Having had time to digest the news from yesterday, I think where I've ultimately landed on the Malone hire is "hopeful/optimistic skeptic." This is an extremely high risk-high reward hire, and I continue to be baffled that UNC adamantly refuses to ever hire conventional coachers for our two major sports anymore, but with this hire I can at least see the vision behind it, even if I may not fully agree with it. If Malone, unlike Belichick, is willing and able to surround himself with experienced collegiate coaches and recruiters, and if Malone, unlike Belichick, shows a willingness to display humility and embrace the fact that he has zero clue how college basketball works but displays willingness to learn/adapt, and if Malone, unlike Belichick, has a GM who isn't a blowhard running around calling us the NBA's 31st team, this thing could work.
If he has the X's and O's and strategic chops such that we are rarely getting out-schemed, and if he has the ability and desire and patience to relate to and teach 19-year-old teenage players and their families- players who aren't nearly as talented, polished, or professional as the ones he's used to coaching in the NBA- then this may work out to be a good hire.
I'm not wowed or impressed by the NBA championship. Just like I wasn't wowed and impressed with the 6 NFL championships of Belichick's. As the Belichick disaster has shown us, those rings and titles are completely meaningless in actually preparing for, scheming for, and winning games at the collegiate level. What I am impressed by is that Malone is currently reportedly the target of 2-3 other NBA franchises for their head coaching positions. And I'm impressed by the reported willingness/desire to hire experienced collegiate coaches for his staff.
Ultimately, I do think that the odds are higher that this doesn't work out as successfully as we all hope it will in terms of restoring UNC basketball to the perennial top tier of college basketball. I do think that the learning curve of taking someone who has never been a collegiate head coach, and who has never expressed interest in being a collegiate head coach until he was out of work for a year and spent time on his daughter's college campus, and giving them the keys to arguably the highest-profile job in the sport, has a higher probability of being unsuccessful than being wildly successful.
But I'll be cheering hard for Malone and the Heels because he seems like someone who will be a great representative and ambassador of this great university and this basketball program which we all love. And I like cheering for good people. Go Heels!
