By R.L. Bynum
CHAPEL HILL — Since Carolina’s frustrating season ended without an NCAA tournament berth, Coach Hubert Davis said he has had no days off.
Offseason is genuinely a misnomer these days with the transfer portal, players able to transfer and not sit out a year, some players playing a fifth season and NIL luring others to weigh their options.
Davis played for six NBA teams, and sees all of the player movement as not that different from what goes on in pro basketball.
“I would characterize it more as free agency,” Davis said at his summer press conference on Thursday. “You really do have to have the ability to change, to tweak, to pivot, to alter, to be able to put a team together.”
It was never more true during a spring and summer when seven players transferred out of the program and five transferred in.
The freshman class includes one player who Davis expected to come (forward Zayden High), one he expected to come but didn’t (guard Simeon Wilcher, who decommitted and will play at St. John’s) and one (point guard Elliot Cadaeu) who reclassified and decided will arrive at UNC a year early.
“In the past, you could predict what a team’s going to look like next year and the year after that and what it’s going to look like at this time,” Davis said. “You could recruit in a way knowing that this person’s going to be here or this person’s going to be gone. You can no longer do that.”
It leads to some interesting situations, such as Carolina bringing in forward Harrison Ingram from Stanford after the Tar Heels couldn’t lure him to come out of high school to Chapel Hill. The recruiting seems to never end, whether it involves players on the roster, in high school who have committed or have signed, or in the transfer portal.
With all the moving parts in college basketball, Davis said he’s considering hiring a general manager as other programs have done.
“You can 100 percent predict that you don’t know what it will look like from year to year,” Davis said. “You can have everybody staying, or you can have some people leaving. It’s on a year-to-year basis. But what I love is Carolina will always stay the same, and the standard of this program and what it’s about will never change.”
The personnel obviously changed a lot, though, with only four returning players.
There’s a lot of chemistry to develop but Davis says that the process has gone well since they’ve been together all summer, going through individual workouts and spending time with each other. That process includes Davis building relationships with each of the newcomers.
“That’s what we’ve been doing, is just spending a lot of time together just getting to know each other and building those relationships,” Davis said. “When you have relationships, building the chemistry part on the basketball court is the easy part.”
With summer school ending next week, the team will have its final two summer practices next week as Carolina tries to rebound from last season.
“There are a number of things that we needed to address and get better from last year,” Davis said. “I thought last year, we weren’t a very good outside shooting team. I think that the team that we have now? I think we’re a better shooting team.”
Carolina was last in the ACC in 3-point shooting in conference games at 31.2%. Boosting the Tar Heels’ perimeter shooting will be Notre Dame transfer Cormac Ryan (95 career 3-pointers) and Brown transfer Paxton Wojcik (made 38% of his 3-point shots last season).
“I didn’t think last year we were very good in terms of ball movement and sharing the basketball,” Davis said. “So, I feel like we have multiple playmakers now that not only can make plays for themselves, but also make plays for their teammates. “
The Tar Heels were 13th in the ACC in assists per conference game at 11.97. The most significant addition in terms of playmaking is Cadeau, who may be the best passer in the program since Kendall Marshall.
“I really like the mix and the combinations of this team,” Davis said. “I know it’s really early, but there’s a lot of versatility and that’s something that I’m really excited about.”
Davis said his roster is exactly where he wanted it to be as he thought about it after the season ended, even though he didn’t know if he would get there.
“We’re in a great spot and I like the makeup of this team and I like where we are right now. I’m very happy with it,” Davis said.
He said that being efficient with little details will make a big difference after a season in which 11 of the 13 losses were in games with a one-possession margin with three minutes left.
“That comes down to discipline and details, getting the box out here, not turning the ball over here, making a free throw here, making a shot there, setting the screen here,” Davis said. “That’s something that, as a team, we’ve just got to do a better job in this upcoming season.”
NOTES — UNC is close to announcing its non-conference schedule in the next couple of weeks but is awaiting confirmation of a neutral-site game. The Tar Heels will play an exhibition game on Oct. 27, the night before the football team plays at Georgia Tech. … Davis came to the press conference after attending the funeral in Goldsboro of former Carolina player Cecil Exum, who died two weeks ago at age 60. … West Virginia transfer James Okonkwo hasn’t yet officially signed with UNC, but that’s expected to only be a formality.
| Date | Month/day | Scores | Opponent/event (current ranks) | Record |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| October | ||||
| 24 | Friday | L, 78–76 | vs. BYU in SLC | Exhib. |
| 29 | Wednesday | W, 95–53 | vs. Winston-Salem St. | Exhib. |
| November | ||||
| 3 | Monday | W, 94–54 | vs. Central Arkansas | 1–0 |
| 7 | Friday | W, 87–74 | vs. No. 17 Kansas | 2–0 |
| 11 | Tuesday | W, 89–74 | vs. Radford | 3–0 |
| 14 | Friday | W, 97–53 | vs. N.C. Central | 4–0 |
| 18 | Tuesday | W, 73–61 | vs. Navy | 5–0 |
| Fort Myers Tip-Off | ||||
| 25 | Tuesday | W, 85–70 | vs. St. Bonaventure | 6–0 |
| 27 | Thursday | L, 74–58 | vs. No. 11 Michigan State | 6–1 |
| December | ACC/SEC Men’s Challenge | |||
| 2 | Tuesday | W, 67–64 | at Kentucky | 7–1 |
| ————————— | ||||
| 7 | Sunday | W, 81–61 | vs. Georgetown | 8–1 |
| 13 | Saturday | W, 80–62 | vs. USC Upstate | 9–1 |
| 16 | Tuesday | W, 77–58 | vs. ETSU | 10–1 |
| CBS Sports Classic in Atlanta | ||||
| 20 | Saturday | W, 71–70 | vs. Ohio State | 11–1 |
| ————————— | ||||
| 22 | Monday | W, 99–51 | vs. East Carolina | 12–1 |
| 30 | Tuesday | W, 79–66 | vs. Florida State | 13–1, 1–0 ACC |
| January | ||||
| 3 | Saturday | L, 97–83 | at SMU | 13–2, 1–1 |
| 10 | Saturday | W, 87–84 | vs. Wake Forest | 14–2, 2–1 |
| 14 | Wednesday | L, 95–90 | at Stanford | 14–3, 2–2 |
| 17 | Saturday | L, 84–78 | at California | 14–4, 2–3 |
| 21 | Wednesday | W, 91–69 | vs. Notre Dame | 15–4, 3–3 |
| 24 | Saturday | W, 85–80 | at No. 9 Virginia | 16–4, 4–3 |
| 31 | Saturday | W, 91–75 | at Georgia Tech | 17–4, 5–3 |
| February | ||||
| 2 | Monday | W, 87–77 | vs. Syracuse | 18–4, 6–3 |
| 7 | Saturday | W, 71–68 | vs. No. 1 Duke | 19–4, 7–3 |
| 10 | Tuesday | L, 75–66 | at No. 25 Miami | 19–5, 7–4 |
| 14 | Saturday | W, 79–65 | vs. Pittsburgh | 20–5, 8–4 |
| 17 | Tuesday | L, 82–58 | at N.C. State | 20–6, 8–5 |
| 21 | Saturday | W, 77–64 | at Syracuse | 21–6, 9–5 |
| 23 | Monday | W, 77–74 | vs. Louisville | 22–6, 10–5 |
| 28 | Saturday | W, 89–82 | vs. Virginia Tech | 23–6, 11–5 |
| March | ||||
| 3 | Tuesday | W, 67–63 | vs. Clemson | 24–6, 12–5 |
| 7 | Saturday | L, 76–61 | at No. 1 Duke | 24–7, 12–6 |
| 10–14 | Tues.-Sat. | ACC tournament | Spectrum Center, Charlotte | |
| 12 | Thursday | L, 80–79 | Quarterfinals: vs. Clemson | 24–8 |
| NCAA tournament | ||||
| 19 | Thursday | L, 82–78, OT | First round: vs. VCU in Greenville, S.C. | 24–9 |
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Roster assuming all players with eligibility other than Caleb Wilson, Henri Veesaar and the seven players who entered the transfer portal return, which would put UNC two under the 15-player limit. The class for next season is listed.
| No./ Stars | Class | Player | Pos. | Hgt | Wgt |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 star | Freshman | Maximo Adams | SF | 6–7 | 205 |
| 3 star | Freshman | Malloy Smith | CG | 6–5 | 190 |
| Freshman | Sayon Keita | C | 7–0 | 215 | |
| RS freshman | Cade Bennerman — V | C | 7–0 | 205 | |
| Sophomore | Neoklis Avdalas — W | G | 6–9 | 215 | |
| Sophomore | Isaiah Denis | G | 6–4 | 180 | |
| Sophomore | Matt Able — X | G | 6–6 | 205 | |
| Junior | Maxim Logue — Y | C | 6–9 | 232 | |
| Senior | Terrence Brown — Z | G | 6–3 | 174 | |
| 4 | Senior | Jaydon Young | G | 6–4 | 200 |
| 15 | Senior | Jarin Stevenson | 4 | 6–10 | 215 |
| Walk-ons | |||||
| 25 | Junior | John Holbrook | 4 | 6–8 | 230 |
| 32 | Senior | Evan Smith | 2 | 6–1 | 195 |
V — Northwestern transfer. W — Virginia Tech transfer; X — N.C. State transfer; Y — FAU transfer; Z — Utah transfer
In transfer portal
| Player | Class next season | Pos. | Hgt | Wgt | Next school |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Luka Bogavac | Senior | W | 6–6 | 215 | Oklahoma State |
| James Brown | Senior | C | 6–10 | 240 | Howard |
| Derek Dixon | Sophomore | G | 6–5 | 200 | Arizona |
| Kyan Evans | Senior | G | 6–2 | 175 | Minnesota |
| Zayden High | Junior | C | 6–10 | 230 | South Florida |
| Jonathan Powell | Junior | G | 6–6 | 190 | Pittsburgh |
| Ivan Matlekovic | Junior | C | 7–0 | 255 |
Key offseason dates
April 7 — Transfer portal opened
April 16 — Was the deadline to request an evaluation from the NBA Undergraduate Advisory Committee
April 21— Transfer portal closed
11:59 p.m. Friday — NBA early-entry deadline
Sunday — Was deadline for UNC players on last season’s roster to enter the transfer portal
May 8–10 — G League Combine in Chicago
May 10 — NBA Draft Lottery
May 10–17 — NBA Draft Combine in Chicago
May 27 (11:59 p.m.) — NCAA early-entry withdrawal deadline
June 23–24 — NBA draft at Barclays Center in Brooklyn
Nonconference schedule so far
(Other than the ACC/SEC Challenge, games without links revealed from reporting by Alex Rosinski)
(10 of 14 games)
Nov. 2 — vs. Western Carolina
Nov. 6 — vs. Wofford
Nov. 10 — vs. Wyoming
Nov. 13 — vs. Georgia
Nov. 20 — vs. Marshall
Dec. 1 or 2 — vs. SEC team in ACC/SEC Challenge
Dec. 12 — at Georgetown
Dec. 19 — vs. Kentucky in CBS Sports Classic at Madison Square Garden
Dec. 21 — vs. The Citadel
November or December — vs. Butler
Photo courtesy of the ACC
