Hubert Davis is out as North Carolina’s head coach, the school announced Tuesday night. Sources tell CBS Sports that UNC fired Davis, rather than working out a mutual parting of ways or a forced resignation, and that the school will pay out all the remaining money on Davis’ contract. Davis’ buyout exceeds $5 million. 

Players were informed of the change of leadership at a 9 p.m. ET  team meeting Tuesday, minutes after an email from athletics director Bubba Cunningham arrived in the inboxes of members of the basketball staff at 8:55 p.m. The communication formalized a decision that’s been a few days coming after the sixth-seeded Tar Heels blew a 19-point lead with 14 minutes remaining against No. 11 VCU in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. 

The collapse was the largest by any team in the first round in the history of March Madness and was also a third straight loss to end UNC’s season. Notably and crucially, the Tar Heels were without their best player, Caleb Wilson, who missed the final nine games due to separate hand and thumb injuries. 

As things came to a head Tuesday evening, Davis met with Cunningham, the outgoing AD, as well as incoming AD Steve Newmark and chancellor Lee H. Roberts to hammer out details. The school was not keen to outright fire an alumnus on negative terms, especially the person picked by Hall of Famer Roy Williams to take the job five years ago.

“This was not an easy decision because of Hubert’s tremendous character and all he has given to the program, but we must move forward in a way that allows our team to compete more consistently at an elite level,” Cunningham said in a statement. 

The split with Davis means profound change is underway: For the first time in 74 years, the program will almost definitely go outside of the Carolina family to find its next men’s basketball coach. The chain has been broken because Davis, who oversaw some historic achievements and memorable victories in his five-year run at the helm of college basketball royalty, was incapable of consistently keeping North Carolina at the top of the sport. 

Despite the rough patches (missing the 2024 NCAA Tournament after being preseason No. 1 and losing in the first round of the NCAAs in back-to-back seasons), Davis did have high marks as head coach. In Year 1, he led UNC to a win at Duke in Mike Krzyzewski’s final home game, etching an epic victory in the most storied rivalry in college basketball — and then one-upped it when his Tar Heels upset No. 1 Duke in the 2022 Final Four in New Orleans, the only meeting ever between the Tobacco Road foes on an NCAA Tournament stage. In the ensuing national title game, UNC blew a 15-point lead against Kansas, marking the largest second-half collapse in title game history.

North Carolina earned a No. 1 seed and had a 29-8 record in Davis’ third season, in 2023-24, but fell in the Sweet 16 to Alabama. Over these final two seasons, UNC failed to get past the first round of the NCAAs, marking the first time that has happened in the storied history of Carolina basketball.

There is a standard in Chapel Hill and the program, broadly, has been unable to meet it. 

Why timing is right for UNC to move on from Davis 

The loss to VCU was the cataclysmic result that’s forcing a reboot.

The situation at UNC became untenable, according to sources, given the gravity of Thursday night’s breakdown against the Rams. Davis entered the season with a lot of pressure to succeed. Had UNC not made the NCAA Tournament, he would have already have been fired. But Carolina had a nice season, winning 24 games, the apex hitting with that buzzer-beating home win over No. 1 Duke on Feb. 7.

Unfortunately, Wilson broke his hand the very next game at Miami. UNC went 5-2 in the aftermath of losing Wilson, but the worst-case scenario played out with the Heels’ final three games: a loss at Duke to end the regular season, followed by a one-and-done in the ACC Tournament to Clemson and the disaster in Greenville against VCU.

Davis did not ride the team bus back to North Carolina after Thursday’s loss, per a source, though that is hardly an anomaly when a team travels locally and it was already the plan going into the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament. When the team arrived back on campus Friday afternoon, Davis’ car had already left the parking lot and he did not communicate with his staff for nearly 24 hours. Players were left to wait and speculate.

UNC held meetings that were “business as usual” on Sunday and Monday, according to sources, while those around the program braced for the change.

As CBS Sports reported over the weekend: A primary group of boosters met late Friday afternoon with UNC stakeholders to gain clarity on whether keeping Davis was feasible. The verdict: If Davis were to stay, the money for roster-buildilng next season would be in lesser supply. North Carolina has the No. 26 recruiting class in 2026, including the nation’s No. 8 player Dylan Mingo, who is committed but not signed. The Tar Heels last transfer cycle brought in four blue-chip talents to pair with Wilson out of the high school ranks, a big spend that did not deliver the expected return on investment at the end of the season. 

With the money support set to wilt, a change had to happen.

“They would’ve been handcuffed if Hubert returned,” a source said. “There wouldn’t have been a lot of money for the team.”

Davis’ removal opens up one of the very best jobs in college sports. North Carolina has the most Final Four appearances and No. 1 seeds of any program in men’s college hoops history, in addition to a litany of other achievements that easily places the program atop men’s college basketball’s hierarchy. 

What’s next for UNC?

Now the question becomes: How much money does North Carolina have to spend on a new coach? UNC is practically drowning in costs, as the athletic department has tens of millions of dollars tied up in football under the extremely shaky Bill Belichick experiment. 

Luring a big-name coach in college could be extremely expensive, though the buyout situations vary and numbers are set to drop in the coming week(s). Names that will be looked into as potential candidates, per sources, include Arizona’s Tommy Lloyd, Michigan’s Dusty May and Iowa State’s TJ Otzelberger, in addition to potentially some others in the pool that have been tossed around (Florida’s Todd Golden and Alabama’s Nate Oats could emerge as targets). Four of those coaches are still active in the NCAA Tournament; Golden’s 1-seeded Gators were eliminated Sunday by No. 9 Iowa. 

There are also two NBA names that loom large: Brad Stevens and Billy Donovan. Stevens seems a long shot, but UNC will have to make a call and impassioned pitch just to be sure. He is the President of Basketball Operations for the Boston Celtics and viewed as unlikely to return to college basketball, though one told CBS Sports in recent days that Stevens hasn’t sworn off the idea of ever coaching again. That said, if Stevens does ever want to make a move back to the sideline, he’d have almost any job in the NBA he craved. UNC still is likely to ask, per a source.

Donovan is another interesting potential candidate. The 60-year-old coach of the Chicago Bulls hasn’t been in college since 2015. He’s overseeing a middling team right now and could be due for a change in scenery. One source told CBS Sports that Donovan would, at the very least, listen and be intrigued by the potential to coach at North Carolina. Donovan previously passed on courtships from other big college jobs, but North Carolina is the one school that Donovan has always held in especially high regard. 

Bottom line, the expectation here is for North Carolina to bring in the biggest name and strongest résumé of any coach in this year’s cycle. With Davis out, the search for the next guy up in Chapel Hill figures to be the sport’s most prominent point of intrigue as the NCAA Tournament plays out over the 12 days.