UNC Basketball: 2021-22 season preview and outlook for Tar Heels

Regardless of who roams the sideline, fans in the Dean E. Smith Center show up expecting to watch championship-level basketball. After back-to-back disappointing seasons and the retirement of Hall of Fame Head Coach Roy Williams, Hubert Davis looks to return UNC Basketball to that expected level of dominance.

A player under Dean Smith, Davis proceeded to have a 12-year NBA career before eventually returning to Chapel Hill in 2012, where he has spent the last nine seasons as an assistant and associate head coach.

In his first few months on the job, Davis has already landed commitments from four highly-rated recruits from the class of 2022, giving the Heels the current No. 7 overall class, per 247Sports, with more likely on the way. UNC also recently landed a commitment from five-star G Simeon Wilcher (‘23), who announced his intentions during Late Night with Hubert.

UNC will maintain their up-tempo style, along with many other aspects of both Smith and Williams’ systems, but Davis has stated his clear intentions to modernize their style in several key areas. This will most noticeably take the form of a 4-out 1-in look on offense, emphasizing player spacing, shooting and off-ball movement.

This modernized system comes in sharp contrast to the Heels’ traditional two-big man system which effectively crowds the paint when not surrounded with shooting. This was the case last season, somewhat nullifying the frontcourt talent of Bacot, Day’Ron Sharpe, Walker Kessler and Garrison Brooks.