UNC hits biggest roadblock in search for next head coach

· Yahoo Sports

CBS Sports’ Jon Rothstein believes North Carolina’s coaching search could be more complicated — and more expensive — than many around Chapel Hill expect.

The Tar Heels got their first taste of that on Friday, when Arizona head coach Tommy Lloyd turned down a lucrative offer from the blue blood program to remain in Tucson, where the Wildcats met his demands.

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Now at the top of the list are Michigan’s Dusty May and Chicago Bulls coach Billy Donovan, but both come with major hurdles.

May, who has led the Wolverines to their first Final Four since 2018, is settled in Ann Arbor and strongly backed by Michigan’s administration.

“I have talked to Warde Manuel three times in the last week, Michigan's athletic director,” Rothstein said. “He has said every single time, ‘We are going to do everything we have to do to retain Dusty May as head coach.’ And talking to a lot of people close to Dusty May, he’s not really that interested in going to a fishbowl like North Carolina.”

Donovan, meanwhile, has the résumé UNC fans covet — two national titles at Florida and multiple deep NCAA tournament runs — but his NBA situation could slow any college move.

“I have been told that Billy Donovan will not entertain a conversation with North Carolina until after the Chicago Bulls’ season is over on April 12, out of respect for the Chicago Bulls,” Rothstein said. “With that said, Billy Donovan is not going to be ready to get on a Zoom necessarily on April 13 at 9 a.m. He’s going to process the Bulls’ season and could also entertain other NBA head-coaching opportunities.”

That timing collides directly with roster-building. The transfer portal opens April 7, meaning if UNC waited until April 13 to hire Donovan, it would lose six key days to evaluate, meet with and recruit players — and to keep its own players from entering the portal.

Where does Carolina go next?

If the Tar Heels move past May and Donovan, Rothstein said other names on the radar could include Iowa’s Ben McCollum, Vanderbilt’s Mark Byington and Texas Tech’s Grant McCasland. Those, too, are far from simple.

“Here’s what we have to remember: Ben McCollum is in the first year of his contract, and the AD at Iowa has told me that they plan to sign him to a contract extension,” Rothstein said. “He has publicly said that he would like to be the head coach at Iowa for a long time. Mark Byington and Grant McCasland both have buyouts of $10 million or more. So it’s going to be a very steep price tag.”

Coaching-search déjà vu?

Rothstein also noted that history suggests UNC coaching searches rarely unfold cleanly. The last time the school conducted a true nationwide search was in 2000, and since Frank McGuire was hired in 1952, every Tar Heels head coach has either been Dean Smith or someone who played or coached under him.

“The last two times this job was open, Hubert Davis was presumed to be the candidate to replace Roy Williams, and then Roy Williams was obviously the one that Carolina was waiting for in 2003. The last time North Carolina opened it up, which I believe was 2000, when Bill Guthridge retired, North Carolina could not find a candidate of a major ilk when Roy Williams said no. 

Rick Majerus, may he rest in peace, the head coach at Utah, was going to take the North Carolina job until Michael Jordan called Matt Doherty and said, ‘If you don’t take this job …’ because Matt Doherty had coached one year at Notre Dame. They were going to give the job to somebody outside of the family. 

“What is the short story? North Carolina better temper expectations, and North Carolina also better be prepared to pay a massive, massive buyout if it wants to get one of the coaches I referenced.”

At first, sticking with Doherty looked like the right move, as the Tar Heels went 26-7 in his first season and won the ACC regular-season title. However, that year ended with an upset loss to Penn State in the second round of the NCAA Tournament, and the rest of the Doherty era spiraled out of control.

Over the next two seasons, the Tar Heels went 27-36 overall and 10-22 in ACC play with no NCAA Tournament appearances, resulting in his firing in 2003.

Williams finally came home after that, and the rest was history.

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This article originally appeared on Tar Heels Wire: UNC basketball: Why landing a top coach won’t be easy

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