“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” – Maya Angelou
Davis polarized Tar Heel fans from the outset. Passionate fans hate to lose and love to win, but few of us do so in equal measure. That balance tips differently for everyone. How did Davis make you feel? If your first, instant thought lands on that Final Four game against Duke, then that’s where your opinion of Davis starts. If that question takes you to 2022’s plummet from a preseason #1 ranking to 20-13, then that’s your foundation. We all have different starting points. We all weigh Davis’ successes and failures differently.
Some coaches coast along just above the line of acceptability, never wavering too far from that through line. They don’t make fans feel euphoric, but they don’t make fans feel sick. They’re a Ferris wheel. Blue blood programs won’t tolerate that sort of thing.
Davis, on the other hand, took Tar Heel fans on a roller coaster ride, with the biggest highs and biggest lows. Beating Duke and Coach K in his last home game? And then again, in K’s final game, on the game’s biggest stage no less? Two wins like that, in such close proximity? Good luck finding an emotional payoff any bigger than that in the history of college sports. Conversely, at a program like Carolina, nothing makes fans feel sicker than missing an NCAA Tournament. A close second would be barely making one while national media howl that the Heels didn’t deserve it.
Davis’ last season embodied “roller coaster”: the joy of watching Caleb Wilson dunk and smile his way into national prominence, the defensive collapses of that west coast road trip, Seth’s epic shot to vanquish Duke, Caleb’s broken thumb. The Davis roller coaster wasn’t just season to season or even game to game. It was often half to half. Big leads became near losses (or worse). Big deficits became near misses. The last three games against Duke, Clemson, and VCU featured these ingredients in differing measure and order. Blue blood programs won’t tolerate an excess of that.
Davis’ return for next season seemed assured as late as the second to last day of the regular season, the day the news about Caleb’s thumb numbed Tar Heel Nation. Davis’ return seemed probable as late as six minutes into the second half of Davis’ last game, when Carolina led VCU 56-37. And then, just like that, the ride came to an end.
How did Davis make us feel? For some of us, it will be the last thing Davis made us feel. For some of us, it will be the best thing, and for some of us, the worst. None of those are wrong. When we talk about Davis down the road (and we will; people still talk about Butch Davis, for goodness’ sake) remember that we all experienced the same things. We were all on the same thrilling, sickening roller coaster. How we choose to remember it will come down to how it made us feel.
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— / I took the one less traveled by, / And that has made all the difference. – Robert Frost
A debate about the timeline of UNC basketball will always be the moment Roy Williams stepped aside. What if, the question goes, Carolina had stepped outside the family for a different coach? Like all hypotheticals, we tend to imagine outcomes that would have made us feel better. We erase inconvenient realities and turn possibility into probability. We become certain in our response to the conjecture, which can lead us to be dismissive of other potentialities.
To review: Roy retired in large part because the NCAA’s settlement with the Dept. of Justice over transfer rules gutted his long-term build approach to roster construction. Roy didn’t want to adapt, and he was hardly alone in his frustrations on that front. Two months after he stepped down and handed things over to Davis, NCAA vs Alston became the law of the land. Alston allowed college players to be compensated, converting an amateur sports model into a professional one overnight.
Davis inherited a program coming off 32-30 in Williams’ last two seasons. Two months into the job, he’s suddenly in a basketball landscape where paying players is required, and players have complete freedom of movement. He’s at a Blue Blood program with champagne tastes, sure, but also one seriously strapped for cash. He’s guiding a program that’s always considered the source of its success to be its roots in tradition, a program with significant voices reluctant to change as fast as events might dictate.
Name the coach, living or dead, who single-handedly and successfully navigates all those hurdles. Davis accepted the challenge, and part of that challenge was to recognize and fix the circumstances getting in between his program and its goals. He came up short.
Alternatively, imagine a time-line where UNC reaches outside the Carolina family for a new coach after Williams. Would the collective Carolina Basketball community have faithfully followed this outsider into this brave new world of college sports? Or, would the “outsider” have spent the last five years battling the “Carolina Way” to adapt to this new normal of paying players and permanent free agency?
No one knows the answers to those questions. While it’s possible a different coach would have been well on their way to being the program’s third Hall of Fame candidate, it’s also possible a different coach would be at the end of their rope as well, and the UNC job labeled a coach killer. The voices still attached to a nostalgic past would likely attribute the disappointments to veering from a proven path. People like to say, “It couldn’t be any worse,” but it quite plausibly could be. That scenario, with differing details, isn’t uncommon with follow-ups to a legendary coach.
Davis isn’t going down as a Hall of Famer, but he’s been a good coach if neither a great coach nor a Ferris wheel coach. Bad coaches don’t reach title games or earn a #1 seed without a first round talent or two. It just wasn’t enough for Carolina. “Not enough for Carolina” doesn’t make one a failure.
Davis didn’t demand the job and pull strings, like Belichick. He took the job because he loves UNC, and he’s left the program better than he received it in 2021. It hasn’t been all champagne and caviar, but he captained the ship through a storm. That’s what changes in college sports and the ACC media deal combined to create for UNC basketball. It’s been a turbulent few years for the entirety of college sports, not just our hoops program.
Hopefully, the next coach delivers the same highs without the lows. Hopefully, the successes and failures of Davis over the last five years, with the lessons learned by the decision-makers who remain, can be a foundation for UNC’s return to glory. Hopefully, we look back on Davis as a bridge rather than a disappointment.
Appreciation costs us nothing. Locking in bitterness accomplishes nothing.
Go Heels.