By R.L. Bynum

In 3½ seasons as Carolina’s head coach, Hubert Davis rarely has gone deep into his bench consistently, and he appears to have settled into that pattern over recent games.

Nine players are averaging at least 10 minutes per game, the most since nine players averaged that much time during the 2021–22 season, his first as head coach. But with the new year came a smaller rotation for Davis, who played seven players an average of double-digit minutes in his second and third seasons.

After playing at least five reserves against five power conference teams before the New Year — No. 11 Kansas (6), No. 16 Michigan State (5), No. 5 Alabama (5), Georgia Tech (5) and No. 22 UCLA (5) — Tuesday’s 82–67 home win over SMU was the third consecutive game using only four players off the bench.

Before this stretch — starting with the 83–70 loss on Jan. 1 at Louisville and the 74–73 win Saturday at Notre Dame — there was only one game in which only four reserves played against a power conference team, that being the 85–72 Maui Invitational loss to No. 2 Auburn on Nov. 26.

With Seth Trimble back after missing three games with an upper-body injury, Coach Davis is essentially down to a seven-man (sometimes eight-man) rotation.

He logically is heavily dependent on guards Trimble (31.2 minutes per game), Elliot Cadeau (28.6), RJ Davis (34.4), Ian Jackson (25.1, but 35.8 in the last four games) and Drake Powell (23.5, but 31.0 in the last four games).

Forward Jae’Lyn Withers (17.3) has played mostly at the four spot, with playing time at the five spot generally split between Jalen Washington (16.8) and Ven-Allen Lubin (15.9).

Against SMU, only Trimble and Lubin played more than 14½ minutes off the bench after only two reserves played more than nine minutes against Notre Dame and only two played more than four minutes off the bench against Louisville.

Get a breakdown of the lineup combinations against SMU with the table below this game story.

The rest of the scholarship players have mostly sat on the bench recently.

—After playing 15 minutes at Louisville and eight minutes at Notre Dame, junior Belmont transfer wing Cade Tyson (10.5) didn’t play against SMU. That was the first time Tyson hadn’t gotten into a game all season, although he played three or fewer minutes in four games.
—After Georgia Tech transfer forward Ty Claude (5.6) only played three minutes at Louisville, he didn’t get into either of the last two games. He’s played double-digit minutes three times: vs. Alabama (10), UCLA (13) and Campbell (10).
—Freshman forward James Brown (2.7) has only combined to play 5½ minutes in the last three games and has gotten into only seven. His season-high is five minutes against La Salle.

Coach Davis played more than five reserves five times: against American (7), Hawai’i (7), Dayton (6), La Salle (9) and Campbell (8).

Playing a short bench caught up with UNC in the second half of the 2022 national championship game against Kansas, and fatigue has been a factor in other games.

Coach Davis obviously wants his best players on the court as much as possible. He appeared to try to develop a deeper bench early in the season before shifting his allocation of playing time in the last few games.

Even though SMU never got closer than 12 points in the last 16 minutes, three starters played at least 31 minutes: Powell (35 minutes, 11 seconds), Jackson (34:13) and Davis (31:34).

Only the coaches know how the players perform in practice, which is one way they determine who plays and for how long. However, unless there is a shift, Coach Davis appears ready to play a short rotation the rest of the way, although that could change depending on the matchup.

UNC season statistics

Team	League	Overall	NET*
No. 4 Duke	9–0	20–1	2
No. 22 Clemson	8–1	18–4	31
No. 17 Virginia	7–2	18–3	18
N.C. State	7–2	16–6	26
Miami	6–3	17–5	39
No. 16 North Carolina	5–3	17–4	25
No. 20 Louisville	5–4	15–6	17
Virginia Tech	5–5	16–7	56
SMU	4–4	15–6	34
California	4–5	16–6	51
Syracuse	4–5	13–9	78
Stanford	3–6	14–8	77
Florida State	3–6	10–12	102
Boston College	2–6	9–12	152
Georgia Tech	2–7	11–11	143
Notre Dame	2–7	11–11	85
Wake Forest	2–7	11–11	70
Pittsburgh	2–7	9–13	114

* — Through Saturday games
Saturday’s games
No. 16 North Carolina 91, Georgia Tech 75
No. 4 Duke 72, Virginia Tech 58
N.C. State 96, Wake Forest 78
No. 22 Clemson 63, Pittsburgh 52
No. 17 Virginia 73, Boston College 66
No. 23 Louisville 88, SMU 74
California 86, Miami 81
Florida State 88, Stanford 80
Syracuse 86, Notre Dame 72
Monday’s game
Syracuse at No. 16 North Carolina, 7 p.m., ESPN
Tuesday’s games
Boston College at No. 4 Duke, 7 p.m., ACC Network
Pittsburgh at No. 17 Virginia, 9 p.m., ACC Network
N.C. State at SMU, 9 p.m, ESPN2
Wednesday’s games
Notre Dame at No. 20 Louisville, 7 p.m., ESPN2
Georgia Tech at California, 8 p.m., ACC Network
No. 22 Clemson at Stanford, 10 p.m., ACC Network
Saturday’s games
Syracuse at No. 17 Virginia, noon
No. 20 Louisville at Wake Forest, noon, ACC Network
Virginia Tech at N.C. State, 1:30, The CW
Miami at Boston College, 2 p.m., ACC Network
SMU at Pittsburgh, 3:45, The CW
Florida State at Notre Dame, 4 p.m., ACC Network
No. 4 Duke at No. 16 North Carolina, 6:30, ESPN
No. 22 Clemson at California, 8 p.m., ACC Network
Georgia Tech at Stanford, 8 p.m., ESPNU

Date	Month/day	Time	Opponent/event (current ranks)	TV/ record
	October
24	Friday	L, 78–76	vs. No. 13 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. 14 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. 7 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. 17 Virginia	16–4, 4–3
31	Saturday	W, 91–75	at Georgia Tech	17–4, 5–3
	February
2	Monday	7 p.m.	vs. Syracuse	ESPN
7	Saturday	6:30	vs. No. 4 Duke	ESPN
10	Tuesday	7 p.m.	at Miami	ESPN or ESPN2
14	Saturday	2 p.m.	vs. Pittsburgh	ESPN
17	Tuesday	7 p.m.	at N.C. State	ESPN or ESPN2
21	Saturday	1 p.m.	at Syracuse	ABC
23	Monday	7 p.m.	vs. No. 20 Louisville	ESPN
28	Saturday	6:30 or 8:30	vs. Virginia Tech	ESPN or ESPN2
	March
3	Tuesday	7 p.m.	vs. No. 22 Clemson	ESPN or ESPN2
7	Saturday	6:30	at No. 4 Duke	ESPN
10–14	Tues.-Sat.	ACC tournament	Spectrum Center, Charlotte