. For me personally, it restored a sense of fun. My love for the game just grew so much. My faith this year has grown a lot. I’m gonna miss everything about this team, the coaches. I’ve known Coach Davis since I was 14 years old, 15 years old. Knowing this is the last time I’ll play for him, it definitely hurts.”
R.J. Davis’ jersey will soon be raised into the Dean Smith Center rafters by virtue of his ACC Player of the Year win. Bacot doesn’t currently fill any requirements to have his jersey honored, but those within the program have indicated something may be tweaked to accommodate Carolina’s all-time leading rebounder. It would be more than fitting to see No. 4 and No. 5 beside each other for as long as the Dean Dome stands.
“In a time in college basketball where there’s so many moving parts and so many changes, you had two players where you couldn’t ask for them to be as successful as they have been for four and five years, respectively, at the same institution,” Hubert Davis said. “Their commitment to Carolina, their commitment to this program and the community, those are the things that – my hope is – is talked about more, about guys staying committed to the process.”
And now begins a new process for the Tar Heels, one which Hubert Davis unequivocally aced last offseason: filling holes on his roster which seem unfillable. There will never be another Armando Bacot, whose charisma off the court sometimes outshined his tremendous play on it. Should R.J. Davis head elsewhere, UNC will have a hard time replacing his offensive capabilities.
But that’s all a conversation for another day. For now, simply appreciating the good times is enough.
Featured image via Todd Melet
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“For now, simply appreciating the good times is enough.”
Well said. I love this team as any we have ever had, and that time spans from 1953.
This statement from Coach:
“So much so that you don’t even think they’ve been here for one year. You feel like they’ve been here for four years”,
is absolutely correct. I feared and said last year that it would never feel like a NC team again with all the transfer BS. But Coach Davis made it happen. I don’t think there is another coach that could have done that here.
Looking at REALITY could this loss be classified ” as the worse loss in UNC Basketball?” If not name some more? Also if Alabama was using grads to spy on teams and shout out plays, as the head coach of UNC I would have called them out during the game. This should be a major scandal for BAMA basket and UCON fans should “stomp this out” if you know what I mean
I also vote against fake classes that were institutionalized at UNC for 12 years. THAT was a scandal.