Tar Heel basketball fans got a double shot of good news over the weekend, when RJ Davis and Caleb Love both announced they’d be returning to Chapel Hill for another season, taking another shot at a national title after coming just short this year.

Coupled with earlier announcements from Armando Bacot and Leaky Black, Love and Davis’ decision means UNC heads into the 2022-23 season with a wealth of talent and experience – and they’ll almost certainly be a favorite to cut down the nets in Houston next April.

Does it all feel a little like déjà vu? Maybe it should. Speaking with 97.9 The Hill’s Aaron Keck, longtime sports commentator David Glenn reflected on the parallels between 2022 and 2016, the last time UNC lost in the title game. All of Carolina’s upperclassmen came back for another year that time too – and it worked out pretty well.

Listen to their conversation.

 

Aaron Keck: What were your thoughts when you heard the news from Caleb?

David Glenn: I was a little bit surprised, because his dad has been a huge advocate of him joining his old friend Jayson Tatum – of course formerly of Duke – at the next level, where of course you get a lot more money. No matter what you might make in name/image/likeness (NIL) revenue, the NBA dollars are much bigger. But Caleb was projected as a second-round pick, not a first-round pick. And for those who don’t know, second-round picks don’t typically get guaranteed money. So it’s a little bit of a roll of the dice if you’re not a (projected) first-rounder.

But obviously Hubert Davis has created a really beautiful family atmosphere and positive culture, because a bunch of guys who could have just turned the page and moved on with their lives or their careers, whether that’s the NBA or somewhere else – everybody decided to stay.

And there is no magic wand that creates the combination of talent and experience. It’s really hard to find (that) in college basketball, because so many of the best players do leave early. The Tar Heels are living the reverse of this, and they are going to have a four-man foundation going into next season that’s as strong as anybody’s foundation in the entire country.

Keck: What do you think factored into that decision? You mentioned Hubert Davis and the relationship that he’s built with those players. Obviously they built some strong relationships with each other over the course of the season and those last couple of months. And you also mentioned NIL money, which I know Armando Bacot mentioned as a factor in his decision. How much do you think that weighed into the others’?

Glenn: I think it’s going to vary individual to individual – but let’s be real. It’s a different world. In the old days, coaches would sometimes remind players, “Hey, if you’re not quite good enough to make the NBA yet, do you really want to be riding buses and staying in rinky-dink hotels, playing in the G league or trying to learn a foreign language somewhere halfway around the world where you can barely understand your coach or half your teammates?” Well, now there’s another layer to that.

Because of course the upside of staying, especially at a prominent place like Carolina, is (that) everybody’s watching your games instead of nobody (caring). You’re staying in the nicest places and flying on nice planes, rather than those rickety buses. And now there’s this extra layer. No, you’re not going to make the same amount of money that you can make even overseas – players can make six-figure incomes as professional basketball players, even if you don’t make the NBA, (and) these NIL deals are rarely that large. But rather than thinking, “where am I going to find my pizza money for my senior year?” – you can certainly make that kind of money, five-digit money. That’s just one more reason to consider staying in school – especially if you think you have a chance of cementing your legacy by making a run at a national championship.

Keck: On making another run at the championship: I’m going to go back to round two of the tournament. Carolina had that 25-point lead against Baylor. They blew it all. They had to go to overtime, and (they) hung on for the win. And then they had that Cinderella run that followed, that got them all the way to the title game. And that changes the narrative of the season, that run that happened after that – (if) they lose in the second round to Baylor, the story we’re telling about this team is different, and I’m sure the experience for players is different as well. So – if they lose that game against Baylor, are we still talking today about all four of these guys coming back, do you think?

Glenn: Probably not. That’s a hard question to answer, we may never know unless those guys answer it themselves – and maybe they don’t even know for sure, because it’s a hypothetical. But let’s be real. The last time Carolina won the national championship, there (had been) a story somewhat like this. Remember Justin Jackson could have turned pro, the year where the Tar Heels came oh-so-close, but lost to Villanova in that nail biter of a title game. But he stayed for his junior year. And Kennedy Meeks was that rare senior center. Does that sound familiar? Kennedy Meeks stayed for his senior year in 2017. The Heels’ four best players, Justin Jackson, Joel Berry, Kennedy Meeks, Isaiah Hicks – they were all juniors and seniors that year, and to varying degrees, they were talking about coming oh-so-close, but not quite getting there, and wanting to return…

And sure enough, these guys came oh-so-close against Kansas in this year’s national title game. Now they’re going to have four juniors and seniors as the foundation. Now, you know, Aaron, it’s not as simple as, “oh, this means the Tar Heels are going to win the national title.” There are other really good basketball teams out there. But this gives you a starting point that is as good as anybody else’s. And it’s been a little while – it was 2015, the last time Carolina had a team that was ranked in the (preseason) national top five. Sure enough, they turned that preseason number-one ranking into a trip to the NCAA title game. And then the very next year, they not only went to that game, but they won it. So we’ll see if we have a little repeat of history. There’s a long, long way to go, but this is enormously good news for Carolina basketball and its fans.

Keck: And correct me if I’m wrong – the last two times Carolina made the title game and lost were 1981 and 2016. And they won the title the next year, both times.

Glenn: Yes. And even 1993, which was not exactly the dynamic you just described, those guys knew – there are those famous stories of Dean Smith putting the picture of the Superdome in their lockers in the preseason. I mean, Dean Smith’s a very humble guy who did not like to raise expectations, but those players convinced him that they were coming back to win the NCAA title. It was not just to have another great year. It was to cut down the nets in New Orleans. That was a slightly different story – but we are seeing various forms of history repeat themselves, for sure.

Photo by Todd Melet.

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