CHARLOTTE, N.C. — It’s taken almost three years for the answer to become apparent.
Rewind the clock that far, back to Hubert Davis’ introductory press conference as North Carolina’s head coach. What stands out? Maybe, even still, the shock of his predecessor’s retirement: Roy Williams abruptly calling it a career only days earlier, on (of all dates) April Fool’s. Or maybe you remember Davis’ crisp plaid suit — or more likely, the small circular pin he wore on the left lapel, black save for three capital, Carolina blue letters: DES, for Dean Edwards Smith, Davis’ college coach. But more than anything? What stood out then, and still endures today, was the guiding philosophy Davis outlined.
“I’ve always wanted to walk the same road, the same path, as Coach Smith and Coach (Bill) Guthridge and Coach Williams,” Davis said then. “I’m so excited and humbled and thankful and appreciative and excited to be able to do it — with my own personality, and in my own shoes.”
The obvious follow-up question, then:
How would Davis do that?
How about like this? Davis, holding his wife Leslie’s hand, exiting Spectrum Center on Saturday, this time in a different baby blue sport coat… but wearing that same DES pin. They hugged the far side of a winding concrete…
