CHAPEL HILL – This wasn’t a first impression deal with Hubert Davis.

We have seen him grow from scrawny kid to Tar Heel sharpshooter to NBA marksman to ESPN analyst with a laugh unlike any other to an assistant coach under Roy Williams to now occupying perhaps the most coveted seat in college athletics.

And in his first official duty as North Carolina’s basketball coach, we saw Hubert Davis ooze wholesome realness.

He laughed, he cried, he praised, he worshipped, he inspired, he pitched, and he laid it out there: North Carolina basketball is enormous. It might be his responsibility now, and he’s going to douse it in his hoops and genuine-guy DNA, but he’s ultimately just the caretaker of something so massive even Williams himself acknowledged such a reality when he departed last week.

Williams is one of the five greatest college basketball coaches to ever step foot on this earth, and one could make a cogent argument he was better than Dean Smith, though Ol’ Roy would scoff at such a notion.

But he knew it was time to walk away. He said he wasn’t the right fit for the job anymore, it needed a new curator. So, three days after he stepped aside for what he thought was the good of the program, Davis was offered the job. And he accepted.

Humbly, one might say, and clearly with sincere appreciation.

Get this: Davis mentioned Dean Smith’s name 18 times in his presser, Bill Guthridge’s name six times, and Roy Williams’ name a remarkable 35 times. He brought up “Coach Williams” on 14 occasions before fielding his first question from the assembled media.

That’s reverence. That’s respect. And that’s fully understanding where he came from, why he’s now in such an esteemed position, and it reflects his plans for honoring those legends who laid this fabled foundation.

At the risk of coming off as trite, Hubert Davis won the press conference.

He pulled a Babe Ruth by pointing to the outfield wall and knocking the ball well over the fence. Children donning newsboy hats and knickers are still chasing after that rawhide…

They still haven’t found it.

Davis said everything a fan could ever want to hear from a new coach. He wowed the media, too.

The thing is, while some of his words were similar to what he told his ESPN buddies Monday night, it wasn’t scripted. He wasn’t reading from cue cards or a monitor. He wasn’t putting out anything rehearsed.

Davis spoke from the heart, draping himself in 50 years of life experience to win over literally everyone.

He spoke about his late mother, who died from breast cancer when he was 16 and whom he later connected with in such a personal and profound way when he became a Christian two days before the start of his junior year at UNC.

He emotionally looked at his father and expressed gratitude he was there after not seeing him for 13 months courtesy of COVID. But Hubert Davis Sr. recently got his second vaccine shot, so he wasn’t going to miss this day for anything.

Young Hubert recalled a classic story about how Dean Smith eventually offered him, that he committed on the spot, and became a much better player than the legendary man whose name adorns this building ever expected.

Davis emotionally told the story about when Roy Williams offered him a job and how he and his wife cried “for a couple of hours.”

How about helping Garrison Brooks satisfy a need to do something meaningful, leading to the Tar Heel sending care packages every month to Mrs. Woodrum’s Kindergarten class back home in Lafayette, AL. (Did anyone think of Smith when Davis told this story?)

And he recalled with clear pride when all-time NBA wins leader Don Nelson took over the New York Knicks and told Davis, who was a starter, “You never will play for me” because he saw Davis as a finesse guy and just a shooter. So, all Davis did was work on other aspects of his game, and at the end of the story proudly said he played point guard his last four years in the league.

Davis said he can’t wait to hug the returning Tar Heels when they get back on campus later this month. He made a pitch for Walker Kessler to come back to UNC. He said his team will play every possession with passion. And he needs kids in his program that want to be there, that go to Chapel Hill to serve and not be served.

Hubert Davis won the press conference Tuesday after winning over Roy Williams, Bubba Cunningham, and Kevin Guskiewicz over the weekend. Well, Roy for 33 years.

And he probably won over Tar Heel Nation, a fan base that went into the weekend filled with fear about life after Roy. They can rest easy now, at least until the games start, because they are, after all, fans.

But UNC appears in good hands. Smith and Guthridge were looking down with pride on the kid they almost never offered. So was Hubert’s mom, too.

He was a rail thin youngster trying to figure things out when she left this earth, but now he’s the head basketball coach at North Carolina.