Hubert Davis gives early impression of incoming transfers, freshmen

North Carolina added an exciting group of freshmen and transfers to their roster this offseason that has already been working with the team this summer. Two freshman and four transfer players have joined the Tar Heels so far, and at a recent summer press conference, head coach Hubert Davis was asked if anything has surprised him so far from his new additions.

“Well nothing is a surprise to me, I really love this group,” Davis said. “We’ve been together all summer, individual workouts, practices, spending time with each other, breakfast, lunch, dinners. And one of the things that I tell everybody in order to play for me, like the biggest thing for me is relationships. You can’t play for me unless you know me, and I can’t coach you unless I know you.”

While the attention during the offseason is typically focused on getting new players acclimated to the system and improving them as much as one can ahead of the upcoming season, Davis is more worried about their camaraderie with the team and their relationship and trust with him.

“So the only way that you can know me and I can get to know you is for us to spend a ton of time together and that’s what we’ve been doing is just spending a lot of time together. Just getting to know each other and building those relationships, and when you have relationships, the building the chemistry on the basketball court is the easy part,” Davis explained.

Elliot Cadeau and Zayden High represent the freshman of Davis’ incoming class, a five-star point guard and a four-star center that both rank within the top 10 for their respective positions in the 2023 class according to On3’s Industry Rankings.

Their youth could be valuable to North Carolina’s team this season, but so will some experience, which has been brought by Harrison Ingram, Cormac Ryan, Jaelyn Withers, and Paxson Wojcik. The foursome has combined for 1,424 points, 683 rebounds, and 312 assists in more than 3,700 minutes in their collegiate careers, and themselves along with UNC’s freshman have met the expectations and progress that Davis anticipated so far this offseason.

“I guess at the beginning of the summer you know where you wanted to be. You didn’t know how necessarily you were going to get there, but you knew where you wanted to go and where you wanted to be. And now being here, the latter part of July, that’s exactly where I wanted to be,” Davis said. “Personally for me, I’m in a great spot. For the team, we’re in a great spot. And I just like the makeup of this team and I like where we are right now, I’m very happy with it.”