Hubert Davis opens up on loss of his mom, how he relays that feeling in message to UNC team

Hubert Davis believes that relaying his own life experiences to his players, be it basketball or otherwise, is an important part of his coaching style. Perhaps none of those stories are more impactful than about how he overcame the adversity of losing his mother to cancer when he was a teenager.

With the NCAA Tournament just a couple of weeks away and North Carolina still in the bubble conversation, he again thinks how that experience can apply to his team.

Hubert Davis thinks back on all the parts of his life that his mom never got to be a part of, and it’s a reminder that nothing is guaranteed. By opening up to his players about a deeply personal part of his life, he hopes it will sink in to them to appreciate the moment as they fight for their tournament lives.

“I give them personal stories,” Davis said of how he motivates his team. “One of the stories that I give them is my mother passing away at 16. She was my best friend and, out of the blue, she got diagnosed with cancer and eight months later she was gone on Aug. 31, 1986. Unfortunately, that gave me, as a 15 and 16-year-old going through that, a perspective of — you think that you’re gonna have your mom and dad with you all of your life. The reality is, my mom, I thought I missed her when she passed away, but I miss her more now than I did when she died.

“Because she missed me coming to Carolina, me playing in the NBA, me getting married, her hanging out with my kids and my wife. Everything. Things aren’t guaranteed. You think you get to hang out with your parents tomorrow. You think that you can play another day. I just have a different perspective on being thankful for where you’re at and understanding that you take advantage of every moment you have and I tell that to the team.”

The message seems to have resonated well with the Tar Heels, who have won six of their past seven games and are in the midst of a five-game winning streak. They are projected to get in the tournament as a No. 11 seed according to On3’s latest bracketology predictions, but whether that holds or not hinges in these final two weeks.

Hubert Davis can’t say for sure how much of his team’s play of late has to do with his willingness to be open about his life, but he doesn’t know any other way.

“They know a lot of personal stuff about me,” he said. “That goes to the piece about how much time I spend with them and, I think I said on Saturday, I can’t coach ’em unless I know ’em and they can’t play for me unless I know them. To know each other, you have to know personal things.

“Does it resonate with them? I don’t know. But my job is to give them those personal experiences that I’ve had in my life. Whether they listen to it or not, I’m gonna give it to them because I think it’s important for me to communicate those things to them.”

UNC next faces Virginia Tech at 7 p.m. ET on Tuesday before closing out the season in Chapel Hill against rival Duke on Saturday.