After romping past San Diego State in their First Four game earlier this week, fans were hoping that Hubert Davis and North Carolina were ready to turn the page on a disappointing season and embark on a deep NCAA Tournament run. But it turned out that the new Tar Heels were the same as the old Tar Heels: UNC got bounced in the first round by Ole Miss on Friday, their furious second-half rally not quite enough to overcome the hole they'd dug themselves in the first half — an all-too-familiar script this season.
The selection committee gave Davis a (arguably undeserved) second chance, the opportunity to erase the memory of a regular season in which his team went just 20-12 overall — including a dismal 1-12 in Quad 1 games. But the Heels declined to take advantage, and now they're back where they were a few weeks ago: asking some very tough questions about the future of the program, and Davis' role in it.
Depending on who you ask, it's not much of a question at all. Plenty of fans gave up on the Davis era a long time ago, tired of the same mistakes repeating themselves. It's unclear whether the UNC administration agrees, but the new contract the coach signed over the summer creates an opening if they do.
What is Hubert Davis' buyout at UNC? New contract coffers an opening
Despite the fact that he and the school agreed to it last July, Davis' extension remained under wraps until just a few weeks ago. It bumps his base salary from $400,000 to $1.25 million annually, and tacks two more years onto the original deal he signed on the heels of UNC's Final Four run back in 2022.
But that doesn't mean that moving on from Davis is now a non-starter. Quite the opposite, in fact: Davis' new buyout is his base salary (that $1.25 million mark) multiplied by however many years he has remaining on his contract. So, just hypothetically, if UNC decided it wanted to let Davis go after this most recent NCAA Tournament flop, it would pay a buyout of $1.25 million times five years — or $6.25 million, not nothing but hardly an exorbitant amount as far as buyouts go.
Whether Carolina has the stomach to let a favorite son go right now is another matter. But we've seen schools bite far larger bullets to get rid of coaches who had outstayed their welcomes.