A Duke Fan’s Case For Not Firing UNC’s Coach

I react to UNC firing Hubert Davis and lay out why it feels too early, even coming from me as a Duke fan. I walk through the results year by year, weigh the reasons people wanted him gone, and argue that fan impatience is shaping decisions more than the full coaching picture. 
• The mixed emotions of a Duke fan defending UNC 
• The five-season timeline from title game to early exits 
• Why the 2022 title run changes the baseline 
• The 2023 preseason number one collapse and player accountability 
• The 2024 one seed and why the Sweet 16 matters 
• Injuries, roster limits, and how single moments swing March Madness 
• Recruiting expectations and donor pressure at a blue-blood program 
• The bigger theme of patience when judging coaches 
So please make sure to like, subscribe, comment, tell anyone who’s anyone about the show. 

Transcript

A Duke Fan Feels Conflicted

SPEAKER_00 0:00

What's up everybody? It's your favorite show's favorite show. Get a bucket. I'm your host, Trey, as usual. Hope you're all having a wonderful, wonderful day. Now, I just gotta say, we just gotta get right on into it. Y'all know I'm a Duke fan, so this one on one hand makes me excited. On the other hand, I feel a little bit bad. And on the other hand, I feel like I'm in the alternate universe. I gotta talk about these boys and try to come to the defense of somebody from a UNC. That's right, I'm talking about UNC, ladies and gentlemen. North Carolina. They just fired their head coach, Hubert Davis. Now, as a sports fan, it's very tough to see. I don't like seeing people get fired by so much, to be clear. I like everybody get their paper. But as an African-American male, I would like to say it does suck to see a minority lose his job. Especially when I feel like he didn't really deserve it too much, right? We're talking about five seasons of play, okay? 2022. Hubert Davis leads UNC to the title game. I understand you if you feel like those are Roy's boys, meeting Coach Roy's former team. I get you. I hear you. I hear the fact that he was up 15 at the half and you lose by three. I hear you. You also lost one of your best players during the game. I think that factors in. But again, you got to the big game. You got to the big dance. You got to the title game. That's gotta factor in for something. 2023. You were the preseason number one team, and then y'all don't end up hitting March Madness because you lost a good a good amount of games. I hear that. I hear the gripe from UNC fans. I genuinely do. But I think the players gotta be culpable as well, too, right? I mean, they they played the damn game. I'm just saying. 2024, you were the number one seed. So after you did not make Marge Madness, you become a number one seed. You lose in the Sweet 16, but again, you got to the Sweet 16. That's nothing to overly scoff at. My Blue Devils right now, if we lost to St. John's, would I be hurt? Yes. Would I call this season a failure?

unknown 1:49

Eh.

Reasons Fans Wanted Him Gone

The Case For Keeping Him

Roy Williams Context And The Hypothetical

Why Fan Patience Matters

Final Take And Listener Question

SPEAKER_00 1:51

Because again, Sweet 16 is nothing to be guaranteed. We almost lost to Sienna in the first round. As a one seed. That's happened. So again, one seed for you for UNC in 2024, I respect it. Now, 2025, you lose in the first round. That was RJ Davis's final season. Eh, like to be clear, Drake Powell is the only player from that team to go to the NBA. And he was not the best player on that team at that point in time. Ian Jackson was the highest-rated recruit that season, higher than Drake Powell. Ian Jackson is still in college. So again, 2025, you didn't really have but so much and you lose in the first round. 2026, this season, again, you lose in the first round. They were up. Yes, you did not have your best player in Caleb Wilson due to injury. So again, ladies and gentlemen, there's some j that's a lot that happened during his tenure. And and some things were justifiable, to be clear. Why should we fire Hubert Davis? Well, I remember when he actually went to the to the Final Four, right, in the title game. I said to my boy, the sad thing is this could potentially set Hubert up for failure. Because the fans are going to be expecting him to get to the title game again pretty soon. They're gonna have unloft, they're gonna have very unlofty expectations going forward. And I think we've hit that point now. Again, to fire him, reasons why. You lost the leads in the championship game in 2022, and then also 2026 as well. I hear you. You could say that you have a gripe with him not recruiting the best, especially when you're looking at Durham, Bull City, right? Duke Blue Devils. We've been doing our thing over the last couple seasons. And then I hear you if you're saying that maybe you lost support from your donors. Because I mean, that's it's it's business at this point in time. I get that. But why should we keep him? Well, we got to remember, he got to the title game in 2022, and they were a number eight seed. That's nothing to scoff at, ladies and gentlemen. Again, yes, that was Roy Williams' former team, Roy's boys. Still, Hubert Davis is the one that got them there. 2025, again, like I said, you didn't have so much. 2023, to excuse him a little bit, he still takes blame. Hubert Davis, meaning. But the players got to be culpable too. Because again, they were just in the title game, just preseason number one. They're the ones who were playing the games. It's effort. And maybe they didn't have enough effort. And it shows that it wasn't completely on the coach because the number the very next season they were a number one seed. And you can't say, oh, well, they brought in good players, and that's the reason why. No, they had basically the same team. So again, ladies and gentlemen, I can't blame them, but so much. And again, he coached a number one seed team. Gotta give him credit for that. 2026, this season. I'm not gonna give him too much slack because hey, you lost your best player in Caleb Wilson, a top five pick this season. That's gotta matter. Henry Vessar does well, but he misses the final two free throws. That's gotta factor in. That's gotta factor in. That could have sent it to overtime, which then UNC might win that game and go on to the next round. But shout out to VCU for handling our light work. Like, you know, fingers crossed, my boys still do our thing. But shout out to VCU because they did beat us back in the day, too. I just need Lehigh to beat UNC now. But these are reasons why you should keep Huber Davis. He's also recruited two top 10 high school players. I can't say that you're supposed to get a whole bunch of top 10 recruits when you already had a quality studded team between the seasons of 2022 and 2024. You can argue over 2025, but again, you got Ian Jackson, and imagine if Ian has stayed and played with Caleb Wilson. Maybe that's solid. Maybe that's something. But again, that didn't happen because Ian eventually left. You can argue over that, UNC fans, but I can't say that you should have fired him. Now, I asked a UNC fan this question because it came up to my mind. What if Hubert and UNC won the title in 2022? Does Hubert Davis end up losing his job? Because if we're gonna be real about it, let's just go ahead and call the spade a spade. We gotta remember that Roy's team didn't do but so well. Let's go back to 2017, right? Let's go back to 2017. They lose seven games. Kudos to kudos to them. And that's right after they had just won the championship, right? Which they had, again, won seven, lost seven games. Next season, they lose 18. Again, this was with Roy Williams, by the way. 19, you lose seven games. All right, cool. 2020, you lose 19 games. You actually have a losing record. 14 wins, 19 losses. God, that's tough. 2021, you lose 11 games. Now, again, I told y'all, this is where Hubert Davis joins. 2022, you lose 10 games. 2023, you lose 13. That was your worst season, by the way. 2024, you lose eight games. It wasn't the bad season for y'all. 2025, you lose 14 games. That one was tough. But you still go to March Madness. And it's crazy because in 2023, you don't go to March Madness with 13 losses. You go with less loss or more losses in March Madness than you did in 2023. I'm just saying. And then this season you lost nine. And to be clear, they actually did something that only two teams have done this season, which was beat Duke, my boys. So again, ladies and gentlemen, I can't be but so mad at Buddy when he's actually done a fairly spectacular job coaching UNC. Again, ladies and gentlemen, are fans too impatient? I genuinely believe so. Now, are there times where I've questioned should we keep John Shire? Yeah, sure, I've said that. I've said the same thing about JJ Reddick, but you know what? As a Lakers fan, just keep in mind, not when he was that Duke, he would he could stay anytime he wanted to. But coaching, though, it's tough to judge coaches sometimes. Just like it's tough to judge players. We need to be a little bit patient. We need to be a little patient. Because that's when you get a fair assessment. I don't think we have a fair assessment of Hubert Davis as a head coach for UNC. Again, the last time Roy Williams team, like a Roy Williams recruit, was on the squad. The last season was 2025. So that means this season was the first season that we're supposed to judge Hubert Davis. And to be clear, again, like I said, you have a top five pick. Like that's what he recruited. You beat what ended up being the best overall play, like team in Duke because we are the number we are the number one overall C. We were the number one ranked team coming into March Madness. So that is a fair statement to say. I can't imagine him getting the boot off of this one. Especially when he done got you to the title game. But again, maybe I'm just nice about it. I've talked to UNC fans. Some of them say they are extremely happy. Some of them say they're in the middle where they they understand both of keep him and fire him. I can understand you wanting to fire him, but I think they should have kept him, to be clear. Shout out to Tyler Perry. It might be one of the first times I said that. But there was a pros and cons list that I got. And I kind of thought about it off of one of his off of one of his movies. And on my pros and cons list, I got more pros than I do cons. So again, ladies and gentlemen, I think it was a bit too early to fire Hubert Davis. Give him an extra season or two to see how the team does. Because I think that he could have gone a little further than the first round next season or the season after, especially if he recruits well. Now we'll never know. But again, ladies and gentlemen, as fans, whether you're just watching, whether you're an analyst, whether you're a donor, it doesn't matter. Sometimes you really just need to sit back and enjoy the moment, enjoy the ride. Because what happens if they turned it around and won a championship next season? That's a really solid six-year tenure right there, to be honest with you. Not a lot of coaches can say they got into the championship game and a sweet 16 and coach the number one seed. I'm just saying, Huber's not that bad. I've heard him be called the Doc Rivers of college basketball. That's a bit tough. Because one, that's a little bit tough on Doc, too. I understand Doc can have some gripes and knocks on him, but damn, that's tough. Like that, that's tough. There's a difference between blowing multiple 3-1 leads and losing a lead in college basketball. Because we've seen leads diminish real quick. So again, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, if you take anything away from this, just understand that one, I feel weird arguing for UNC to keep their coach as a Duke fan, personally. But two, understand that we can be a little bit impatient at times, and it's very annoying to see that. That's why I gotta self-check myself, make sure I ain't talking too, too crazy. But again, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, that does conclude the end of the episode. So again, I'm curious. Where do you all land? Do you feel like UNC was too impatient in letting Hubert Davis, their head coach, go? Or are you siding with some of the UNC fans and saying that, hey, they should have let Buddy go. He was trash, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I'm curious your thoughts. But ladies and gentlemen, y'all heard my take. So please make sure to like, subscribe, comment, tell anyone who's anyone about the show. My name is Trey. I'm the host of Get a Bucket. I hope you are all having a good one. Take care.