By R.L. Bynum

While enthusiastically making the transition from the disappointing end to the season to building the roster for next season, North Carolina coach Hubert Davis lamented how dramatically college basketball has changed in recent years.

He made the comments during the final “Hubert Davis Live” radio show of the season on Wednesday night at Top of the Hill restaurant in Chapel Hill, covering a range of topics, to how the roster has to get taller, to the differences in his postseason meetings with players to the death threats players receive after bad games.

Davis said that he encourages players to stay off social media and put their phones away because of the comments fans make about them after a poor performance, and for good reason.

“It’s scary. They’re making threats on these kids’ lives. These kids get this every game, and it goes directly to them. It goes directly to their families,” Davis said. “You’re 18-, 19-years old, and you miss a 3, and you check your phone and there’s a number of people saying that they would like for you to lose your life. That’s what the kids get every game.”

Davis said that every day this week has been full of meetings and Zoom calls, including an hourlong meeting with RJ Davis that was marked by laughing and crying.

“[I’ve] got a Zoom call at 8:45 [Wednesday] and another Zoom call at 9:45 [Wednesday],” Davis said, “and it’s just lot of meetings, a lot of communication for the current team, and also with talking to kids in the transfer portal as well.”

Davis said those meetings with current players have changed because, in addition to involving parents as they have for years, agents and financial considerations are now part of the process. Davis said he’s in favor of compensating the players but added that it complicates the process.

“There’s two decisions that kids have to make,” Davis said. “Do [they] want to stay or go? And then if they want to stay, there’s a decision on how much money to be able to stay.”

Davis met with the team on Sunday, then had individual meetings with players on Monday and Tuesday to discuss their futures. The transfer portal opened Monday, and Elliot Cadeau and Jalen Washington each decided to enter the portal.

“My communication is always straightforward, direct and no interpretations,” Davis said. “I said, ‘I want everybody back. I love you guys. I recruited you guys, and I’ve never had in my mind that you wouldn’t finish it out here.’ I am thankful for the two years that I had a chance to coach Elliot, three years for Jalen Washington. I couldn’t ask for better young men to be around every day. Even though their career won’t finish at North Carolina, my support for them and their family will never leave.”

Here’s what Davis said on other topics:

—On the need for the team to have better size:
“We’ve got to get bigger. We just do. From A to Z, we just do. And we talked about the physicality of Ole Miss and their positional size was bigger than us. And pretty much that’s the way we were the whole season. So that’s one of the things that we’re definitely going to address is, we’ve got to get bigger. In terms of that physicality, you have to have a presence; you have to be bigger. And that’s what we’re addressing.”

—On the process of evaluating transfer portal talent:

“It does go a lot faster than high school recruiting. Obviously, in recruiting, there are two boxes that have to be checked. There has to be a want and a need. So, I’m not going to recruit anybody that we want that we don’t need, or we need and we don’t want. And that’s why these meetings with the current team — in regards to who’s staying, who’s going — really identifies and gives us a clear picture of what we need and what we want moving forward for next year’s team. Obviously, the biggest, the easiest thing, is looking at the talent, in regards to who’s talented out there on the floor for what you’re looking for.”

Davis said the three factors he weighs are a player’s personality and character, their “will and want to” about coming to Carolina — whether it’s just for them or to win a championship — and whether they want to get an education.

“I’m not trying to distinguish ourselves between anyone else, but I am. The lights are bright here, and everything that you do will be critiqued or criticized. [For] some people, it’s very difficult. They can’t handle that. And so we have to decide — is this person able to handle the spotlight here and be able to perform on this type of stage?”

Davis said they try to determine players’ personalities, work ethic and how they interact with other players.

—On his relationship with General Manager Jim Tanner:
“We had a great relationship prior to us working together, and so it’s been a lot of fun getting to know each other, working together, and our personalities, they match, and our love for this university and this program is something that drives us every day.”

—On Jae’Lyn Withers’ injury:
“They did X-rays, MRIs — nothing serious, just a bad ankle sprain, which is great, because I think he has a future to play professional basketball. We want him healthy so he can be able to pursue that and do that as well. He’s finishing up his graduate degree right now.”

—On his approach to analytics:
“It won’t drive my decisions, but it definitely can help, and I want to understand it more. In regards to individual development for our entire team. How we’re approaching, from an offensive standpoint, shot selection, where efficiently we are getting shots from a defensive standpoint. I want to do a deep dive into analytics and see how it can help us  be better on both ends of the floor.”

You can listen to the entire radio show here.

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Potential UNC roster

(Next season’s classes listed)

No.	Class	Player	Pos.	Hgt	Wgt
	Freshman	Caleb Wilson (5 star)	4	6–9	205
	Freshman	Isaiah Denis (4 star)	CG	6–5	175
	Freshman	Derek Dixon (4 star)	CG	6-3	190
2	Sophomore	James Brown	5	6–8	225
11	Sophomore	Ian Jackson	2	6–5	185
9	Sophomore	Drake Powell	2	6–6	195
22	Senior	Ven-Allen Lubin	4	6–8	230
5	Senior	Cade Tyson	3	6–7	205
7	Senior	Seth Trimble	2	6–3	195
		Walk-ons
15	Sophomore	John Holbrook	4	6–8	23p
14	Junior	Russell Hawkins	2	6–1	175
6	RS Senior	Elijah Davis	2	6–4	197

Photo via screenshot