“This year will determine Hubert Davis’ fate”: Insider Jeff Goodman weighs in on growing pressure at UNC 

North Carolina Tar Heels coach Hubert Davis is entering the 2025-26 season with one growing pressure towards his job. Davis is coming off of a 2024-25 campaign wherein UNC was eliminated from this year's NCAA national tournament in disappointing fashion after they were trounced by the Ole Miss Rebels on March 21 by seven points, 71-64.

During a recent interview Thursday on "The Adam Gold Show" shared on YouTube, college basketball analyst Jeff Goodman was asked about his thoughts on whether he thinks Davis and the Tar Heels are looking good with the moves they made during this offseason.

"No, not really. I mean I don't know where they're going to be this year," Goodman said. "I think it could go either way, right? It could go either way as we've seen over the last couple of years with Carolina. It’s hard to know. All I’ll say is I like the (Henri) Veesar pick up a lot. I don’t know if I love their backcourt now. It’s funny, we hammered their frontcourt a year ago.

"Now, their frontcourt is going to be their strength. Yeah, and the kid Evans coming over from Colorado State, he’s going to be, obviously, a major key for them. But this year will determine, obviously, Hubert Davis’ fate, I think, in Chapel Hill. It’ll go one way or the other," he added.

(from 23:07 mark onwards)

Davis and the Tar Heels finished the 2024-25 season with an overall record of 23-14, 13-7 during ACC play earlier this year, and last won the NCAA national championship back in 2017, now eight years ago.

North Carolina Tar Heels went to NCAA national championship game in Hubert Davis' first year

North Carolina in the 2022 NCAA national title game. - Source: Rob Carr, Getty

Hubert Davis was hired as the new head coach for the Tar Heels in 2021 after he served as an assistant tactician from 2012 to the year he was appointed. In his first season at the helm in the 2021-22 campaign, he led the Tar Heels to the 2022 NCAA national championship game. But, they couldn't finish the job as they lost to the Kansas Jayhawks by three points, 72-69.

Since then, UNC has made two of the next three NCAA national tournaments with one ending in the Sweet 16 (2024) and the next one ending in just the first round (2024).

For the 2025-26 season, North Carolina's roster will be bolstered with the likes of 7-foot center Henri Veesar from the Arizona Wildcats and spitfire guard Kyan Evans from the Colorado State Rams.