Greg: Larry Brown Offers Support for Hubert Davis

The dialogue surrounding the future of the UNC men’s basketball program, and if Hubert Davis is still the right man for the job, has stretched far across the Carolina basketball family and throughout the Tar Heel fanbase. Davis, who played for Dean Smith and coached under Roy Williams, took over the program five years ago, just three months before the college basketball world welcomed NIL legislation into an already complicated landscape.

Hall of Fame coach and former UNC guard Larry Brown, who played under Frank McGuire and Smith in the early 1960s before coaching under Smith several years later, offered his public endorsement of Davis on Sunday night.

“One, he’s a hell of a representative of our school, and everybody that knows him knows that,” Brown told Inside Carolina. “Two, we went undefeated at home. We beat Kansas, we beat Duke, beat Ohio State on the road, beat Kentucky, beat Virginia on the road, lost our very best player [Caleb Wilson]. And if you saw our very best player on the bench, you’d know how much he cared about Carolina basketball, and that must have a lot to do with Hubert and his relationship.”

Brown believes that with Wilson, UNC likely would have been able to reach the NCAA Tournament’s Sweet 16. The second team All-American and projected lottery pick missed Carolina’s final nine games with two injuries: a broken left hand and a broken right thumb.

Brown, who is the only head coach to win both an NCAA title and an NBA Championship, framed his support through the lens of Carolina’s coaching lineage, noting that continuity and shared values have long defined the program.

“I’ve always felt that way, because I know what it meant to Coach Smith,” Brown said. “Having a Carolina guy… You know everything about the program, the tradition and what it’s all about. It’s not only the wins and losses, but it’s how you deal with people, how you care about the university and the community. We all learned that from Coach Smith, and I’d just hate to see anything change.”

He pointed to the program’s history of internal succession – from Frank McGuire to Smith, from Smith to Bill Guthridge, and ultimately to Roy Williams – as evidence of the model’s strength.

“If you looked at Coach Smith’s first number of years, it wasn’t the greatest, but Chancellor [Bill] Aycock saw something in him,” Brown said. “And I kind of feel the same way about Hubert.”

The challenges of the modern landscape, from NIL and revenue sharing to the transfer portal to roster management, have proven difficult and have led to inconsistencies during Davis’ tenure, from the highs of a national title game appearance and an ACC regular season title, to missing the NCAA Tournament altogether and losing in the first round in back-to-back seasons.

Even so, Brown believes that Davis is adapting while maintaining the trust of his players.

“I think Hubert’s going in the right direction,” he said. “I know the kids in the program love him. That means a lot.”

For Brown, the message was both personal and pointed.

“I care deeply about our program,” Brown said. “And I know Coach Smith would love to have someone like Hubert running the program. I know Roy endorses him, so it can’t get any better than that.”

As Inside Carolina reported on Sunday, the consensus among sources remains that a head coaching change is expected to happen.