One coach walked off the floor Thursday with his opponent praising how well prepared his team was. The other walked off with his fan base wondering what his buyout would cost.
Same ending, their seasons over. Very different reactions to the decisions that led there.
Much of the initial conversation centered on Siena’s near upset of Duke, and how far Gerry McNamara pushed his starters. Until the final 20 seconds, all five Siena starters were on track to play the full 40 minutes, something rarely seen in today’s game.
What got less attention is that Hubert Davis took North Carolina down a similar path. It was not nearly as extreme, but Davis leaned heavily on his starters, showed limited trust in his bench, and let fatigue become a factor as the game slipped away.
While McNamara was widely praised for that decision in a loss to Duke, Davis was criticized for making a similar choice in North Carolina’s loss to Virginia Commonwealth.
The difference came down to game flow, roster context, and understanding what the moment required. Here’s why McNamara read his situation correctly, and Davis did not.
Siena Doesn’t (and Shouldn’t) Have North Carolina’s Personnel
Both North Carolina and Siena play their home games in fairly large arenas. The similarities end there. Siena is a small private school near Albany that competes in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference. It has never advanced beyond the second round and hadn’t even made the tournament until 1989.
By that point, Hubert Davis was a freshman at North Carolina, which had already reached nine Final Fours. The Tar Heels have since pushed that number to 21 and now have six national championships.
That’s the point. North Carolina should have better options on its bench than Siena.
McNamara didn’t go to his bench because he couldn’t. He understood that while his team was strong for a mid-major, it wasn’t built to match an ACC roster. There simply wasn’t much beyond his starting five.
Most of Siena’s depth is made up of freshmen, and at that level, freshmen are still projects. McNamara recruits with development in mind, hoping those players grow into roles over time and stay with the program. The freshmen on Siena’s roster are not ready to handle a team like Duke.
That is not the situation Davis is dealing with. North Carolina recruits freshmen who arrive with NBA expectations, not long development timelines. Those players are supposed to contribute immediately, and the bench should be deeper and more capable than what most teams can offer.
And yet Davis didn’t trust it, even as fatigue became a factor. That points back to roster construction. If North Carolina doesn’t have bench pieces it can rely on against a team like VCU, that reflects on how the program has been built.
Siena Had a Talent Gap
Managing a lead works differently when you’re the underdog. When you’re catching 27.5 points like Siena was against Duke and suddenly have a chance to win, you can’t afford to give the favorite any kind of opening.
Duke eventually found its opening when Siena’s legs gave out and open shots stopped falling. But there wasn’t much McNamara could do about that. He understood that putting a lesser player on the floor would only invite Duke to attack. If the Saints lost because they ran out of gas, that was something he could live with. Handing Duke an advantage by choice was not.
North Carolina’s situation was entirely different. The Tar Heels’ starting five was, or at least should have been, better than VCU’s. With a 19-point lead, Davis had options. He could have gone to his bench for short stretches to buy rest. He also could have slowed the game down, something his former coach Dean Smith mastered, and shortened possessions.
Carolina didn’t need to keep scoring to maintain control. Davis could have instructed his team to work deep into the shot clock and bleed time. Even in a worst-case stretch where VCU scored and Carolina didn’t, the lead would have remained comfortable.
Instead, Davis stuck with his starters and tried to keep the pace. Phil Martelli Jr. leaned more on his bench, and VCU was the fresher team in overtime. The Rams had eight players log at least 10 minutes. North Carolina had six.
That points to a problem, whether it’s roster construction, in-game management, or both.
Siena Had Nothing to Lose
McNamara and Siena were supposed to be out of it by halftime against Duke. By the 30-minute mark, the Saints should have been finished. And yet, Duke didn’t take the lead until the final 10 minutes.
Siena also understood it was running a shorter race. The Saints weren’t winning a national title, even if they had pulled the upset. Realistically, they would have needed to be perfect again just to get past TCU.
That allowed them to empty the tank. If there was a next game on Saturday, they could deal with that on Friday. On Thursday, the only objective was finding a way to win.
North Carolina’s situation was different. The Tar Heels expect to compete for regional titles. As a No. 6 seed, the path was difficult but manageable. But if they burned through everything against VCU, there would be little left for Illinois.
Davis didn’t seem to factor that in. North Carolina looked exhausted, and there was no real adjustment. Even if the Tar Heels had survived, beating Illinois would have been a major ask, with the Illini coming in much fresher.
Final Point
McNamara established two things in defeat: he’s going to be a Power 5 coach at some point, and more coaches should come up through the mid-major level.
He’s in a position to learn on the job. At 42, he has time to figure out how to manage games when his roster isn’t on equal footing. That experience matters. Unless you’re stepping into a blue-blood, you need reps in situations where you’re outmatched. Siena gives him that runway. If he consistently wins more than he loses, even without regular tournament bids, his job isn’t in danger.
Davis never had that runway, and now it’s showing. North Carolina doesn’t tolerate early exits for long, and this is another one. The Tar Heels haven’t been past the Sweet 16 in four years, and that standard doesn’t hold in Chapel Hill, especially with Jon Scheyer pushing Duke toward another Final Four.
If Davis doesn’t adjust quickly, his time at North Carolina is going to run out.
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