Lucas: Personality

By Adam Lucas

Nine minutes into Monday's practice, the Smith Center PA system cranked the familiar stretching soundtrack.

Practice began at 3:01 p.m. This is a Hubert Davis nod to Bill Guthridge, who never believed in starting anything at a round number "because there's less uncertainty if it's more specific." So practice begins at 3:01, not 3:00. The first nine minutes were a team discussion at center court.

Monday was practice number 33. For the first 32 practices, every post-discussion stretching segment had been accompanied by a raucous soundtrack hand-selected by a Tar Heel player. Perhaps two notes had emanated from the speakers on Monday before Davis threw up a hand. "NO!" he shouted. "NO! Turn the music off. Turn. It. Off."

There ensued such a scrambling of managers that you might have thought Jonas Sahratian was performing a surprise inspection of the team snack bag. Such was the urgency that it's entirely possible the wires were simply yanked out of the wall.

For the next one hour and 40 minutes, that was the tone of the on-court portion of practice.

I received an email on Monday from a Tar Heel fan. I will not repeat his name here, because the intention is not to embarrass him. In fact, I believe he was simply restating a belief held in a certain corner of the Carolina fan base.

"Hubert Davis is too nice," he wrote. "He is trying too hard to be a friend to these players."

Let me assure you of something: there was not one member of the 2021-22 Tar Heels who believed by the end of Monday's practice that Hubert Davis was anything but their head coach. The sustained intensity demonstrated by Davis for every single one of the 109 minutes of practice—and especially the first 58, which may go down in Carolina legend—was something I personally have never seen from any Carolina head coach, in any sport, at any time.

There was no cursing. There was no insulting. There were facts, lots of them, and there were plainly stated expectations for future performance.

"He was at a ten," Leaky Black said on Tuesday of the coach's intensity. "And he stayed at a ten."

You are certain to note that the performance in the 72-53 win over UNC Asheville was not entirely different from the loss to Tennessee. Carolina turned the ball over too much (some, especially early, due to trying to be too unselfish) and did not force enough turnovers.

That doesn't mean the lessons on Monday didn't stick. It means it was the third game in four days, and the non-gameday was every bit as physically and emotionally demanding as any of the games.

Tuesday morning, Davis was doing the pregame Tar Heel Sports Network interview with Jones Angell. Eight hours before tipoff, the head coach was already nearly vibrating with intensity. He was asked his expectation for Carolina basketball:

"We will have five guys out there diving on the floor, talking on defense, rebounding, boxing out, making the easy play, passing to the open player, and playing with the passion and desire that all of us want," he said.

Did you hear that? All of us. Davis realizes the weight he's carrying. "Us" means Davis and it means Roy Williams and it means Dean Smith and yes, it means you. Those are the expectations that all of us have.

The trick is explaining how all of us feel to those 17 players wearing the uniforms and making them feel the same way. With a couple of exceptions, they weren't born into it. That might be hard to hear. It might not make sense to you that they don't instinctively know about Phil Ford and Antawn Jamison and Tyler Hansbrough and they don't get that warm feeling when they hear the fight song. But they don't. And right now—and likely for years to come—conveying the importance of playing for the name on the front of the jersey rather than the name on the back is every bit as much a part of the Carolina head coaching description as teaching man-to-man defense.

Hubert Davis is six games into his first season as a head coach. He is the exact same person who you believed in a month ago. He is the exact same person who sometimes finds guidance from visiting Dean Smith's grave. And he is the exact same person who had Carolina poised to battle a very good Purdue team in the closing minutes three days ago.

It felt like something changed for the Davis era this week, even if not necessarily on the scoreboard or in the box score.

Remember when Roy Williams sent two players to the locker room during the game when Carolina defeated UNC Wilmington in Myrtle Beach in 2003? Yes, before he won three national championships, Williams was the guy who banished players from the bench for not cheering on a teammate. It feels like these seven days might be that kind of turning point. We're not going to remember the UNC-Asheville game on Nov. 23, 2021, not any more than you remember that 2003 game against UNC Wilmington. But we're going to remember this week, from post-Tennessee until specific pre-Michigan prep begins, as a key time in the Hubert Davis era. Playing his way is not a choice, it's a requirement.

Does this revelation guarantee that every future Carolina game will feature floor-scraping, high-fiving, ball-guarding tenacity? Absolutely not, not any more than you can guarantee that your teenager will pick up their laundry off the floor every single day.

But Hubert Davis learned something about himself this week, and about what's acceptable to him and what isn't. Just as importantly, players—and perhaps, future players—were reminded of the expectations every time they represent the University of North Carolina.

The Thought for the Day has been a staple of the Carolina Basketball practice plan since the Dean Smith era. It's intended to be a place for those aphorisms that might take hold with a player and have some greater meaning to his life. It's not unusual for basketball alums ten or 20 years removed to rattle off a couple that have stuck with him.

At the top of Monday's practice plan was a Thought for the Day that was intended for the players and the coaching staff but was also something that Davis himself wants  to remember for the rest of his coaching career. He is a modern coach, and he is OK with headbands and he understands the importance of cool uniforms and he is willing to hear player input.

But there is one thing he does not ever want to forget because it is non-negotiable. And that is why the Thought for the Day said simply:

"I will NEVER coach another team/game absent of my personality."

Players Mentioned

Leaky Black

Related Videos