Hubert Davis reveals lessons learned coaching JV basketball

First-year North Carolina head coach Hubert Davis took an unconventional path to coaching his alma mater, but it has shaped the way he manages the team. From a player to an analyst and a junior varsity coach, he learned a lot about basketball.

During the Final Four, one lesson Hubert Davis learned while coaching junior varsity high school basketball paid off down the stretch.

“That’s a great question,” said Davis. “Interesting. Last night, when Caleb (Love) was at the free-throw line and we were up by two and I told the assistants, if he makes the first one, I’m going to call timeout.

“And the reason — well, you might ice your player. I was, I’m calling timeout. The reason I called timeout I was in the same situation as a JV coach. We were playing a prep school team and I decided not to call a timeout. He made the first one. I didn’t call timeout. He missed the second one. They came down and I did not talk to them about when to foul, the process defensively, what we’re doing on a made or missed shot. They came down hit a 3 and we lost in overtime. I was thinking that exactly last night in the semifinal game. I said I’m not making that mistake again.”

That lesson paid off down the stretch of North Carolina’s win.

“And so to think that seven years as a head coach for the JV program obviously is on a much lesser scale, but you’re put in positions to make decisions, whether it’s in practice, games, shoot-arounds,” said Davis. “And that experience that I had on JV, that’s the first thing I was thinking about in that situation when Caleb went to the free-throw line, and that’s why I made that.”

Hubert Davis on another memory

Hubert Davis also has bad memories regarding the Kansas Jayhawks. In 1991, when the now Tar Heels head coach was a player at North Carolina, he faced Kansas in the Final Four.

“Prior to us winning the national championship in 2017, from 1991 to 2017, I had watched that game at least once every year,” Davis said in a Sunday press conference. “It’s the best team that I ever played with, with King (Rice) and Rick and Pete Chilcutt as the seniors and George Lynch, we were as connected as this team is connected now. We really felt like we had a chance to win the national championship and we came up short. That was a game that Coach Smith got two technical fouls and got kicked out, and it was an emotional game and an emotional end to a season.”