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How Hubert Davis silenced critics and turned around North Carolina's season with love

PHILADELPHIA — The “Fire Hubert” furor peaked as the North Carolina Tar Heels rode through darkness on a chilly bus across their home state.

It was Jan. 23, wee hours of the morning. Roads were frozen, but message boards were alight. Hubert Davis, they said, was “in way over his head.”

They said much worse, too, as the Tar Heels and their first-year head coach sat in silence. They’d just lost at Wake Forest by 22, four days after losing at Miami by 28. They were 12-6, 4-3 in the ACC, NCAA tournament bubblers at best, and some zealous followers of this basketball blueblood had seen enough.