ESPN's Rece Davis (4-6-21)

The question is, are you ready? This is The Drive with Josh Graham. I'm walking here.

On Sports Hub Triad. What a day it's already been. I got the second dose of the vaccine in Lexington this morning.

So in 14 days, I'll be a mean, clean antibody producing machine. Robert Walsh is back in the mix. And Hubert Davis just finished his introductory press conference in Chapel Hill.

My big takeaway. Hubert is the perfect guy to sell North Carolina strengths as a program and to make the school a more attractive place for incoming recruits to play. I was doing a radio interview this morning in Florida, and one of the questions they asked me related to Hubert was, I was a guest, I should say, on a radio show in Florida. And one of the questions they had was, North Carolina has fallen off in terms of being an attractive place to play in the ACC.

Virginia has become a cooler spot. We see kids going there after they won the national title. Florida State, how many guys are playing in Tallahassee that probably should be playing for the Tar Heels? I think of Patrick Williams.

I think of Scottie Barnes. Leonard Hamilton has a better recruiting class than the one North Carolina is bringing in. Duke has always been better on the recruiting trail.

Sands, maybe a couple of years over the last decade. It's because Coach Cieszewski's greatest strength is that he's really good at adapting to the times. I don't think there's any coach who's been better in any sport at adapting than Mike Cieszewski has been. Hubert Davis is a great choice for Bubba Cunningham in North Carolina because he's going to make North Carolina a cool place to play again in the same way Mac Brown did for UNC football a couple of years ago. In Hubert's case, he can relate more to players he's going to be coaching.

Think about it. If you're going to North Carolina to play basketball, I'm pretty sure your goal is to get to the league. And as great as Roy Williams was as a Hall of Fame coach, he doesn't have that experience to know what exactly that's like as a JV player for North Carolina 50 years ago. Hubert Davis played in the Final Four. Hubert Davis played 14 years in the NBA. Hubert Davis played in the NBA Finals. And he's coached alongside Roy in all the big games over the last decade and has a national championship ring. So Hubert has experiences going into these kids' homes that Roy doesn't possess and many other coaches do not possess.

Others in the Carolina family who have decided to get into coaching do not possess. When he wears a pair of Jordans, he knows exactly what type of pair it is because he's been wearing them to play basketball way back when. Roy Williams was asked about the shoe wear all throughout this past season and his response was the folksy, I don't know. I don't give a crap. I don't know what I'm wearing on my feet.

They just give it to me and I put it on. Then of course, he knows what exactly it's like to be a black man playing at the University of North Carolina as the first revenue-generating sport African-American coach at the University of North Carolina. That is not a small thing. Going back to Mack Brown, anytime we call up Mack to come on the radio, he always finds a way to work us in.

And it's not a coincidence many of those great players they've landed have been from the Triad. Everything Mack does is calculated. When he got back into coaching after five years at ESPN, he said it's been such a great relief the way I deal with the media and marketing my program because it took me working in the media to understand you guys aren't out to get me. I thought while I was at Texas, all you guys were trying to do was snipe at me and get me.

Then I realized that's not what you're trying to do at all. So Mack realized the media is your friend. Use the media, use television as a vehicle to promote the program. Who's going to understand that better than Hubert Davis, who was on college game day for seven years?

I expect the access to be really good. If you watch the interview he did on ESPN2 last night leading up to the game, you saw that personality if you listen to his press conference that again just wrapped up you saw it as well and the emotion of talking about Roy Williams and talking about what it means to coach at the University of North Carolina. He's really good at this and he's going to market the program even better than Coach Williams because he has that experience of being on television and understands exactly how to do so a la Coach Brown. He's going to modernize the Carolina style of play.

Now the foundation is still going to be the secondary break, point to the passer, all those things that you know from North Carolina. But even though Dean taught Roy so many things and Roy was so apt to give him all the credit whenever things went well for the Tar Heels, Roy played a lot differently than Dean did. He modernized Dean's principles, Dean's style of play and I think Hubert's going to do the same thing. This is something that Brandon Robinson mentioned yesterday on the show was a part of the discussion point here where he said he had conversations with Coach Davis telling him, hey there are areas for change, there are ways you can grow this and this is what B-Rob said yesterday, Hubert might bring to the Tar Heel offense. So I think Coach Davis will still run similar things, just him being in the system playing there and the coaching in there but I think you'll see him put his own twist on it and I think you'll see a different, I still think you'll see the same style but one thing about Coach Davis, he loves shooters so I think that'll be a big thing too I think going forward like you won't see a lot of Carolina teams shoot the ball back from three because he's been a big time shooter and that's one thing that he loves guys that can shoot the ball, spread the floor, so I think that'll be one thing that I'll see very interesting going forward. I think maybe we'll have a lot more fours and fives shooting some threes.

Yeah, fours and fives shooting some threes. I put that clip online on Twitter. You could tweet us at sportsubdryant if you had thoughts on Hubert Davis' press conference.

You can give us a call at 336-777-1600. We'll get to the national title game in about 10 minutes. B-Rob said, did you watch the interview Coach Davis did on ESPN? And I did, where this happened, which I think is directly related to what B-Rob's talking about there, the idea that Hubert's not going to put players on the floor that do not know how to shoot. Hubert, I've heard that you're in need of a big.

I just want to let you know that I'm available. Not sure how much eligibility I have left. Can you shoot? Can you shoot? I play my back in action. We don't need any, we don't need any screeners.

Coach, you're out. We need some dudes. Robert, your reaction to Hubert's press conference, his personality, the way he carries himself, your first impression as somebody who's just coming off of a long week of vacation, getting back into the mix. He seems like a cool dude. I was going to start laughing there. It seems like everybody was enjoying themselves at the end of that clip. I was going to start going in with him.

It does. You don't do that if it's not somebody you like. It's not somebody who's likable. And Coach Davis has been around and every indication I get, you're not going to find the nicer person, a more well liked person than Hubert Davis in Chapel Hill. I think he's going to make North Carolina a more attractive place to play. Also yesterday, during our show, Sam Darnold traded to the Carolina Panthers from the Jets. Carolina giving up this year six, next year second and a fourth round draft pick for next year.

And with more time to think about it, I'm not against this. It makes a lot of sense for the Jets. It makes a lot of sense for Carolina. But I do think this is a reset to where Carolina was a year ago.

Just like last year, this is the quick reset button be impressed by general manager Scott Fitterer. They believe Darnold could be a franchise guy. In the same way they believed a year ago, Teddy Bridgewater could be a franchise guy. They gave him the opportunity to prove it. Teddy did not. It became clear they wanted to move off of him.

And that's why you have yesterday's headline. Darnold is 23 years old and he was valuable to the Jets. When he played Robert, the record was actually a lot better than you would think. And when he didn't play, they were historically bad. Since 2018, the Jets were 0-10 in games Darnold didn't play. 13 points per game, 150 passing yards per game.

That's worse than the statistically worse offensive NFL history for a 10-game stretch, the 76 Buccaneers. He's a valuable guy. He has some opportunity. I wouldn't want to be written off at 23 after working at a dysfunctional place at my first job.

Your first job oftentimes is cruddy. Sam Darnold should not be defined by that. This is his chance.

It's going to be an upgrade in almost every single facet. From Carolina's perspective, kind of like with Teddy, it was the least expensive and least committal option. Carolina, last year, they were not going to get Cam to agree to a short-term extension offer. I don't believe that.

And if you did, it wasn't going to be cheap. So rather than deal with that, they bring in Teddy. There wasn't the concern with health that there was with Cam.

There's not that pressure. There's not this big question looming over the franchise. I still stand behind signing Teddy over Cam Newton. Teddy wasn't that expensive. I know some are having concerns about the contract.

He wasn't that expensive. It's essentially a two-year deal, no guaranteed money on the third. With the Darnold deal, the draft compensation, it's not small. A second-round pick next year, that's a big deal. A fourth-round pick, a six-round pick, three draft picks for Sam Darnold, including his second.

That's not a small amount of compensation. But it is cheaper than Matt Stafford. It is cheaper than Deshaun, who no longer is an option considering everything that's swirling around him currently. And it's cheaper than trading up to the number four pick that the Falcons reportedly are now trying to shop. Getting the fourth-best quarterback on the board, you'd have to give up more compensation than what you gave up to get Darnold in order to take the fourth-best guy on the board. Darnold is a better option than that, and it's not committal.

Not a lot of money. Two years remaining since Carolina picked up the fifth-year option. And I think Matt Ruhle might be the only second-year coach in NFL history who could make this move. You can bail on an MVP quarterback in year one for a vet and in year two bail on that vet in favor of a younger quarterback.

Why? He was given more security than any rookie NFL coach has ever been given by David Tapper. A seven-year, $63 million contract.

When you're given that contract, you know you have at least three or four years to try and get things done. So this is something where Matt Ruhle is just, him and Scott Fitterer, Fitterer now being in his first year, has even more security than Ruhle does, I think. They're just exercising the security that they have to do what they think is an upgraded quarterback. Later this hour, we'll do our mock draft as we'll do every Tuesday leading up to the draft. We have unusual questions.

Shoot those into us. We'll get to that in honor of Hubert's press conference today. And a little over in 15 minutes. And as I mentioned, the national title game was last night.

Looking at that game, I'll tell you what I believe the story is and what the story isn't today, next on The Drive. Yes, Josh Cram has opinions. That's right. And yes, he's got attitude. That's correct. And that's exactly why you love him.

You wish I loved you that much. You're on The Drive with Josh Cram. We'll get back to last night's national championship game in just a bit, but a real special treat now as we're being joined by the host of College Game Day on ESPN, Rhys Davis, to talk about the hiring of Hubert Davis. We played his press conference in Hull earlier today from Chapel Hill. Rhys, of course, worked with Hubert for seven years before he returned to Chapel Hill on Coach Williams' staff. So first off, I just wanted to know your reaction to Hubert getting the job in the first place, because I have to imagine when Hubert left ESPN to go to Chapel Hill and become an assistant, this had to be something he thought could be a possibility. You know, Hubert referenced that in his conference today, and I remember having a conversation with him because he and I have become quite close over the years, and he called and I facilitated a conversation with some of our higher-ups when he let me know that he was going to make the move. And I sort of chuckled today because I remember he told the story just as he told me that he thought Roy was calling him in to ask him to change the taste of his Christian basketball champ, which they'd always allowed him to use the facilities there. And so he referenced the fact that he very much lives in the moment, not that he's not a planner, not that he doesn't have goals and aspirations, which he certainly does, but I think he has succeeded and excelled as a coach because of his attention to the task at hand. So I think there did come a point, probably over the last few years, though, you know, I bring it up to him and tease him about it sometimes, and his response was always the same. I was Coach William Stasch here forever.

And we even, you know, I even joked about it. We went to a restaurant that he likes in Chapel Hill the last free pandemic, the last time I called a game down there, and we went out and grabbed a bite to eat, and so I don't think he's one of those guys who has always been, you know, trying to plot a course to be able to be the head coach at North Carolina. But that said, he's also a guy who loves the university. He's a very astute basketball mind, so it really makes sense. And I was thrilled for him, and I've got a very good relationship and the utmost respect for Bubba Cunningham as well.

So I was not at all surprised that Bubba moved expeditiously to make Hubert the head coach as well-deserved and a very smart move for North Carolina, I think. The host of College Game Day, Reese Davis, with us here on Sports Hub Triad. I always love sitting next to former players for games. And when you go to Carolina or you're doing a game at Duke, or you're sitting at a game at Duke, often you have luminaries and former guys sitting around, and I love picking their brain while we watch.

And they're just guys who see the game differently, especially if you've coached in it or played it at a high level. Sitting next to Hubert for all these high-level games that you watch those seven years, working with him on College Game Day. Did you get the sense if this guy ever wanted to be a head coach somewhere someday, he would be able to thrive in it?

No question about it. Hubert and I called games together in addition to Game Day for a few years. And so we really, really enjoyed that. And I got to know him from a basketball standpoint, what was important to him and how he viewed the game. He really diagnoses things quickly. He would anticipate trends. He would see match-ups. I think all things that have served him well as he's been an assistant for Roy and will continue to serve him well as the head coach.

He's, yeah, look, you play as long as he did in the NBA and be around the guys that he's been around, plus just his. He grew up with it, and he's always been a, you know, he's a really smart guy, intuitive guy. And so he picks up on concepts quickly.

I referenced, I did an interview this morning with the North Carolina side. One of the things that I remember him talking about a lot was the Baylor zone, that, you know, they don't, not with this group, that they ran very much, if at all, this year. But, you know, a few years ago when they had a guy, I remember Hubert loved, Epi Udo, he was always wanting to learn more about styles of play and philosophies, and I remember him being really intrigued and learning a lot about the way that they play zone and matchups and whether you can, you know, switch picket roles and switch all of them and which ones do you not.

Leave all of these things that he picked up on, you know, almost immediately watching a game was really, really insightful. It showed you that if he chose to do so, that, you know, he would be a tremendous coach and be successful, and he won. Ivan brought up to him a few times over the years, I think, sort of underscoring something that he brought up in his news conference today and really talked about with us on College Game Day last night, that I brought up to him a couple of times when I've had inquiries from various people about gauging his interest in other head coaching jobs. He wanted to coach at North Carolina, and, you know, I thought his testimony today was also extraordinarily powerful because he and Leslie, his wife, have viewed that as part of their mission to have an impact on the players at North Carolina and their lives away from the floor, as well, and to incorporate their three children. You know, her oldest son, Elijah, is a terrific player, as well, for Lynchburg, and Gracie and Mike have been, they've all been part of it. It's been part of the family mission for them, and that was always really insightful to me and really spoke to the way he feels about that university. I haven't thought about it until you just mentioned it there, and I remember the answer from Hubert, but the first time I met Hubert Davis, I was a teenager, I'm gonna date myself a little bit, in the early 2000s, and Hubert came to my church in a small town in the city of Youngsville, North Carolina, and just meeting Hubert Davis, like this guy's in the NBA, and he's there. The testimony that he shared, it's something that's very genuine, very real to him, and brings me memories of that from a few decades ago.

Reece Davis with us here from ESPN and College GameDay. All right, since you're very close with him, how do you think these press conferences are gonna go? Because Roy press conferences are something we enjoyed for 18 years, these post-game press conferences.

I doubt there's gonna be Roy-isms. There might be some Hubert-isms. Have you given him some pointers here for how to give us all good sound bites here in the Carolinas?

He doesn't need it. I mean, he was so good on television, and one of the first things that my family absolutely loves Hubert. When Hubert decided to leave, my wife Lee said, I'm going to miss his laugh so much. You know, she said he's such an infectious laugh, and I think he's just an engaging guy.

He doesn't need any pointers from me. As evidenced by his interview on GameDay last night and by his performance today, he has that part of it. He has that part of it down pat, so he'll do great. The one thing that I will say is that, you know, Roy is one of my favorite guys to be around, but what was the old story?

I think Roy would allot himself, like, six or seven cuss words a year or something like that a season, and Hubert can set the over-under at half a cuss word because he's not going to say any. Now, he can forcefully say Bajibigalaweese, which is one of his favorites, and, you know, they will probably absolutely melt because his kindness and his compassion for people should not be mistaken. It is going to be a grave mistake if his opponent's misconstrued at his weakness.

It is not that. He is tough, and he is competitive, man. I mean, you know, that won't be an issue either, so anyone who mistakes his kindness and his gentle spirit for a view that is something they can take advantage of, they won't be sadly mistaken. Reese, I hope one day down the line you're going to be able to return to Wake Forest and Winston-Salem for another game day since you guys came down for the first time this past year and there weren't allowed to be fans there when the Clemson Tigers came to town, but I know when we last chatted you enjoyed Crankies, and since we weren't able to get together at the ACC tournament in Greensboro in full, I still owe you a plate of Stamies as well, so I'll make it happen on both accounts. Crankies and Stamies the next time you're around here. I will hold you to it, man.

Sounds good. Thank you so much for doing this, Reese. You bet.

There he goes. It's Reese Davis from College Game Day joining us to talk about his former colleague in Hubert Davis. Moving things along, the national title game, I'm looking at how this is being talked about today, and everybody's focused on Gonzaga, and I think that's a mistake. I don't think Gonzaga should be the story today. I get why they are, because they were unbeaten and they got blasted, but last night was more about Baylor than it was the Zags. If you didn't start following college basketball until the month of March, you might be surprised that Baylor beat this Gonzaga team, but anybody who's watched before the month of March, they understand how good the Bears have been and that they deserve to be remembered as the best team in college basketball this year. Baylor was almost unbeaten too.

That should not be lost. COVID played a role in one of their two losses. They had a two-week pause in the month of February, came back, looked shaky against Iowa State, then lost to Kansas by double digits.

This was not David and Goliath last night. Give Baylor the credit they deserve today. The Big 12 was the best conference, I think, in college basketball this year. I know the Big 10 got more teams in, but they have more teams in their league. 70% of the Big 10, or the Big 12, excuse me, got into the tournament.

70%, they have the best player, they had the best team, and the Bears left no doubt. The game fell over in one to two minutes. It was nine to nothing, 2,000 subs, a team that doesn't really get in foul trouble or fall behind. 10-point game at halftime, and you saw that great counterpunch that Baylor has to put them away. You have that great run, a nine to two run to start things out, and then they went on a run when they cut it to single digits with 14 left to go. Baylor was unrelenting because that's who they've been all year long. No excuses, I don't want to hear them from Gonzaga.

Baylor was simply the better team, and they're the story from last night. Let's go to Ed M. Winston-Salem, Winston-Salem, who wants in on Hubert Davis, what we've heard from Reece Davis just in the last few minutes, and also from Hubert and his press conference that we aired on the station today. What do you make of all the reaction we've seen, Ed?

Oh, man, I was totally blown away. I'm an emotional type of person too, like Hubert, and, you know, man, that was something else, and if I was a recruit, I'd be signing on the dot. Well, what moved you?

What was the thing you said that moved you the most? Primarily about the religion and everything about, you know, the Carolina family and all of his experiences, you know, that he's gained with Roy, Dean Smith, and about, you know, some of the players and coaches he had, you know, in the pro-rank, and you had a question, Josh, about the players, and if I understood him talking and someone asked a question, all, I think most of the players are home on spring break, if I understood. Yes, that's what he said. It's important. You should note that. Yeah, that's an important one. Yeah, one more quick thing, Josh. Have you heard any speculation about the coaches? I'm sure Sean may be taking one, and I heard rumors about, you know, a couple of other players.

I don't want to mention the name because of speculation. Oh, you can. Throw them out there. I don't care. Okay. Jeff Lebo and King Rice.

Those are the names I've heard as well. Thank you for the call, Ed. I'll tell you what I think about it. Here's the text I sent my good friend, Jeff Lebo, who was with us last week, Robert. I texted him, blink if you're an assistant coach at Carolina. That's what I texted him. Blink if you're the head, if you're the assistant coach at North Carolina. I didn't hear back from Jeff.

That'd be great. And King Rice, both, I think King Rice and Steve Robinson were asked if they would remain on staff as assistants. If they didn't get the head coaching job, I don't know if they will. Steve Robinson, 63, he has years left in coaching. Does he want to coach somewhere else other than North Carolina?

I don't know. I think it would be great if Robinson decided to stay. Sean May, that seems like a lock. Jeff Lebo, that would be great connecting things back to coach Smith. That's, I think, what Hubert's looking to do to bring in coaches that are pretty diverse. And I think in his words, connect generations. And Sean May would connect the generation of guys who were there from the transition of Dougherty to Roy. And Jeff Lebo and King Rice would represent those who have coached, or played, excuse me, under Dean. Let's go, baby.

What, kind of like this? Let's go, let's go. Back to the drive with Josh Graham on Sports Hub Triad. ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] The Carolina Panthers quarterback situation is absolutely fascinating to me.

We'll talk about that in just a few minutes. Because Hubert Davis had his introduction to his introductory press conference earlier today. And Robert, I think this sound, if we put it out of context, is a pretty funny piece of sound.

But I don't know what to have dubbed with it to make it peak funny. Out of context, this is just a really funny thing to hear Hubert Davis say when talking about Roy Williams. I know where Coach Williams lives. And I know he likes to play golf, so I can find him. He's got that infectious laugh. Reese Davis was just telling us about that infectious laugh.

Sounded kind of evil there, though. You could put the Wedding Crasher clip out. You could run, but I find you.

I will find you. Isla Fisher's the actress. That's such a good movie. Does that movie hold up? When you say that, do you mean like, does it hold up like people could possibly be offended by it? Or does it hold up like it's still a good movie? If that movie came out in 2021 with no changes made, how does it go over? I think it goes over great. It's probably one of the better comedies of the year. I don't know how, the way that Todd's presented, I don't know if that's gonna create some think pieces at his paintings and the idea of crashing weddings, that opening sequence, lying to women to get them to sleep with them. I don't know if it ages well. It's not like they're over there roofing them or something.

They're just breaking into the wedding. But that 10-year gap, or I guess that 10-year period, it was the return of the R-rated comedy. In the 80s, we were just inundated with those, right? You talk about Caddyshack, you talk about Animal House. The 80s, it was the decade of the R-rated comedy.

Airplane, I don't know if that's late 70s or early 80s, but I'm gonna count it. They had kind of a resurgence with wedding crashers and The Hangover and Old School. An underrated one, I think, is Get Him to the Greek, which is a sequel to Forgetting Sarah Marshall.

What do you think is the best of that bunch? When you're talking about that era of comedy, Step Brothers comes to mind, Anchorman. I love Anchorman just because I'm in the media, but what comes to mind to you first? The first thing that comes to mind is probably what I think is gonna be one of the top three, is Superbad.

I think it just knocks it out of the park. I can watch it. I've seen it a hundred times.

I could watch it a hundred times more. And it launched Emma Stone and Jonah Hill. And it was one of Seth Rogen's first projects.

I mean, it was the impetus for a lot of guys in that movie. Seth Rogen was in the movie? He wrote it. Seth Rogen wrote Superbad? With, what's the other guy's name? Hold on one second. I did not know Seth Rogen wrote Superbad.

That's news to me. Was it Franco? That he wrote it with?

I know he's done some projects with Franco. Evan Goldberg. Okay, Evan Goldberg. Oh, that's a really good one. How did we get on this subject? Oh, you thought that would be good if we put it side by side with Isla Fisher saying, I will find you.

I was thinking like Jaws. Dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun. I know he plays golf.

Dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun. I'll find him. Let's get to some more from Hubert Davis. He was asked about his staff.

And I think this quote here probably is what sticks out the most from this introductory presser. You can't do this job unless you're a Carolina guy. It's impossible. You can't coach here.

You can't recruit here. You can't work here unless you have been here. You've experienced it.

You have lived it. And so in terms of the staff, it's all guys that have experienced this place and believe it and have the passion and the desire that all of us have for this university and this program and these kids in this community. Okay, I'm gonna call BS on this a bit. You do not have to be a North Carolina guy to coach at North Carolina. North Carolina, like he's making it sound like if you're not a North Carolina guy, you're going to melt Indiana Jones style, Indiana Jones villain style, if you show up and you sit in that office and you coach.

Like if Mark Few or Jay Wright or Tony Bennett or Brad Stevens sat in that chair, I think they would be able to dress a basketball team, take it out on the floor and win some games. But like you alluded earlier, Carolina fans eat that stuff up. They do. They love that gatekeeper stuff.

They do. Now, let me be clear. I'm fine if you're hiring in the family. You wanna keep your alumni happy.

You have a really cool thing going that is truly unique, not rare, unique, and you wanna keep that together. But it's a stretch to say nobody can do this job unless they went to that university. That's being dramatic. 336-777-1600 is the phone number. He was asked about the staff. Greg Barnes will give us some details on where he's leaning with some of the staff hires.

Turns out it's not all roses and rainbows for former Carolina guys. Kendall Marshall's a former Tar Heel. He was on Roy Williams' staff. Not an assistant coach, but a part of the staff, I think, doing a lot of the video cuts and breaking down video for the team.

He just put on Instagram in the last 24 hours, who's hiring? Hubert's gonna have an opportunity to pick his staff. Roy surrounded himself with a ton of former Tar Heels. It doesn't mean that Hubert's gonna wanna surround himself with the same Tar Heels. He wants it to be an eclectic group.

And as he said there, connect people to history. Maybe bring in somebody who's been coached by Guthridge, bring in somebody who was coached by Roy, and bring in somebody who was coached by Dean. Get some head coaching experience in there. That's why Jeff Lebo and King Rice are being rumored. Jeff still hasn't responded to my text, by the way. I'm sure he's been blinking though. You think?

It's kinda hard not to. I texted him, blink if you're gonna be an assistant at Carolina. Unless he's been sleeping since you sent that text, then I think you got something good there. He's been blinking.

I think that's the case. We had him on last week. Let's hear more from Hubert. This was an emotional part of the press conference, him talking about Roy, who we didn't expect to be at the presser today. The time that he was here, he's the best coach for this university. He's the best coach for this team. He's been the best coach for this university, and the best coach for this community. And I absolutely love him to death.

And I'm so thankful for just giving me a chance and giving me an opportunity. I can't believe that he's here today. I was doing some interviews, and somebody told me that Coach Williams was in the office, and I wanted to get all those interviews done because I just needed to go see him. It's pretty emotional, him talking about the opportunity that Roy gave him. He says that he wants to keep him in an office, make sure his office is still his office and he could come home to it any time, just so it feels like Roy's still there for Hubert. And it bothered him that Dean Smith was only given what seemed like a basement in the Smith Center after he left. Wes even told us about that when he joined us a few weeks ago. But that was Hubert and a couple of notes from the press conference. Let's go to Mark in Greensboro.

Oh, here we go. UNCG, super fam, Mark in Greensboro. What do you got for Carolina fans, Mark? I just think, I posted that I was disappointed on Twitter that Wes didn't get it. And I swear to God, my mentions were ablaze with people who were like, well, if you're not convinced now, the only thing I said, and I think you and I were in agreement on this, is that Hubert doesn't have that coaching experience.

That's it. I'm happy for the guy. He's like the nicest guy in the world.

Oh, I'm so happy. But my point is, is like, I also agree with you on the dramatics of good God. Like no one else can coach North Carolina, but it's the most ridiculous thing in the world. Yeah.

All right. It would be like, if you had, you know, like this wealth of experience at, you know, so like you mentioned Mark View. Like if Mark View wanted the job, Yeah, I think a Carolina fan took out your microphone.

That's how it goes. You know who I think it was? I think it was B. Dot, because B.

Dot, he's mad at me right now. He just tweeted, it wasn't a stretch nor was it dramatic for Coach D to say you can't coach here without being a Carolina guy. It's a fact. You wouldn't understand as a sports guy, you have to be a fan to understand the loyalty and tradition at UNC. Well, it's not a fact, right? You can't coach here without being a Carolina guy. Well, it's not a fact, right? You can literally be a coach unless you melt Indiana Jones style.

You can be a basketball coach at North Carolina without going to North Carolina. I understand what Hubert's trying to say there. I get it, but it is dramatic. And everybody who else who's not a Carolina fan who hears that, they roll their eyes at it as they should. I loved almost everything that Hubert had to say.

But that quote, as soon as he said it, I laughed out loud. Nobody, nobody else can do that. We've got, oh, this is not the guy I was just referring to on Twitter. This is D. Bot, who's joining us now. D. Bot is apparently a Carolina fan. D. Bot, your thoughts. D. Bot is a damn Carolina fan. And you listen to Mark or Max or whatever the hell his name was, the U.S.C.C.

guy over there that just called me. Shut your mouth. You don't speak on Carolina affairs and neither do you, Joshua Graham or Joshua Graham.

This is where I put things around. Let me tell you all something from part of your nation. Coach Hubert Davis was 100% correct. You cannot coach at Carolina if you are not a part of the Carolina family because you are not experienced and versed in the tradition that is Carolina basketball. Why does that matter?

Because it super matters because you need to know the lineage. That passion that comes from Hubert Davis, that's what won us over today. Like, we were skeptical. Oh, man, we were thinking West and we were thinking maybe a Jay Wright and we were thinking maybe a Max Kelly too, even though he blew it in the national championship. This guy can't even get over the hump at Gonzaga in the Western Conference or whatever the hell conference they're in where he plays things that he's never heard of all season. But you think he's gonna come over and know the tradition of Carolina legacy?

Hell no. The correct choice in this situation was Hubert Davis. Not only was he not only of the pedigree of Coach Williams and Coach Guthridge and Coach D. Smith, he's also an ex-player.

He went lead. He's only 50 years old. Again, he pulled on our emotional strings today. We got to know that man. We got to know the tradition and the legacy that he will continue to push as a Let me ask you this question.

Yes, Gosh, what's wrong? Okay. I agree with you. Hubert was the right choice. He was the right choice for North Carolina. But if Brad Stevens was hired to be the coach, your reaction would not be the North Carolina basketball team's not gonna be able to field a team this year, right?

Let me tell you something. No, I would not have, Josh, but I would not have been happy with that pick. Personally, you know, just like the guy, Mark, Max, Milken, whatever his name was from UNCG, I wanted West Miller too. I'm a huge West Miller fan. I was 100% against Hubert Davis.

Even though I love to, even though everybody knows, I'm rooting for everybody black. I was not a Hubert Davis fan. Hubert Davis told me in these last 24 hours when him asking the dude, hey, can you shoot?

We don't need no screen setters. Oh, that got me fired up. Then today, the way he owned that press conference, how vulnerable he was. We know he has a white wife. We know he lost his mom when he was 16. We know he hasn't seen his dad in a year.

My God, how much more vulnerable in certain times can he get. Not to mention the players before and current love him. The best pick we could have had was Hubert Davis. I'm convinced. I'm all in.

And Cuyahoga Nation is ready to run through a wall for Coach Hubert Davis. Thank you so much, DBOT. Thank you very much for your time, Joshua Dram.

Anytime. There he goes. That's DBOT. It sounds a whole lot like our guy BDOT, who is the unofficial voice of the Tar Heels, the unofficial mascot of the Tar Heels.

All right, let's get some more details. Did North Carolina ever reach out to Brad Stevens or Mark Few? Who's gonna be on the assistant coaching staff? Greg Barnes. I bet he knows from Inside Carolina.

He'll join us next. Here's your mic check. Check.

Mic check. Check. Check. Check. Check. Check. Check. Check. Check. Check. Check. Check. Check. Check. Check. Check. Check.

Check. Buckle in, kids, because I think we're about to learn something. Somebody that is literally among the best covering our favorite sports teams here in the state of North Carolina. Greg Barnes now joins us from Inside Carolina. Played a role in breaking the news yesterday that Hubert Davis is the new head coach at North Carolina. Broken a ton more stories over the years as well.

Been at it for a while. This is something I've been wanting to get answered by either you or C.L. Brown or somebody who's been in the know and talking to a ton of Carolina alumni as it stands with Wes Miller versus Hubert Davis. Hubert, of course, ended up getting the job, but I've seen from a ton of different reports that some of the Carolina family wanted Wes to be the guy instead of Hubert. Just how split was the Carolina family, you think, Greg?

And we appreciate you spending the time on what I'm sure has been a busy day. Well, certainly there were segments of the Carolina family that wanted both guys. And I really think if you go back to something that the Hubert said, he talked about, you've got the Dean Smith family, you've got the Roy Williams family. It's all one family.

You've got different segments within. And I think a lot of the older players really wanted Hubert just because of their knowledge of him and his understanding of what Dean Smith meant as well as what Roy Williams meant. And I think with Wes, his time is coming.

He's very young. And this is me speculating. You have to wonder, Hubert's 50, I think Wes is 36.

There's a pretty easy transition there down the road if they choose to go that way. But certainly the strong internal pool, for whatever reason, I don't have the answer for you, was Hubert, and that's why he got the job over Wes. We heard in some of your reporting, and I think CL had it as well with the News & Observer, that candidates were asked, multiple candidates, that if you didn't get the head coaching job, would you be willing to be an assistant for the new staff? And I don't think that's a question you ask Hubert Davis, which I think showed us kind of where they were leaning, but we see the reports of King Rice maybe being a part of this staff.

Steve Robinson, I think it's a question. He's 63, is he gonna retire? Does he have years remaining? And if he does have years remaining, does he wanna be alongside someone he's been coaching with?

The last nine years, where do you think that stands? Who do you feel pretty confident is gonna be a part of Hubert's staff? Well, I think, as you mentioned, Steve Robinson is 63. He was a Roy Williams guy. I don't see him on this next staff. I haven't heard anything to suggest that he would be.

You mentioned King Rice, he's won. You know, another North Carolina product who's been a head coach for a long time, 20 years, is Jeff Lebo. He's no longer a head coach. He's actually, well, he is a head coach. He's a head coach at a high school right now. Yeah, East Carteret, I texted with Jeff. He's a friend of mine, and I texted him, blink if you're an assistant coach at North Carolina.

He hasn't texted me back, but if he does, I'll let you know, Greg. Yeah, but those are two pretty clear options right there, just in terms of guys who either are a head coach right now, have been, have a lot of experience, and both of those guys played with Hubert, which I think is noteworthy. But then he also mentioned he won somebody from the Roy Williams era. So there are not many head coaches in that group.

C.B. McGrath is one that, of course, was down at Wilmington. But you have to think some of those guys currently on staff, or at least last year with Roy Williams, they may be options as well.

It may be Sean May, somebody like that. Greg Barnes with us here. Inside Carolina, read his stuff.

It's about as good as you're gonna find on all things North Carolina. What was your biggest takeaway from Hubert's comments today? Well, I think with Hubert, you never haven't been a head coach. He's only been an assistant coach for nine years.

I think he needed to calm the masses. He needed to say, look, I'm confident in what I'm doing. I have a good background. I played in the NBA. I learned from Roy.

I learned from Dean. And I think he did that. We asked him some pretty pointed questions about style of play in recruiting. He gave very general answers, which is fine.

He's only had the job for about 24 hours. But I think he did what he needed to do in terms of connecting with the fan base, settling them down, and really letting people know who he's about, what he's about. He talked a lot about his relationships with Dean and with Roy, about his faith, all of which are very important in making him who he is.

And so I thought he did a good job. Then we see, you said he spoke about recruiting in vague terms. It wasn't very vague when he was asked about Walker Kessler, and he said he's a Carolina guy.

Now, with Inside Carolina, it's the reason why I wanted to have you on today. You guys cover recruiting about as well as anybody, and that, I think, relates to the transfer portal as well. How surprised would you be, since he's still sitting in the portal, if he decided to recommit to North Carolina now that Hubert is the coach? Well, clearly Hubert thinks he's got a chance, because you don't make that kind of an impassioned plea for a kid to reconsider if you don't think. And all indications are there's going to be some conversations between the two parties. Hubert was on staff that Walker decided to leave, and we know that a lot of that was not about playing time. It was about how he was being utilized. So when Hubert talks about knowing that the game has changed, knowing that they need to do a little bit better job in terms of versatility with their picks, that's kind of what Walker's talking about. So he has not shut the door yet.

We'll have to see all those communications go. I do have a hard time seeing Kessler coming back, but I've been wrong plenty of times before. Robert, can we play this piece of sound from Hubert last night, where he was on, we had Reece Davis on a little while ago, but this piece of sound stood out to me, and it's what stood out to Brandon Robinson, too. He sent me this on social media that, make sure you listen to what he asked, or how he responded to Alfonso Ellis.

This was from college game day last night. Hubert, I've heard that you're in need of a big. I just want to let you know that I'm available. Not sure how much eligibility I have left. Can you shoot? Can you shoot?

I played my back in action. We don't need any, we don't need any screeners. No. Tell us, you're out. We need some dudes.

We don't need any screeners. Can you shoot if you're a big guy? B-Rob said, eh, I've talked to him about this. I feel like this is something where you might see more fours and fives, shooting threes. I think Hubert's a really smart guy. Do you think maybe some of this messaging is related to getting to this conversation with Walker?

Well, certainly so. And as I said, that's what Walker wants. He believes, his family believes, that they were kind of sold on the idea of him kind of merging into this Luke May type of figure.

There's a lot of things we can discuss about that comparison, but that's kind of what he envisions himself to be as an outside shooter who can step out, kind of a new wave of big guys who just happens to be seven foot tall. So there's some placating that has to take place. There's some true recruiting that has to take place, but there also has to be some honesty. And if they think he can do that just a little bit, then go for it. But as Hubert has said, you have to want to be in North Carolina.

You have to understand that he's going to tell you the truth. And if Kessler can accept that, he had a hard time accepting it when Roy taught him that. But if he can accept that from Hubert, and Hubert's willing to make some changes, maybe there's a chance that Walker ends up back in North Carolina. Last thing for Greg Barnes of Inside Carolina. Did they contact Stevens, Few, or Jay Wright? Yes, yes, and yes. Now, to the extent of, did they bring him in for interviews? I don't know that that happened.

Were there conversations? Yes. As Bubba told us on Thursday, he sees this as one of the, as probably the best job in America.

I think you and I can agree that it's one of the top five jobs in America, no doubt. And so when you're in that situation, you have to reach out to some of the best lines in the game. And those guys will keep you time and energy and those guys will keep you time of day. Does that mean they're coming? No, of course not, but they'll listen. And so I think Bubba had to make his case to some of those guys. And if there wasn't ground there, then you go ahead and say, you know what? Well, we tried, we wanted to see what their response was, and then we would make sure that we've got our guy in Hubert.

Out of those three guys, did you ever feel at any point that there was some ground there that maybe they were gonna give more than the time of day to Bubba Cunningham? No, I did not. All right. Greg Barnes, Inside Carolina. Great work this past week as always, Greg. Thank you so much for squeezing us in today. Sure thing. Thanks, Josh. It's Greg Barnes from Inside Carolina.