North Carolina basketball gets key transfer from West Virginia
Yesterday at 11:41 PM
North Carolina basketball picked up a big win in the transfer portal with the commitment of a talented West Virginia guard. The Tar Heels are coming off an uneven fourth season under Hubert Davis. The program struggled to match its high preseason expectations before controversially receiving an at-large bid into the NCAA Tournament. North Carolina subsequently won its First Four game against San Diego State before losing in the First Round to Ole Miss. The Tar Heels are now entering a new era where they will say goodbye to their legendary guard, RJ Davis.
That era got off to a very good start with Jonathan Powell’s commitment. National Basketball Reporter for On3sports, Joe Tipton, confirmed the news of the West Virginia freshman transferring to Chapel Hill. Powell is a 6’6 “guard who averaged 8.3 points and 3.1 rebounds per game this past season. The Dayton, Ohio native is considered an elite three-point shooter, leading the Big 12 freshmen with 64 field goals from deep.
Hubert Davis needs to find consistency in his fifth year in Chapel Hill
Hubert Davis has had some encouraging highs and befuddling lows while leading North Carolina basketball. The Tar Heels had been on a roller coaster, following up great seasons with disappointing ones. In Davis’ first year, he led the program to two legendary wins over Duke en route to a stunning berth in the National Championship game. In year two, the Tar Heels became the first preseason No. 1 squad in the 64-team NCAA Tournament era to miss The Big Dance entirely.
Davis then followed up that season with an ACC regular season championship and was named ACC coach of the year. And then this season happened. The Tar Heels entered the year ranked No. 9 and did not reenter the top 25 after December 7. North Carolina basketball went 23-14 overall and came well short of preseason expectations.
Overall, Davis has shown that he can lead this program back to title contention. However, there is a standard of consistency that the UNC alum has not met so far in his tenure. North Carolina basketball showed faith in its head coach by extending him during the regular season. Still, the pressure is on Davis to produce consistent results, and it will not be easy with RJ Davis no longer on the roster. Gaining the commitment of Jonathan Powell is a very positive step in the right direction, but this program still has a lot of work to do over this offseason.
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