Photo by Jeffrey Camarati/Getty Images You’ve probably seen the stat about how many coaches UNC has had since 1952. Here’s the story of the coaching change that started that run. With the coaching change all over the new lately, there’s a stat going around that you’ve probably seen several times recently. When UNC takes the floor next season, Hubert Davis will be just the sixth North Carolina Tar Heels’ men’s basketball head coach since 1952. It’s a fairly remarkable fact for a school and fan base that has such a high bar for success. It’s even more remarkable considering that two of the coaches in that six each only lasted three years each. That group of six starts with Frank McGuire, who was hired ahead of the 1952-53 season. Within a couple years, he had led the team to the school’s first national championship. Dean Smith replaced him and turned the program into one of the most consistent and successful in the country. There is a very clear starting point for the UNC coaching fun fact: 1952. Yet, there was basketball at the university prior to that. Let’s dig back into the history books and look a time before Roy Williams, before Smith, and even before McGuire. Let’s look back at what eventually led to the changes that ended with the Tar Heels becoming the legendary program they are today. In 1945-46, Ben Carnevale led Carolina to their second ever NCAA Tournament appearance. They made it to the final of the eight-team tournament before falling to Oklahoma A&M (now Oklahoma State). However after the season, Carnevale left to take the head coach job at Navy. To get his replacement, UNC turned towards the midwest. The choice to take over was Central Missouri coach Tom Scott. A former high school coach, Scott had led the Mules to four conference championships in five seasons across two stints. In his initial seasons in Chapel Hill, he kept up where his predecessor left off, leading Carolina to 19-8, 20-7, and 20-8 seasons in his first three years. However, they didn’t bring home any Southern Conference championships, and in the years of small fields, no NCAA Tournament bids either. Things then started to dip starting in 1949-50. With a small recruiting budget and a limited ability to attract players, UNC fell to a 17-12 record. The next two seasons were ever worse. Despite getting off to good starts in both ‘50-51 and ‘51-52, Scott’s teams both finished with losing records those years. Identical 12-15 records weren’t enough to get into the Southern Conference Tournament those years, never mind the NCAA Tournament. Things began to get restless around the program, and Scott decided to take the offramp. He took an AAU coaching job back in the midwest, leaving after six seasons in charge at UNC. Looking to make a big name hire to compete with Everett Case at NC State, Carolina managed to hire St. John’s coach Frank McGuire. Despite coming off a NCAA Tournament championship game loss and UNC seemingly being a step down, he took the job, and the rest is history. As for Scott, he would later return to the state, taking the coach and athletic director job at Davidson. He finished below .500 as a coach there, finishing up after the ‘59-60 season. However, he stuck around as AD and made some pretty good hires. To replace himself on the sidelines, Scott hired Virginia high school coach Lefty Driesell. After Driesell left for Maryland following three NCAA Tournament bids, Scott hired Terry Holland. Holland would lead Davidson to an NCAAT appearance himself before leaving for Virginia. Scott retired from his AD role in 1975. As it turn out, things mostly worked out in the end for Scott. However, they especially worked out for UNC. Sources https://www.nytimes.com/1993/11/26/obituaries/tom-scott-basketball-coach-85.html https://ucmathletics.com/documents/2020/8/18//2020_21_MBB_Record_Book_Results.pdf?id=7669 https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/coaches/tom-scott-1.html https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/coaches/frank-mcguire-1.html https://davidsonwildcats.com/honors/hall-of-fame/tom-scott/92 https://s3.amazonaws.com/sidearm.sites/unc.sidearmsports.com/documents/2020/11/24/2021_Record_Book_web.pdf

Joshua Bickel-USA TODAY Sports Expectations remain relatively high heading into Hubert Davis’ first season as head coach. We’re still only about three weeks removed from the end of the season and this has easily been the most eventful offseason in recent memory for UNC basketball. It started with a “the sky is falling” narrative that formed from rumors of numerous transfers shortly after the Tar Heels’ loss to Wisconsin. That notion was seemingly overblown when Caleb Love announced his decision to return to Chapel Hill. However, five days after that is when the three-time national champion Roy Williams dropped the bombshell on everyone that he would be retiring. Of course, four days after that, Hubert Davis was hired as the next Carolina men’s basketball head coach. In his introductory press conference, the passion and dedication Davis expressed for restoring UNC hoops as well as his promise to convince Walker Kessler to come back to Chapel Hill have generated lots of optimism around the program. On Thursday, Bleacher Report released its Way-Too-Early Top 25 for the 2021-2022 college basketball season. Despite a coaching change and lots of uncertainty still regarding the roster outlook for next year, the Heels slotted in at #17. At the time of this writing, we’re still awaiting an official decision from Kessler. However, Davis did manage to make his first recruiting haul by landing Virginia transfer Justin McKoy who figures to be a natural fit in the UNC system. Neither of these players’ pending decisions were factored into the rankings and while the addition of McKoy might not change much, one would have to think the Tar Heels preseason position will look a bit different if they’re able to get both of these guys. What we do know right now is that Caleb Love will once again be leading the offense, joined by fellow sophomores Kerwin Walton and R.J. Davis in the backcourt. That could be a deadly shooting trio if things fall into place. There should be no shortage of guards/wings with Leaky Black, Anthony Harris, and Puff Johnson all set to return as well as incoming four-star freshmen D’Marco Dunn and Dontrez Styles. If Armando Bacot ultimately makes the decision to pull his name out of the draft and come back to Chapel Hill for his junior year, the Heels will at the very least have a solid core that’s capable of winning ball games. Here’s what the rest of the rankings look like: 1. Gonzaga Bulldogs (245 votes) 2. UCLA Bruins (227) 3. Michigan Wolverines (198) 4. Duke Blue Devils (193) 5. Ohio State Buckeyes (192) 6. Purdue Boilermakers (187) 7. Alabama Crimson Tide (172) 8. Kansas Jayhawks (166) 9. Baylor Bears (162) 10. Villanova Wildcats (149) 11. Florida State Seminoles (146) 12. Maryland Terrapins (131) 13. Houston Cougars (117) 14. Kentucky Wildcats (110) 15. Arkansas Razorbacks (91) 16. Michigan State Spartans (82) 17. North Carolina Tar Heels (63) 18. St. Bonaventure Bonnies (61) 19. Connecticut Huskies (58) 20. West Virginia Mountaineers (57) T-21. Oregon Ducks (54) T-21. Illinois Fighting Illini (54) T-21. Virginia Cavaliers (54) 24. Arizona Wildcats (45) 25. Syracuse Orange (38)