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Can Hubert Davis Find Consistency in Year #5 as UNC head coach?
Description
The 2025-26 season is Hubert Davis’ fifth as head coach at the University of North Carolina and his 14th on the coaching staff at his alma mater. He is the only Tar Heel head coach to win 20 or more games in each of his first four seasons.Davis, 55 (turns 56 on May 17, 2026), has won National and ACC Coach-of-the-Year honors, a Final Four appearance, led the Tar Heels to 101 wins, a 56-24 record and 24 road wins in ACC regular-season play, a regular-season ACC title and a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament. Only one other team has won more ACC games in the last four years.Two of his players – RJ Davis and Armando Bacot – rank second and third, respectively, in all-time scoring Carolina history, set numerous records and earned national and All-ACC awards.Carolina won its 100th game under Davis in the 2025 ACC Tournament, making him the third-fastest coach in UNC history and the sixth-fastest in ACC history to win 100 games. Only Duke’s Vic Bubas, UNC’s Roy Williams and Frank McGuire, Wake Forest’s Skip Prosser and Maryland’s Lefty Driesell reached 100 wins in fewer games than Davis (who won his 100th in 143 games).Over the last four seasons, UNC has the 10th-most wins among teams in the ACC, Big East, Big Ten, Big 12 and SEC.Under Davis, Carolina is 8-3 in NCAA Tournament play, including wins against three national championship-winning coaches (Baylor’s Scott Drew, Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski and Michigan State’s Tom Izzo) and three other coaches who have taken teams to the Final Four (Marquette’s Shaka Smart, UCLA’s Mick Cronin and San Diego State’s Brian Dutcher).Davis has led the Tar Heels to 14 wins over nationally-ranked opponents, including eight over top-10 teams (No. 4 Duke, No. 4 Baylor and No. 9 Duke in 2022; No. 6 Virginia in 2023; and No. 10 Tennessee, No. 7 Oklahoma, No. 7 Duke and No. 9 Duke in 2024).In 2024-25, the Tar Heels went 23-14 against the fifth-hardest schedule in the country, went .500 on the road and 13-7 overall in league play and won an NCAA Tournament game for the third time in his four seasons as head coach. Seven of the 14 losses came against teams seeded first or second in the NCAA Tournament. RJ Davis earned his third consecutive Dean Smith Award as Carolina’s MVP, broke all-time school records for three-pointers and free throw percentage and ACC records for games played and double-figure scoring games. Freshman Drake Powell became the 55th Tar Heel selected in the first round of the NBA Draft.