CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – Making the NCAA Tournament and winning a game at the First Four might constitute a successful season for some college basketball programs.
North Carolina isn’t one of them.
Though the late-season surge that saw the Tar Heels win eight of their final 10 games to sneak into the bracket as the 68th team in a 68-team field saved Hubert Davis’ team from the indignity of missing the NCAA Tournament for the second time in three years, it did nothing to take the heat off the fourth-year coach.
It only upped the ante for the 2025-26 campaign.
With a general manager already in place and a new athletic director set to take over next summer, both Davis and the Tar Heels program find themselves at a crossroads. But if the former UNC star is feeling the pressure of what is shaping up to be a win-or-else season, he’s not showing it.
“Every year is important here at Carolina,” Davis said. “I can’t remember a time when the expectations haven’t been at the highest level. So it’s really the same for me. The things I always focus on are how you prepare, how you practice and how you play. I’m focused on the process.”
In an effort to ease the pressure and live up to those perpetually high expectations, Davis has attacked the offseason rebuild of his roster with the kind of urgency that reflects the pivotal nature of the upcoming season.
It’s an approach that also addresses the most glaring shortcoming that held his Tar Heels back in 2024-25.
Go big or go home.
Thanks to the addition of three transfers standing 6-foot-11 or taller, UNC will have a much more traditional look about it this season.
“Last year we were really small and it hurt us in regards to getting second-chance points, which has always been a staple of Carolina basketball,” Davis said. “It hurt us rebounding the basketball on the defensive side, too. So getting bigger was a huge goal for us and I think we’ve achieved that.”
Henri Veesaar, an experienced and versatile 7-foot, 235-pound junior who was a key contributor to Arizona’s run to the NCAA Tournament last spring, 6-foot-11 Alabama transfer and Chapel Hill native Jarin Stevenson and 7-foot project Ivan Matlekovic, who spent his freshman season at nearby High Point, are all taller than the tallest player on UNC’s roster last season.
But Davis’ biggest catch, at least in its potential impact, didn’t come out of the transfer portal.
Caleb Wilson is a 6-foot-9 freshman forward who comes to Chapel Hill with 5-star credentials and a skill set that should allow him to make an immediate impact on both ends of the floor. He’s long and explosive, with the ability to score both around the rim and on the perimeter. And according to Davis, “he’s always in a position of listening and learning and wanting to get better.”
The increase in size should help the Tar Heels to return to a much more familiar offensive style than they were forced to play with a smaller lineup.
“We’re always an inside-out team. That’s who I am as a coach,” Davis said. “Last year our inside had to come through penetration more so than post. This year we can go penetration, post and offensive rebounding. I’m really excited about that and seeing how much more efficient we can be in the paint with the added size we have.”
The inside game isn’t the only area that’s grown taller.
After sporting one of the smallest guard tandems in the ACC a year ago with 6-foot RJ Davis and 6-foot-1 Elliot Cadeau, Davis made a concerted effort to add size in the backcourt to help improve a defense efficiency that ranked an uncharacteristic 143rd nationally last season.
While 6-foot-3 senior Seth Trimble, the team’s only holdover of note, and 6-foot-2 Colorado State transfer Kyan Evans project to be the opening day starters, the play of highly-rated freshmen Derek Dixon (6-foot-3) and Isaiah Denis (6-foot-5) during UNC’s summer workouts will make it difficult for Davis to keep them off the floor.
“You can see it in the way they compete and play,” Davis said. “It wouldn’t surprise me that by the time they leave Carolina, it wouldn’t surprise me to see both of their jersey numbers up in the (Smith Center) rafters.”
That’s a high standard, for sure, considering the names of those whose numbers have already been honored. But those aren’t the most important banners hanging above the Tar Heels’ home floor.
The measure of success at UNC has always been in its team’s success. And it’s been eight years since the Tar Heels added to their collection of six national championships and 18 ACC Tournament titles.
And the pressure is mounting on Davis.
Although he remains popular because of his Carolina blue bloodlines and a Final Four appearance in his rookie season of 2022, patience among the UNC faithful has begun to run thin after nearly missing out on the NCAA Tournament for the second time in three years last March.
Even though the Tar Heels did sneak into the bracket, much to the surprise of most Bracketologists, being the 68th team in a 68-team field isn’t cause for celebration in Chapel Hill. With a new athletic director set to take over in 2026, this could be a “go big or go home” season for Davis at his alma mater.
If it is, he’s not backing down from the challenge.
“The expectations here are real and they are at the highest level every year,” he said. “I’ve experienced it as a player and as a coach. I love that type of pressure. North Carolina should never waver from those standards. I just want this team to reach its full potential. I want to be one of the better teams in the country and we’re going to work really hard to do that.”
