UNC Basketball Possible coaches

It seems to me that there is just an insane amount of wacko comments and discussion getting thrown around. The social media stuff I get - people want to drive clicks or whatever, but there's no reason to listen to those morons. At this point, if you believe the reporting that Lloyd, May and Donovan - all of whom have excellent and prestigious jobs - are all very interest in the UNC job, then it's unambiguously clear that UNC is perceived (at least by the only people whose opinions are relevant, i.e. top tier coaches) as an elite job. Nobody knows for sure who the hire will end up being, and frankly nobody knows for sure who the obvious "best" hire would be, but the fact that UNC basketball is, first the first time in ~65 years, performing a truly open coaching search has clearly garnered broad interest from many of the best coaches in the world.

It's also not as if these guys are afraid of the idea that they would be coming in to UNC to win more than we have in recent years. Lloyd took the Arizona job coming off of three straight years that UA missed the tournament (going 55-35 across those three seasons). May took over at Michigan coming off of two straight years missing the tournament (and a 26-40 record over those years). We are talking here about true outliers in terms of being among the absolute best at what they do. If they were going to be scared of taking UNC or any other job then they wouldn't be serious candidates for the job.
 
donbosco said:
The talk about Chapel Hill vs Stoors vs Tucson vs Ann Arbor is interesting.

Anyone remember one of the key factors in why Frank McGuire came to Chapel Hill?
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Wanted a quieter, more stress free environment for his son Frankie - who had cerebral palsy. Felt southern folks (with reputation for niceness) would be less harsh on his son's condition than NYers.
 
BlueSteel said:
Hot take: Tommy Lloyd isn't leaving a perennial powerhouse like Arizona to come save Carolina basketball for us.
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Perennial powerhouse? Arizona has 5 Final Fours (including this year) and one national championship. It is 17th on the all time win list, behind programs like BYU and Utah. UNC has 21 Final Fours (most in NCAA history) and six championships.

As I said before, it is no different from Bill Self leaving Illinois (which has a better basketball history than Arizona) to go to Kansas.

Will he make the move? TBD. But there is no world where Arizona and UNC are even in the same planet of basketball programs.
 
treblkickd said:
It seems to me that there is just an insane amount of wacko comments and discussion getting thrown around. The social media stuff I get - people want to drive clicks or whatever, but there's no reason to listen to those morons. At this point, if you believe the reporting that Lloyd, May and Donovan - all of whom have excellent and prestigious jobs - are all very interest in the UNC job, then it's unambiguously clear that UNC is perceived (at least by the only people whose opinions are relevant, i.e. top tier coaches) as an elite job. Nobody knows for sure who the hire will end up being, and frankly nobody knows for sure who the obvious "best" hire would be, but the fact that UNC basketball is, first the first time in ~65 years, performing a truly open coaching search has clearly garnered broad interest from many of the best coaches in the world.

It's also not as if these guys are afraid of the idea that they would be coming in to UNC to win more than we have in recent years. Lloyd took the Arizona job coming off of three straight years that UA missed the tournament (going 55-35 across those three seasons). May took over at Michigan coming off of two straight years missing the tournament (and a 26-40 record over those years). We are talking here about true outliers in terms of being among the absolute best at what they do. If they were going to be scared of taking UNC or any other job then they wouldn't be serious candidates for the job.
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I don't think they are scared. It may just be that they are happy where they are.
 
Calheel said:
Perennial powerhouse? Arizona has 5 Final Fours (including this year) and one national championship. It is 17th on the all time win list, behind programs like BYU and Utah. UNC has 21 Final Fours (most in NCAA history) and six championships.

As I said before, it is no different from Bill Self leaving Illinois (which has a better basketball history than Arizona) to go to Kansas.

Will he make the move? TBD. But there is no world where Arizona and UNC are even in the same planet of basketball programs.
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Plus, Arizona's last FF was 2001 prior to this year. That's a looong drought for a "basketball school."
 
Calheel said:
Perennial powerhouse? Arizona has 5 Final Fours (including this year) and one national championship. It is 17th on the all time win list, behind programs like BYU and Utah. UNC has 21 Final Fours (most in NCAA history) and six championships.

As I said before, it is no different from Bill Self leaving Illinois (which has a better basketball history than Arizona) to go to Kansas.

Will he make the move? TBD. But there is no world where Arizona and UNC are even in the same planet of basketball programs.
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From a "what was the program's history prior to the coach being there," I think the comparison between the Arizona job in 2026 and Illinois job in 2003 is pretty accurate. But I think the issue for us is not that Arizona is a historically successful program, it's that it looks like a place where Lloyd can compete for titles over the next 5-10 years just as well as he can compete at UNC. That's the thing , IMO, that could ultimately lead to him turning us down. Unless there is a lot of friction with the AD, or we can offer him substantially more money, what is the case that UNC is a better place to succeed than Arizona in the short to mid term?
 
BlueSteel said:
Hot take: Tommy Lloyd isn't leaving a perennial powerhouse like Arizona to come save Carolina basketball for us.
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Maybe, but until I hear something definitive otherwise I'll keep hoping. And given that all any of us can do is speculate, no reason not to speculate about him until he's definitely been eliminated from consideration.
 
Bigs23 said:
I don't think they are scared. It may just be that they are happy where they are.
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And that's totally fair - more power to them if they are, but we're talking about people who are the best at what they do, and those kinds of people tend to be ambitious. If I'm UNC's search team, I'm selling that we're looking for someone to step up to become the next legendary coach at one of the legendary programs in the sport, and I would think that's a compelling message for ambitious over-achievers. That said, I have no info, no sources, etc., I'm just relieved that UNC has finally embraced the idea that they need to go out and find the best coach out there to lead the program, and I guess we'll know within a week or two just how strong of a pull the UNC job has.
 
North Carolina is easily one of the top two-three jobs in college basketball. I would say it is among UNC, Kansas and Kentucky. I would also say that money/NIL wise that we can compete (recent BOT changes likely help). To say otherwise is folly.
 
I heard there is some balking from the big donors regarding big buyouts. As if money has been lined up for big salary and nil, but cost of buyout is giving some sticker-shock and that's bumping Donovan higher up the list.
 
gregh1 said:
I heard there is some balking from the big donors regarding big buyouts. As if money has been lined up for big salary and nil, but cost of buyout is giving some sticker-shock and that's bumping Donovan higher up the list.
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I take it the large buyouts came as a surprise?
 
rodoheel said:
From a "what was the program's history prior to the coach being there," I think the comparison between the Arizona job in 2026 and Illinois job in 2003 is pretty accurate. But I think the issue for us is not that Arizona is a historically successful program, it's that it looks like a place where Lloyd can compete for titles over the next 5-10 years just as well as he can compete at UNC. That's the thing , IMO, that could ultimately lead to him turning us down. Unless there is a lot of friction with the AD, or we can offer him substantially more money, what is the case that UNC is a better place to succeed than Arizona in the short to mid term?
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Exactly. Many here on this board are living in the past. The game has changed. Arizona, UConn are arguably Top 5 jobs for the immediate future. It would make zero sense for one of those coaches to bolt to a school that is currently clearly having less success in this new world of NIL.
 
gregh1 said:
I heard there is some balking from the big donors regarding big buyouts. As if money has been lined up for big salary and nil, but cost of buyout is giving some sticker-shock and that's bumping Donovan higher up the list.
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Donovan’s buyout is 6.5 and Lloyd’s is 9 (as of April 1) Mays is 7 i believe. That’s pretty negligible
 
You know, it's not going to be a good look to get turned down by Lloyd and May. You could say we can fall back to Donovan, but he's not been in the college game for about 20 years, over 60, an unknown product that doesn't make me feel all warm and fuzzy. Feeling more anxious every day.
 
Can’t discount the possibility of finding an assistant (like Lloyd was) or a mid-major head coach (like May was at FAM).
Lloyd is curious: played for Walla Walla, went on to play internationally in Australia and Europe. Became an Asst for Few at Gonzaga in charge of “international recruiting”. Then got the head job at Arizona. He was never a head coach anywhere before Zona.

May on the other hand was a head coach before (albeit a mid-major) and took a team to the FF.
Mays history of being a successful head coach and getting to a FF puts him in a different place than just any ordinary, young mid-major coach, so that hire by Michigan makes more since than Arizona picking a basic unknown assistant from the Pacific NW with no head coaching experience at all.

Finding a Diamond in the rough like Lloyd would be cool, but very very tricky.
Any mid-major head coaches out there who’ve guided their team to a FF like May?
Didn’t think so.
 
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