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CHAPEL HILL – December 28, 2010, was the last time a North Carolina basketball team took the floor at famed Madison Square Garden.
The Tar Heels lost beat Rutgers that night, eight months after losing to Dayton there in the NIT championship game, and UNC hasn’t been back the “Mecca” since. Two years later, Hubert Davis joined Roy Williams’ staff, and is now in his second season as UNC’s head coach, and he hasn’t been back to MSG since playing his last game there in 2004.
That will change Saturday, as Carolina and Davis face Ohio State in the CBS Sports Classic. It will be UNC’s first time in the hallowed building in more than 12 years, and the first time in 18 years for Davis, a New York Knicks guard for four seasons during his NBA career.
Needless to say, Davis is excited his team is heading to the Big Apple this weekend.
“To go back there again to a place where it all started for me as a professional is really exciting to me,” he said Tuesday night, following UNC’s win over The Citadel.
The 2009-10 Tar Heels played four games at MSG: two in the regular season, including a win over Ohio State in the Preseason NIT, and then also a win over Rhode Island in the postseason NIT two days before falling to the Flyers.
The Tar Heels played in the NYC area six times when he was in the program as a player from 1988-1992, and 23 times between Davis’ freshman season and the 2010 campaign. Since, UNC has played one regular season game in the New York metro area, a win over UCLA in the CBS Sports Classic in Brooklyn in December of 2015.
Getting back up there, and especially to MSG, this weekend is a big deal to Davis, as it’s one more thing that connects him to Carolina legend Dean Smith.
“It’s significant and important for a number of reasons,” he said. “Number one, that’s where Coach Smith used to take us every year. We always every year played a game in New York, and I just remember playing in Madison Square Garden. And if we didn’t play there, we played in the Meadowlands where the New Jersey Nets used to play. Every year, we had a presence up there in New York.
“Number two is that’s where I started my NBA career. I played there for four years and it’s just a special place for me.”
UNC’s presence in the nation’s media capital is something Tar Heels fans can look forward to seeing more of in the future.
Davis wants to recruit players from the area. UNC already has RJ Davis (White Plains, NY) on the roster, and will welcome Simeon Wilcher (Roselle, NJ) next season. Carolina’s coach wants more.
“The three or four years I was here at Carolina, we always had three or four New York guys on our team, and they always had a nice chip on their shoulders, and I like those type of guys,” he said.
“I like to have a presence recruiting up in New York. Those are the reasons that every year, as long as I’m the head coach, the Tar Heels will be up in New York.”
Davis spent four years with the Knicks playing on teams that contended for championships. He was part of star-studded rosters, too. He averaged scoring in double figures for three of those seasons, which may have been the best period of his 12-year NBA career.
He doesn’t have to dig for fond memories.
“Playing for Pat Riley and Jeff Van Gundy, and all of those years we were in the conference finals or we got to the NBA Finals,” Davis said. “We lost to Houston in Game Seven. I just have a lot of memories playing with Doc Rivers and Patrick Ewing and John Starks and Charles Oakley and Charles Smith. Some really good teams and unbelievable coaches that I was able to be around.”
Saturday, he will be around the ghosts of those teams, the ones he played on at UNC in MSG, and the many others that hover over the fabled arena. The first in 12 years for the Tar Heels, and 18 years for their coach.
