UNC Basketball Possible coaches

heelinhell said:
He had a great run at Florida with back to back NCAA titles. The following two seasons he missed the NCAAT followed by a string of NCAA appearances including a FF before finishing his last season with a losing record.

He won 71% of his games at Florida . He has not coached a college basketball team in the last 11 years.

If he becomes our coach that will be a big media story for certain, and here's hoping his return to college coaching is a smashing success !
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Yeah, I know his record at Florida, it just concerns me that he hasn't coached a game of college basketball in over a decade - college basketball has changed enormously since then. I would prefer a coach who is coaching college ball right now and has shown he can be successful in this new, post-covid NIL and transfer system. At any rate if he's hired I'll certainly root like hell for him to be successful, I don't dislike him, and I would definitely prefer him over Oats or Golden. My hope is that we can still somehow get Lloyd.
 
heelslegup said:
He won BTB natties at UF. Can't discount that.

Otherwise, you cam make the case that he slightly underachieved at UF, esp in tourney
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He didn’t really capitalize on his back-to-back championships, which may be a concern (in addition to the fact he hasn’t coached college hoops in years and that he’s over 60).

It’s also not like he’s been killing it in the NBA. Not that lack of NBA success translates to lack of college success, but it doesn’t give me the warm fuzzies. His season records have been declining and last four season records have been losing ones.
 
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Two things about BD:

1. A coach like Lloyd would likely bring over some of his existing players and have a head start with portal connections. BD would not. Means the first season may be a struggle.
2. Didn’t he have Horford and Noah on the B2B titles? Hubert Davis may win B2B with that starting front court.
 
Icky Mettle said:
He didn’t really capitalize on his back-to-back championships, which may be a concern (in addition to the fact he hasn’t coached college hoops in years and that he’s over 60).

It’s also not like he’s been killing it in the NBA. Not that lack of NBA success translates to lack of college success, but it doesn’t give me the warm fuzzies. His season records have been declining and last four season records have been losing ones.
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The long layoff from college coaching and recent NBA results are concerns to consider. But his college results were extremely good, especially considering that UF basketball had very little history of anything before he got there. And i's not like he stopped being good at UF after those two titles. They had a mass exodus after those titles and so bubbled out the next couple years, but then he made four straight E8s and a FF in years where they were a 1, 2, 3, and 7 seed.
 
He's not my first choice, but he's an excellent fallback position. Probably on the minority with this take, but I think coaching ten years in the NBA is actually a good thing. It's not like he was away from the game as a talking head. The results in Chicago have been meh, but that is a franchise outcome; many of their problems come from front office/ownership decisions.

I think there's a good chance he comes back to the college game reinvigorated. I wish he were a bit younger.
 
heelinhell said:
I am class of '74 with a 30+ year membership in the Rams Club . My two daughters graduated with post graduate degrees from UNC. My grandson will be entering UNC this fall.

I am not " rooting for coaches to spurn UNC". I am offering an opinion about why home run coaches may not be interested in coming to UNC.

I'm sorry you chose an ad hominem attack rather than address my position
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I think most posters have probably given up trying address your positions expecting a serious discussion.
 
Can we just not, maybe just this once, hire a coach who has been out of coaching the better part of a decade? I mean how has that worked out for us recently?

Crazy idea, maybe we hire someone young enough and hungry enough to put in the amount of work that it takes to get a program to the very top.
 
heelinhell said:
That is true, but the only coach to do that since he did is Danny Hurley
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Sure but what he did 20 years ago isn’t indicative of what he is capable of doing now.

Bobby Knight won 3 national championships in 12 seasons between 1976 and 1987. But fast forward to the mid-90s when he was still just in his mid-50s. How successful of a coach was he from then on?

Denny Crum won 2 national championships in just 7 seasons between 1980 and 1986. But fast forward to the 1990s when he was still just in his mid-50s. How successful was he from then on?

NC State was banned from the NCAAT in 1973, but between 1973 and 1974, Norm Sloan lost only one game and won a national championship. I believe the only two other coaches to lose just 1 game or less over two seasons were John Wooden and the aforementioned Bobby Knight. But how successful was Sloan after that?

Winning back-back-championships is great. But with that being nearly 20 years ago, I’m more interested in what he’s accomplished since then.
 
Ddseddse said:
Can we just not, maybe just this once, hire a coach who has been out of coaching the better part of a decade? I mean how has that worked out for us recently?

Crazy idea, maybe we hire someone young enough and hungry enough to put in the amount of work that it takes to get a program to the very top.
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That's how I feel, too. Would much rather have Lloyd, May or Otzelberger. Maybe even Byington. I think McCollum at Iowa would be a good hire, too.
 
Mulberry Heel said:
Yeah, I know his record at Florida, it just concerns me that he hasn't coached a game of college basketball in over a decade - college basketball has changed enormously since then. I would prefer a coach who is coaching college ball right now and has shown he can be successful in this new, post-covid NIL and transfer system. At any rate if he's hired I'll certainly root like hell for him to be successful, I don't dislike him, and I would definitely prefer him over Oats or Golden. My hope is that we can still somehow get Lloyd.
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I think Donovan has a high floor because he’s a very competent coach, but he’s the one name getting talked about as a realistic option that I would be underwhelmed with. There are probably a dozen current college coaches that I would hire before him. Maybe I’m letting our recent football hires cloud my feelings but I’d much rather see UNC finally try to get a coach on the upswing of their career.
 
rodoheel said:
The long layoff from college coaching and recent NBA results are concerns to consider. But his college results were extremely good, especially considering that UF basketball had very little history of anything before he got there. And i's not like he stopped being good at UF after those two titles. They had a mass exodus after those titles and so bubbled out the next couple years, but then he made four straight E8s and a FF in years where they were a 1, 2, 3, and 7 seed.
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If Donovan were at least 5 years younger, that might make me feel better. But his coaching days are numbered and and it’s highly questionable whether he can achieve the level of success he had at his peak in college over the short term. Whatever happens, we’re likely looking for another coach within 7-8 years if Donovan is our next coach.
 
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Ddseddse said:
Can we just not, maybe just this once, hire a coach who has been out of coaching the better part of a decade? I mean how has that worked out for us recently?

Crazy idea, maybe we hire someone young enough and hungry enough to put in the amount of work that it takes to get a program to the very top.
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Sums up my thoughts exactly. There’s nothing wrong with hiring a younger coach that is working their way up the ranks with UNC as a natural next step for their career. If we go with Donovan I could easily see us looking up in a few years and realizing we outsmarted ourselves yet again trying to hire someone with an illustrious career that had lost their fastball by the time we hired them.
 
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Icky Mettle said:
If Donovan were at least 5 years younger, that might make me feel better. But his coaching days are numbered and and it’s highly questionable whether he can achieve the level of success he has at his peak in college over the short term. Whatever happens, we’re likely looking for another coach within 7-8 years if Donavan is our next coach.
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Donovan is 60. This isn't a Belichick situation. Roy retired at 71, K at 75. Donovan isn't my first choice but the age is a fairly minor concern for me. The lack of recent college coaching experience and mediocre NBA results are the real concerns, IMO, and I don't put too much stock in the latter because the Bulls' management has been laughably bad for years.
 
rodoheel said:
Donovan is 60. This isn't a Belichick situation. Roy retired at 71, K at 75. Donovan isn't my first choice but the age is a fairly minor concern for me. The lack of recent college coaching experience and mediocre NBA results are the real concerns, IMO, and I don't put too much stock in the latter because the Bulls' management has been laughably bad for years.
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If someone starts here at 61, which Donovan will be at the start of the next college basketball season, then they are here for the short term. And I’m also not at all confident that as they get closer to 70, they are going have that same level of fire they had at it even shortly after their peak. Frankly, Donavan looks kind of burned out to me every time I see him.

I remember when UNC hired Mack Brown 2.0, I was talking to my dad about it a day or two after. My dad was 70 at the time and fairly recently retired. He shook his head and said that once you hit the latter part of your 60s you just don’t have the same drive you once had. He wasn’t just talking about himself there.

I do agree it’s not a Belichick situation. Or even a Mack Brown 2.0 situation. But I do think it comes somewhat close to crossing the line into that general territory. Like we’d be a few steps away from reaching that line.

I don’t think Donovan would be a bad hire at all, which is not the way way I felt about either Brown or Belichick. But I also don’t think it would be a particularly great hire.

(And Roy was still a few months shy of turning 71.)
 
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donbosco said:
Whoever is the next coach at UNC, they will absolutely have to be really successful very quickly.
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Well, UNC is unlikely to make any announcement until after the Final Four which means the new coach will miss the opening of the portal this year, so expectations of huge success in year one should probably be tempered a smidge.
 
Peppers49 said:
I think most posters have probably given up trying address your positions expecting a serious discussion.
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I think there are some posters who don't want to have a serious discussion. I hope it's not most posters.

but bless your heart Peppers. You be you and don't be changing. I like you just the way you are (y)
 
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