After North Carolina's split with Hubert Davis, here are 6 candidates to replace him

So much for this being a quiet college basketball coaching carousel. One of the sport’s most coveted jobs opened Tuesday night when North Carolina fired Hubert Davis less than a week after the Tar Heels blew a 19-point second-half lead in a first-round NCAA tournament loss to VCU. Davis ends his North Carolina tenure with a 125-54 record and two of the most celebrated wins in program history.

In his debut season in 2022, the Tar Heels beat Duke in Mike Krzyzewski’s final game coaching at Cameron Indoor Stadium, then retired Krzyzewski for good one month later in the only NCAA tournament meeting between the two storied rivals. The remainder of Davis’ tenure was characterized by inconsistency and a failure to modernize. North Carolina went from preseason No.

1 to missing the NCAA tournament in 2023, barely snuck into the field of 68 last season and failed to advance beyond the first round again this March. There are a few challenges that whoever succeeds Davis will have to navigate. North Carolina is in the midst of an athletic director change with longtime college sports administrator Bubba Cunningham stepping down and former NASCAR executive Steve Newmark stepping in.

The school’s stakeholders are also bitterly divided over whether to renovate or replace the 40-year-old Dean Dome. And then there’s the little matter of Duke setting an impossibly high bar the past few seasons under Jon Scheyer. And yet in spite of all that, this remains a premier job, one where the right coach can contend for Final Fours and national titles annually.