Breaking News:Hubert Davis makes his first official signing of a young prospect

North Carolina already has shifted its focus and preparations into offseason gear.

The Tar Heels’ season ended four nights ago with their 89-87 loss to Alabama in the Sweet 16. The defeat closed what was a bounce-back campaign for UNC, which won the ACC regular-season title and earned a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament for a record 18th time. Coach Hubert Davis said his work for next season began on Carolina’s return flight from Los Angeles, where the West Regional was held.

“I was sitting on the plane, it has to start now,” Davis said Monday night, during the final installment of his weekly radio show for this season. “It’s so different. Like when I played, when the season was over, and this is a lot of it because of the rules, I saw Coach (Dean) Smith and Coach (Bill) Guthridge every day because I stopped by the office, but I never saw them on the court. You weren’t allowed to do individual workouts. So when the season ended, (that was) the last time I saw Coach Smith and Coach Guthridge on the court until October 15, the next season

That’s not college basketball right now. … Student-athletes have choices now, they have the ability to stay, they can go to the NBA, they can test the waters, they can transfer. And so just to have really upfront and honest conversations about what they’re thinking and their plans to move forward, so that we get prepared to put together another team that has great chemistry

Davis said UNC’s standard end-of-season player meetings began earlier on Monday. Those discussions will continue throughout the week, according to Davis, and are similar to the weekly check-ins he requires from players regularly throughout the course of the season. These conversations, though, also are used to get a better understanding of each player’s future moving forward

“I want to know how the year has gone,” Davis said. “As the season ends, just to catch up and just see how the year went for them. Anything that they liked, things that they didn’t like, my expectations early on of what I expect of them coming back next year and what I want it to look like. Those conversations were really good today, it was a lot of fun

Carolina added seven new players coming into this season, including five pickups from the transfer portal. Transfers Harrison Ingram and Cormac Ryan slotted in as Day One starters, with both being credited as perhaps the most vocal leaders on the team. Ingram finished the season third in scoring for the Tar Heels at 12.2 points per game, while shooting a career-best 38.5 percent from 3-point range. He led the ACC in rebounding in conference-only games (10.9 boards per game).