UNC is off to their worst start since 2019-20 and unless a Christmas miracle appears, the Tar Heels will be in hot water. Given, they did just play one of the toughest non-conference schedules in the country, including five games against ranked opponents. But so far this season, the first half went flat, even if they did gain steam in the second half, eventually giving way to head coach Hubert Davis coming under fire. Could a transfer from the portal fix the Tar Heels?

If there’s anything the coach takes away from these two months to help them later on in the season should be that the team needs a big man. On The Field of 68: After Dark, host John Fanta cries out at one point, “For heaven’s sake, you should be looking at any available portal options for the front court now.” For now, fifth-year guard RJ Davis leads the squad, helped by Ian Jackson, Seth Trimble, Cade Tyson, and Ven-Allen Lubin putting pressure on the opponents. But it’s not enough.

Jeff Goodman agrees with Fanta, “Sure, go overseason. I don’t care where you go. Send your entire staff…send them out over the holidays and just say like, ‘Hey, don’t come back until you bring me back a big man. I don’t care who it is, bring me a big man from Lithuania, Croatia, Serbia. Bring me one big, we’ll find a way to raise the money for NIL.”

The only big recent win that UNC can boast is against UCLA, which did not become possible until the last few seconds. The Tar Heels are somehow managing with fourth-year coach Davis but this team needs more cohesion and someone with a bigger impact, says Goodman. “On a serious note, what I would do is just go small with those four guards. Cadeau can’t really shoot, as much as Hubert probably tried to convince everybody, including himself, at ACC media day.”

“So you gotta surround him with guys who can. Ian Jackson, RJ Davis, Seth Trimble – at least you got three guys out there who can take some pressure off. So I would play those four guards and whatever big you wanna throw out there and press and press and press…that’s your best chance.”

Nevertheless, after the UCLA win, the head coach did seem proud of what his four guards had pulled, making up for lack of size with pure athleticism.

Hubert Davis is making do with what players he does have for now

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Big man needed Washington and withers too soft

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After the game against Florida left UNC a bit demotivated, coach Davis didn’t want his team to feel down and rather insisted on taking away learnings from it. Rather than panicking in the second half, he wanted his team to calmly assess the situation because it was not their first time. Similarly against UCLA, the HC put in the four guards together because they worked well.

“The lineup change that we made in the second half, I just felt like they were just loading up on RJ, and Ian got it going offensively as well in first half. So just having multiple scorers out there, I thought, would be really good for us because it puts teams in a situation,” the UNC coach said after the game. “You want to go big, or do you want to match up with us? And then extending that pressure. You know, we may not have tremendous size, but we do have athleticism. And so when you pick up full court, it speeds teams up. We can get steals and deflections, and we get the pace that we want.”

The fact that the Tar Heels seem to be slow starters should not be a deterrent usually, except it harms their game more than helps. It’s one main area that Hubert Davis could focus on improving in his team, in addition to getting one big dominant player, as Jeff Goodman said, and maybe they’ll be March-ready.