Hubert Davis pledges to expand staff, change UNC basketball operations :: WRALSportsFan.com
With the North Carolina’s men’s basketball program in danger of missing the NCAA Tournament for the second time in three seasons and the college athletics landscape undergoing significant changes, UNC’s Hubert Davis said Monday night that his program needs to change the way it does business off the court.
His comments came just days after the Tar Heels were dominated by rival Duke, which is ranked No. 2 in the nation.
“I am going to increase the staff,” Davis said on his weekly radio show. “It’s needed. I never would’ve thought four years (ago) that I took over the job that I’m 100 percent what is needed is a general manager.”

General manager has become one of the most important positions in college athletics. North Carolina football coach Bill Belichick brought general manager Michael Lombardi with him when he took the job in December.
Duke, UNC’s top rival, hired a general manager in June 2022, before basketball coach Jon Scheyer’s first season as head coach. Rachel Baker is a former Nike and NBA marketing executive.
As college athletics becomes more complicated and more professional — name, image and likeness (NIL) payments, immediate eligibility, unlimited transfers, roster managers and soon revenue sharing — a coach is just part of the equation.
“Owner, GM, fundraiser, basketball coach, it’s so much on the plate that will take you away from doing what’s the most important thing is coaching basketball,” Davis said. “We’re going to hire a GM.”
Davis said he won’t stop there.
“We need a director of marketing and fundraising for NIL, for program needs,” he said. “There needs to be video coordinator with graphics and recruiting coordinator. All those different types of stuff that have to be built out.”
The UNC basketball web site lists nine support staff, but that includes a strength and conditioning coach and an athletic trainer. The Tar Heels have a photographer, an assistant director for creative services and a graphic designer on staff.
In addition to a general manager, Duke, for example, lists a creative director and an associate director of player branding among its staff positions.
“The old model for Carolina Basketball just doesn’t work, it’s not sustainable,” Davis said, referencing staff size. “It has to be built out because there are so many things in play with NIL, the transfer portal, agents, international players. You just need a bigger staff to be able to maintain things and you need a bigger staff so I can do what I’m suppossed to be doing (which) is coaching basketball.”
UNC is 13-10 overall and 6-5 in the ACC. Its path to the NCAA Tournament is narrow one.
Under Davis, who replaced Roy Williams after the 2020-21 season, the Tar Heels have been up and down. UNC reached the Final Four in 2022, memorably defeating Duke in the final game of the regular season and in the Final Four.
The Tar Heels started the next season No. 1, but missed the NCAA Tournament. In 2024, UNC earned a No. 1 seed in the tournament and lost in the Sweet 16.
The Tar Heels have had success in high school recruiting under Davis, landing top prospects like sophomore Elliot Cadeau, freshmen Ian Jackson and Drake Powell and incoming top recruit Caleb Wilson.
But UNC’s efforts in the transfer portal have been hit and miss. And the Tar Heels failed to land the additional big man that they needed in the offseason, leaving a void in the roster that has hurt all season.
UNC hired TJ Beisner in the fall of 2023 from Kentucky to lead the school’s basketball NIL collective, then called Secondary Break. Beisner now works for Old Well Management, which oversees the school’s NIL efforts.
When UNC hired Belichick, it committed more than $16 million to coaching and support staff salaries, including $5.3 million for support staff and general manager, and $13 million in revenue sharing.
Davis signed a six-year extension in 2022. It pays him $2 million base salary and supplemental pay this year, one-fifth of Belichick’s $10-million annual salary.
Source: wralsportsfan.com