North Carolina somehow forgot to update the world on the status of basketball coach Hubert Davis, who we learned only on Tuesday had signed a two-year extension back in December that will keep him contractually tethered to the school through 2030.
Uh, huh.
They just forgot.
It gets better: the extension was actually agreed to in July, we’re told, or, five months before Davis, who is on the verge of missing out on the NCAA Tournament for the second time in three years, put the pen to paper.
Mmm, hmmm.
Coincidentally on Tuesday, UNC announced the hiring of Jim Tanner, a Carolina alum and long-time NBA agent, to serve as the general manager of the basketball program.
This hire, presumably, will fix the issue with roster construction that fans are pointing to as the key reason the Tar Heels have an ugly 1-10 record in Quad 1 games this season.
Davis has two 29-win seasons in his four-year tenure – taking his first team on a surprise run to the Final Four in 2022, after spending the last few weeks of that season on the tournament bubble, and last year’s team was upset as a #1 seed in the Sweet Sixteen by Alabama.
The 2022-2023 Carolina team, meanwhile, was preseason #1, and ended up not making the postseason after stumbling to a 20-13 record.
This season’s team was a preseason Top 10, but is now sitting at 18-11, with all eyes on the regular-season finale at home with #3 Duke on Saturday, March 8.
The Heels may need a win in that one, that, or a run to the ACC Tournament title, to punch its ticket to the Big Dance.
This probably goes without saying, but the Blue Bloods down there don’t write the big checks so that their team gets in off the tourney bubble.
With that in mind, the buyout for Davis, were he to be fired between now and 2030, isn’t prohibitive – it’s tied only to his base salary, which is set at $1.2 million per year.
The remainder of his salary, $1.7 million in supplemental income, is exempted from the buyout.
That overall pay package – $2.9 million – stands out to me, because it’s less than what Virginia Tech is paying Mike Young, who’s getting $3 million a year to coach in Blacksburg.
That signals to me that North Carolina isn’t all that invested in Hubert Davis going forward.
Share
Chris Graham
