While patience is needed, it’s becoming clear that North Carolina must start pursuing more realistic options, not just aspirational ones, in their search for the next head coach.
UNC has aimed high, calling the sport’s upper echelon and signaling it will pay top dollar for the right replacement. Yet there’s been little in the way of a realistic Plan B if those dream candidates say no.
Visit zeppelin.cool for more information.
They’re already hearing “no.”
Tommy Lloyd chose to stay at Arizona, helped by a reworked contract that means he no longer reports to athletic director Desireé Reed-Francois, with whom he’s had a strained relationship.
Michigan’s Dusty May has repeatedly reaffirmed his commitment to the Wolverines, saying his family loves Ann Arbor and backed by a school willing to spend to keep him.
Billy Donovan, now with the Chicago Bulls after winning two national titles at Florida, doesn’t plan to even speak with UNC until after the NBA regular season ends April 13 — six days after the transfer portal opens and rosters begin to churn.
Meanwhile, the clock is ticking on the portal, NIL decisions and roster management. UNC’s search is colliding with the realities of modern college basketball in a way the program has never really experienced.
That’s because North Carolina hasn’t conducted a true national search since 1952 — the year Dwight D. Eisenhower was elected president amid the Korean War and Queen Elizabeth II began her 70-year reign. That search produced Frank McGuire from St. John’s, who delivered the program’s first national championship in 1957 and hired Dean Smith as an assistant in 1958.
Since Smith took over in 1961, UNC has largely stayed in the family, hiring alumni or coaches with deep Carolina ties. For nearly three-quarters of a century, the question in Chapel Hill hasn’t been, “Who can we find?” so much as, “Which Carolina guy is next?”
That approach doesn’t fit this moment. If UNC misses on Donovan and May, it can’t simply wait around and hope another blue-blood name falls into its lap. It has to look at proven winners who don’t come prepackaged with baby-blue credentials.
Ben McCollum is one of them. He led Iowa to its first Elite Eight since 1987 in his debut season. A year earlier, he went 32-4 in his lone season at Drake, sweeping the Missouri Valley Conference’s regular-season and tournament titles and delivering the Bulldogs’ first NCAA Tournament win since 1971 by upsetting sixth-seeded, nationally ranked Missouri. Before moving to Division I, he built a Division II powerhouse at Northwest Missouri State, going 395-91 from 2009 to 2024 with four national championships, 20 conference titles, a 38-0 season in 2018-19 and a 32-7 postseason record.
Vanderbilt’s Mark Byington is another. He owns a 267-160 record and four straight 20-win seasons, with turnarounds at Georgia Southern, James Madison and now Vanderbilt. He guided James Madison to its first NCAA Tournament win in 31 years in 2023-24 and has taken Vanderbilt to back-to-back NCAA appearances in his first two seasons, ending a seven-year drought. This season, the Commodores beat McNeese State for their first NCAA Tournament win in 14 years and were a last-second rim-out away from the Sweet 16 against No. 4 seed Nebraska.
Then there’s Texas Tech’s Grant McCasland, who might be an even hotter name if JT Toppin hadn’t suffered a season-ending injury and the Red Raiders’ ceiling hadn’t dipped. McCasland has a 284-121 (.701) career record across Midwestern State, Arkansas State, North Texas and Texas Tech, with an NIT title at North Texas in 2023 and an Elite Eight run with Tech last season.
He also went 142-32 at Midland College at the junior college level, with two national title-game appearances and the 2007 championship. In 17 seasons as a head coach at the junior college and NCAA levels, he has had only one year with fewer than 20 wins — the shortened 2020-21 season at North Texas, when the Mean Green still earned their first NCAA Tournament victory by upsetting Purdue in a 13-over-4 matchup.
You could also make a case for first-year Miami head coach Jai Lucas, who led the Hurricanes to a 26-9 record and a third-place ACC finish just one year after they went 7-24 and 3-17 in the league to finish last. Lucas is also considered one of the best recruiters in the country, helping construct top-ranked recruiting classes at both Duke and Kentucky.
None of these coaches is a made-for-UNC, marquee name. None comes with a statue waiting outside the Smith Center or a ready-made “Carolina Way” label. What they offer instead is evidence.
Evidence they can win. Evidence they can build. Evidence they understand the modern game — the portal, NIL, realignment and everything that now defines college basketball.
For the first time since the early 1950s, North Carolina is being forced outside its comfort zone. The real decision in Chapel Hill isn’t whether it can land another Hall of Famer. It’s whether the school is willing to move past the fantasy list and hire the right coach instead of the perfect name.
If the Tar Heels can do that, their next great era is more likely to come from a realistic choice than from another aspirational swing that never even makes it to the plate.
Follow us @TarHeelsWire on X and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of North Carolina Tar Heels news, notes and opinions.
This article originally appeared on Tar Heels Wire: UNC basketball: Why UNC must get real about its next head coach