What the UNC men’s basketball team can learn from other general managers on campus

UPDATE: This article was edited on Saturday to include information from Hubert Davis' most recent press conference. 

Over the course of Hubert Davis’ four years as head coach of the UNC men’s basketball team, the landscape of college sports has changed. His job has changed. 

“A head coach is now the owner, the general manager, the fundraiser, the coach [and doing the] recruiting,” Davis said on the Carolina Insider podcast. “It’s a lot.”

Following UNC’s brutal 87-70 loss on Feb. 1 to then-No. 2 Duke, Davis told Carolina Insider that the old staffing model at North Carolina wasn’t working anymore. He needs to expand. He wants to hire a general manager.

Two major UNC teams have already expanded their staff and adjusted to the demands of this era of collegiate sports: the women’s basketball and football teams. 

Women's basketball

Liz Roberts has served as general manager for the women’s team since June 2023.

In 2016, Roberts was a walk-on with the Tar Heels, playing under former head coach Sylvia Hatchell for three years. During Roberts’ senior year, Courtney Banghart took over and awarded the Chapel Hill native a scholarship. She joined Banghart’s staff in 2020, eventually working her way up to director of recruiting management and student-athlete engagement before filling in the new GM role.

“[Banghart] realized that she needed somebody that was really front-facing to be able to get ahead of all the challenges that are presented to teams today,” Roberts said. “When we’re recruiting the next generation of Carolina athletes, to set them up for success, you need to have an established position that’s going to help [players] with all the things that they’ll need while they’re here, especially in the NIL landscape.”

Roberts partners with players to secure opportunities with Carolina NIL — the University’s dedicated platform for name, image and likeness services — and with members of the community. 

She educates players and recruits on compliance and connects them with resources that help athletes maximize their branding abilities. She is also in charge of discussing with recruits what opportunities are available to them at UNC and keeping track of rule changes.  

Then, Robert's role focuses externally, where she connects with donors and supporters to make sure the team has the monetary support it needs. 

And as setting up players for NIL opportunities has become an ever bigger need, according to Roberts, the general manager position has become more important. 

Most coaching staffs have someone with the same responsibilities, whether that be the head coach or an assistant, but lack the title or have other roles that split their attention. Roberts said creating a specific general manager role has increased UNC’s efficiency. 

“The world is asking a lot of our coaches,” Roberts said. “[Banghart] is working probably harder than she ever imagined she would have to, and she loves it. That’s one thing that’s made us successful. But providing structure and clarity to a role that is able to support our head coaches is critical.”

Banghart’s squad is ranked No. 9 in the country and third in the ACC. In the class of 2024, North Carolina acquired three recruits all listed in espnW’s the top-100. Next year’s class features two recruits in the top-25, Nyla Brooks and Taliyah Henderson. 

Football

General manager Michael Lombardi, a former NFL executive, joined Bill Belichick in December as the first hire for UNC football’s new head coach. 

In his first few months on the job, he has mostly focused on recruiting and personnel hiring. With recruiting, his role is aimed toward bringing an alternative view to roster construction.

He said the staff has developed a grading system to evaluate how much money should be allocated from the NIL collective to certain players. For example, starters are valued differently from athletes further down the depth chart. 

“Sometimes when you have money involved — because let’s be honest, money's involved now — you have to have a subjective way of determining how to handle the money and how to place a value on [players],” Lombardi said. 

Team building, according to Lombardi, is more than a one-person job. North Carolina’s 2025 transfer class ranks 14th in the nation and 3rd in the ACC. 

Men's basketball

Three ACC men’s basketball teams have already hired a general manager: Duke, Syracuse and Wake Forest. 

When Duke’s head coach Jon Scheyer took the reins following Mike Krzyzewski's retirement, he created a GM position in 2022 and hired Rachel Baker, who has former experience with Nike and the NBA.

Duke boasted the best 2024 recruiting class heading into this season, and its transfer class ranked 22nd in the nation — the best in the ACC. The Blue Devils sit atop the ACC and No. 3 in the country. 

Meanwhile, little has been easy for Davis and the UNC men’s basketball team this year. 

During the offseason, Davis looked to replace big man Armando Bacot — the program’s all-time leading rebounder and second-leading scorer — after Bacot used up his final year of eligibility. 

With 6-foot-10 Jalen Washington and 6-foot-9 Jae’Lyn Withers slated to return for their respective junior and fifth year, the head coach also grabbed two big men from the portal. 

He landed on 6-foot-8 junior Ven-Allen Lubin, the 16th best power forward in the transfer portal, and unranked 6-foot-7 graduate forward Ty Claude.  

First-year forward James Brown offered the most size in the incoming class, standing at 6-foot-10. This season, Brown has seen 37 total minutes of action. Five minutes is the most he’s been on the floor in a single game — in a blowout 93-67 win over La Salle and a one-point loss to Wake Forest when UNC recorded 23 fouls. 

Davis’ returners, Washington and Withers, are averaging 6.4 and 5.2 points per game, respectively. Meanwhile, Lubin is averaging 6.6 and Claude 1.5. 

None of these big men lead UNC in rebounding. Currently, North Carolina’s leader on the glass is junior guard Seth Trimble. At 6-foot-3, he is on pace to become the shortest player to lead UNC in rebounding since at least 1950. 

Davis’ other pickup: junior forward Cade Tyson. 

The four-star was the seventh-best small forward available in the portal, but hasn’t solidified his position at UNC. He’s averaging 8.5 minutes and 2.7 points per game off the bench, and his 3-point shooting sits at 27 percent. It's a stark difference from his 44.6 percentage from Belmont — an area of his game that made him attractive to North Carolina in the first place. 

North Carolina is sitting just above a .500 record and has struggled against ranked teams, going 1-10 in Quad 1 opportunities. It hasn’t boded well for UNC’s NCAA tournament hopes. As of Monday, the Tar Heels are slated as one of the next four teams out in ESPN analyst Joe Lunadri’s bracketology. If the Tar Heels remain on the outside of the bubble, it will mark the second time in four years that North Carolina has missed the tournament.

The 2025 commitment class is a bright spot, ranking ninth-best in the nation. Davis successfully grabbed top-10 recruit Caleb Wilson and two four-stars, Isaiah Denis and Derek Dixon. But he has yet to add a true center.  

Davis declined to comment further on expanding the staff at an ACC Media Zoom on Monday, stating his prior comments on hiring a general manager were “twisted.” 

“My focus right now is this team, coaching this team and trying to reach our full potential and trying to become the best that we can become this season,” he said. 

In Friday's press conference previewing the game against Virginia, Davis clarified his plans have not changed. He still intends to hire a GM.

As other programs at UNC and across the ACC have revealed, hiring a general manager is the future. 

@carolinewills03

@dthsports | sports@dailytarheel.com

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