North Carolina basketball: Hubert Davis provides update on transfers

First-year North Carolina basketball coach Hubert Davis has transformed the roster into his image in his first offseason. The longtime assistant and former player took over the Tar Heels on Apr. 5, just four days after the retirement as his former boss Roy Williams. Davis became the first African-American head coach in school history.

The first step in Davis’ plan to overhaul the roster was to add depth and versatility. The Tar Heels had lost multiple key players from 2020-21 to the transfer portal since the end of the season. In an attempt to replace the departing players, Davis added transfers Justin McKoy, Brady Manek and Dawson Garcia to the North Carolina roster.

“All three of them have just been fantastic on and off the court,” Davis told reporters during a Tuesday press conference. “Going into the summer, we looked at our team and just, what do we want and what do we need. We needed versatile bigs, we needed more depth. When I took the job, the only true big that we had was Armando [Bacot]. So, we needed more depth, we needed more versatility. After losing Garrison [Brooks] and Day’Ron [Sharpe] and Walker Kessler, Armando needed some help. I couldn’t have asked for three better players to join our team.

Davis went on to individually comment on all three transfers and provided insight on their future roles.

Justin McKoy

Virginia transfer Justin McKoy started four games for the Cavaliers last season. He averaged 3.5 points per game before deciding to make an interconference move.

“Justin McKoy, he’s had two years at Virginia and his versatility, being able to play on the wing and also at the power forward position,” said Davis. “He’s an outstanding defensive player, rebounder. From an offensive standpoint he’s a guy that and score inside and out, and I’ve always loved coaching those guys and I hated playing against those type of guys.”

Brady Manek

Brady Manek is using his free year of eligibility, given out by the NCAA during the COVID-19 pandemic, to play his fifth season. As a four-year starter at Oklahoma, Manek averaged 12 points per game and shot 37.4 percent on three-pointers.

“We were fortunate enough to get Brady Manek,” said Davis. “He’s a four-year starter at Oklahoma. I think there was a stat that nobody in Big 12 history over 6-foot-7 has made more three-pointers than Brady Manek. So now you have a guy with size at 6-foot-9 that can stretch the floor, can give us spacing on the offensive end, he’s a really good rebounder, outstanding passer. Over the summer in our practices, pick-ups and individual workouts he’s even more skilled than I thought he was. So, I’m just so excited to have him here at Carolina.”

Dawson Garcia

Dawson Garcia made the Big-East All-Freshman team in 2020 after averaging 13 points and 6.6 rebounds for Marquette. Following a coaching change, he decided to join transfers McKoy and Manek at North Carolina.

“Dawson Garcia, he was a guy that we recruited out of high school and thought we had a really good chance of getting him,” said Davis. “He went to Marquette, and we got a second try at him. Dawson is another big that, from an offensive standpoint, just has tremendous versatility being able to score around the basket and on the perimeter. One of the things that people don’t realize about Dawson is he’s a lockdown defender. He can legitimately defend one through five and so, from a defensive standpoint, that brings a lot of versatility to us.”