Sportz' Take On New North Carolina Hoops Coach, Michael Malone

 I get asked a lot, so here's my answers:

*HE CAN BE FAMILY: Michael Malone is the first head coach without ties to North Carolina since Frank McGuire was lured away from St. John's in 1952. Since then they've hired assistants Dean Smith, Bill Guthridge, Roy Williams and Hubert Davis and former player Matt Doherty (Davis was also a former player). With no obvious Carolina Family candidate available, UNC went outside to land a new coach. If it wasn't Malone, it would've been another outside coach. And that's cool with me.

When Roy Williams retired in 2021, I really wanted Mark Few to be the next head coach of the Tar Heels. Obviously that didn't happen and the program stayed in the family to hire Williams' assistant, Davis. So I have been willing to break away from family, but that's not been true with everyone. There are fans who still wish Davis was the head coach or wanted guys like Sean May, Jerry Stackhouse or Rasheed Wallace to take the job. But the wise move is to get a highly successful coach who will get Carolina back to competing for national championships. And that's what they hopefully have done with Malone.

Malone isn't totally foreign to Carolina basketball. His daughter is a sophomore on the Heels' volleyball team, and he has visited her in Chapel Hill quite a bit over the past year. He mentioned that he's attended some practices and has hung around the basketball program a little over the past year. Not everyone is born into a family -- some arrive later and join in.

*HE CAN COACH: I know that college basketball and the NBA are different, but Malone's ability to coach on the college level isn't very worrisome for me. No, Nikola Jokic will not be a Tar Heel, but Malone is a coach's son and has been coaching most of his adult life. He works hard and quite possibly his stern coaching style will actually work better on the college level. He likes defense, rebounding and having bigs. That's been the Carolina way under both Smith and Williams so fans should enjoy the style of play that Malone brings.

*BUT CAN HE RECRUIT?: Recruiting is a whole different animal. In the NBA, much of your roster is set since you have guys under contract. Malone didn't have to worry about Jokic putting his name in the portal after every season. There are free agents and trades and all of that, but that's typically the front office's job with the coach obviously consulted about any changes. In college, it's much different. For a long, long, long time college coaches have had to go on recruiting visits, watch high school ball games and schmooze with coaches and parents ... only to watch them pick another school. With the portal and NIL, basically there is a free for all with free agency. Like NBA free agency, it tends to go quickly at the start but there are thousands of players to deal with and, unlike the NBA, new guys become available in the portal. But it is a big change than what he's been used to, so hopefully Malone is able to hire assistant coaches who do have the relationships and know-how to help him get through this. He also has a GM in Jim Tanner who will be in his second year at this job. Tanner had a mixed bag in Year 1, landing Henri Veesaar and Jarin Stevenson but really missed on overpaying some other guys. 

*EXPECTATIONS: I don't really know what to expect. I don't expect Malone to waltz into this job and build a team into a national championship contender. I don't even think the 2026-2027 team will be as talented or as good as the 2025-2026 team was until Caleb Wilson went down with his injuries. I do think this is a building year, where we see some successes and see some frustrating times as well. A tournament spot should be in the cards and hopefully one in a better place than the No. 6 seed we were in this tournament. I'm looking a little more long term. The build of getting his feet wet and understanding the college ropes while also installing his culture and how he wants to shape his program. That isn't easy, especially at a place like North Carolina where a culture has been in place for such a long time. 

What I don't expect is how off the rails things went for Bill Belichick. I know there will be a lot of comparisons between Malone and Belichick since both left the pro game where they won championships for North Carolina programs that are reeling a bit after firing their head coaches.