Drake Powell's comments serve as a bad look for the UNC basketball program

Drake Powell spoke to the media on Wednesday at the NBA Draft Combine, confirming that he will be keeping his name in this year's draft class.

While it was the expected outcome (especially given his productive week thus far in Chicago), some fans hoped that Powell would return to the UNC basketball program for another season to continue his development.

Well... Powell made a rather interesting comment about why he feels he's ready to make the jump to the NBA, a statement that will certainly draw attention from Tar Heel faithful.

"I feel like I'm the same two-way player that was coming into college. Obviously I don't think I got to showcase that at UNC, but the potential is still there. I'm ready to learn as much as I can and continue to grow."

Before anyone starts to get it twisted, I do not believe that Powell was making a dig against North Carolina in any way, shape, or form. I truly believe that his intention was to speak about how he felt, not throw daggers at anyone from the program on his way out the door.

What is concerning in the matter is this: Hubert Davis continues to struggle at developing top-tier talent.

How many other programs are seeing their five-star recruits essentially plummet in draft stock? Duke surely doesn't have a problem, and neither does a handful of programs that recycle players year in and year out.

If you want to land five-star talent, you have to prove that you can get them to the league, something North Carolina has failed miserably to do.

Elliot Cadeau was expected to be at most a two-year player at the college ranks (given he re-classified and started his career early). Now, he's heading to Ann Arbor after a season of many ups and downs in Chapel Hill.

Ian Jackson was essentially considered a shoe-in to be a "one-and-done" player. He was just that, but not in the way we expected: his draft stock took a major dive, forcing him to enter the transfer portal.

Now, Powell, another five-star talent, is out here saying that he didn't get to showcase his two-way skillset during his short stint in Chapel Hill. Basically, through his comments to the media, Powell was saying to us all that his talent was wasted during his lone season at North Carolina.

While we all are aware of this, it's becoming more evident as time goes on: Hubert Davis and the UNC basketball program's coaching staff have continued to fail at developing top-tier talent.

In the current world of college basketball, you have to be able to develop talent (whether its incoming freshman or veteran transfers looking to take the next step to the pros). If you can't, you're going to fall behind drastically, which doesn't bode well for future job security for the coaching staff.

Something's got to change in Chapel Hill, and fast. If not, changes are certainly on the horizon.