Hubert Davis on offense, expanding rotation after first season leading UNC basketball

For the first time since playing in the national championship game in New Orleans, North Carolina basketball coach Hubert Davis sat at a podium and spoke to the media.

Here are five takeaways from his Wednesday news conference:

An expanded rotation?

With four returning players from last year’s starting five that lost to Kansas in the national championship game, Davis will have plenty of experience to mix with UNC’s incoming freshman group. Heavily reliant on the Tar Heels’ starters last season, Davis said he would welcome a deeper rotation next season. But, ultimately, he said the depth of Carolina’s rotation largely depends on the players.

“The players determine what the rotation is and how much time they get,” Davis said. “So, personally, I don’t like playing five. I really believe when we played Kansas, it was the first time all year that I thought they were tired.

“I want to have a bigger rotation, but I’m not going to give people playing time. I’m going to give everyone an opportunity, 100%. Every day of practice, you have an opportunity to play — plain and simple, period, the end.”

Jalen Washington update

Incoming freshman forward Jalen Washington, who missed his senior season after tearing his anterior cruciate ligament and partially tearing his meniscus in his his right knee, is recovering well, Davis said.

“Jalen can do everything except five-on-five,” Davis explained. “He’s doing all individual workouts, five-on-zero, doing running, doing strength and conditioning. He’ll be able to do five-on-five right at the beginning, when everyone comes back for the fall semester.”

Davis did not hold back his enthusiasm when it came to the Indiana native.

“I’m really excited about him,” Davis said. “I know he got to miss his senior year of high school, but he’s a really, really talented player, and I’m really excited about playing him out there on the floor. He’s going to be great next year.”

Diversifying the offense

Despite having an offense that averaged 77.9 points per game throughout the regular season, Davis wants his team to get out more in transition. According to Synergy, the Tar Heels ranked in the 87th percentile in transition, scoring 1.109 points per possession.

“At the beginning of the year, I told them I wanted to average in the mid-80s,” Davis said. “I like to play faster.”

Davis also discussed adding more screens to the offense and utilizing more players in post-up situations.

“One of the things that we didn’t do much of, and I’d like to do more this year, is more screens — off-ball, down screens and flare screens — and post some different guys up,” Davis said. “The only person that we posted up consistently was Armando [Bacot], but I think Puff [Johnson] and Dontrez [Styles] and Leakey [Black] are really good post-up players.”

According to Synergy, North Carolina utilized screens in only 3.2 percent of its possessions last year.

Having a body of work

Last season, Davis could only sell players on what he and the staff envisioned Carolina basketball would look like following the retirement of former UNC coach and Hall of Famer Roy Williams. Now, with a year leading the program under his belt, the second-year head coach can sell recruits and potential transfers on what his version of Carolina basketball is.

“The great thing about it now is you have a full body of work throughout the year to see how we play,” Davis said.

Davis said his program is “bound by spacing, balance and movement.”

No more midseason additions

Will Shaver graduated early and joined the Tar Heels midway through the 2021-22 season. Though he didn’t play in any games, Shaver got valuable experience practicing against a group that would advance to the national championship game.

“He’s been a part of practice; obviously, he was with us during our run,” said Davis, when asked how much it benefited Shaver to enroll early. “He has a clearer picture of how hard we have to work, just to put yourself in a position to be a player and to have a chance to be in the rotation and be out there on the floor.”

Despite the benefits, Davis didn’t mince words at the possibility of adding a player during the season again.

“I think it was very hard,” Davis said. “I won’t ever do that again.

“The benefit that Will, personally, got from having that experience I’m very happy with. He is in a great spot now because he came early. Just in terms of, you know, the season, how busy it was coming in as a freshman in the middle of the year, I think it’s very difficult.”

This story was originally published June 16, 2022 at 5:10 AM with the headline "Hubert Davis on offense, expanding rotation after first season leading UNC basketball."