UNC Basketball's Decision-Making Process - IC Daily | College Basketball

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Welcome in the inside Carolina daily. I'm Tommy. Actually that is Greg Barnes

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Greg Barnes

We sit here on Monday March 23rd awaiting some sort of news

Out of the Carolina basketball offices. It's been a interesting few days since the Thursday night meltdown

What's going on

Oh, not much Tommy just

Just same old same old right

Um, one question that we we have gotten quite a bit and I think it's a relevant one and uh, I think is this we're talking about

Is you what's what's taking so long with this process

And I really think how things transpired in the last couple weeks

Uh, kind of the rapid nature that it occurred

Is important here to understand why there's you know a little bit of time

since into the year and

Today Monday as we're still waiting on some type of word from from you and see

uh

And I can just tell you from from previous

Coaching changes and searches and those types of things that happen in the considerations of such

Um, you know mac brown coming back for example and the fall of 2018

If you remember you Carolina played state on a Saturday

We reported Sunday morning that North Carolina was parting ways with Larry Fedora

And then I believe either on Monday or Tuesday mac brown was introduced as the next head coach

So very rapid fire scenario

And the reason for that is because you and see had known going into that state game

That they're going to have to make a change

And that there are already conversations taking place in the weeks leading up to that final game

About the path forward

And so when it came time for the end of the season

Everything was in line

Everything was ready to go

And you can check the boxes and move forward

And because of how things have played out

With the end of the North Carolina basketball season

Um, I don't think the process was that far along

You as of you know a couple weeks left to go in the in the season

All indications were that that North Carolina likely was going to you stay with Hubert Davis for another year

The caveat there of course was that there needed to be some

Some productivity some some good performance in the postseason

Some life if you will

Um, and then what happens is North Carolina goes into the the Duke game

Has a really bad 10 minutes stretch there in the second half

Uh, and then from there you go to Clemson and Charlotte

ACZ tournament quarter finals

And Carolina was just lifeless for 35 minutes pretty much

And then they woke up and and made the score look a lot better there at the end

And then you go into the incidental tournament and again

Kind of inverse of that cumpson game

Carolina looks really good for 25 minutes

And then the wills fall off

Um, so I think the fact that you see really five halves of basketball

Completely up and down completely inconsistent

So much of it having to do with

um

Focus in concentration and some coaching aspects

That really kind of threw a wrench into things

Um, and I think coming out of that game you as we talked about the day of the game Tommy

You Hubert Davis needed needed to win that game and then look good

To really feel confident about getting another uh another year

And now we're in this situation of everything kind of collapsed at the last minute. There's a lot of

Um, concern about the ability to fundraise for the 2026-27

um

team

Just because there's a lot of question marks about you know how this support stands for Hubert Davis

And so very rapidly after the season you start having all of these conversations about okay

What's the best path forward for the for the program

And it's not conversations like all right well the decision was made last week

Let's just go ahead and move through the process of getting this wrapped up. That's not how it was set up

It really kind of started as soon as that

VCU game ended on Thursday and so there is a process in place and understand you have fanbase once things that happen very very quickly

Um, and I do think you know as we reported on sunday that the national narrative is a little bit ahead of where things actually stand

So it's not as though things are not happening

But there is a process involved and that's what North Carolina officials are currently working through as they try to

Determine the best path forward for the basketball program

Talking with Greg Barnes here when I see daily about the Carolina basketball coaching situation and

And why things are running as they're running. It's a great point because when you look at a football

Season you kind of know where you're going and while uh a good

Showing against your rival can maybe be maybe save it usually in football

It is what it is by the time you get to late November

But to you to point the basketball

Kind of just crashed completely cratered there to end and that's never

A good thing for a coach already on the proverbial hot seat and so Greg

Let me ask the question that a lot of people ask me is does one game really make that big a difference if if VCU

Doesn't happen all we have in these conversations. I'm not quite sure. That's a simple answer either

for sure and

I understand that but that also makes it very binary

It is just not that type of situation. I mean everybody's got five years of data to work with and it's not just result results on the court

It's how things have been handled you know behind the scenes you know one of the things we've talked about is I mean heber Davis is

somewhat of a quiet person is a private person

And therefore the the fundraising aspect the kind of the glad handing that has to happen

um

Is just doesn't come naturally tilling and it's not something that he's he's

Comfortable with according to a variety of sources over the years. I know there's been some frustration at times about

You know not being as glued in with some of the the booster conversations as as a lot of people would like

And which makes sense right? I mean if you're if you're donating

I mean

tens of thousands of dollars or hundreds of thousands of dollars or even millions of dollars

um

There's some reciprocity that that is expected

Um, and it varies per individual and that's just kind of how it goes

But when you when you look at it kind of the probably the easiest way to explain it is

You've got people who were ready to make a change

You've got people who you think heber can be the guy and that he just needs

Helping different areas to kind of help elevate the program back to where everybody thinks it should be

And then you've got a lot of people there in the middle and I think over the course of several years

Really since the end of the the 2024 season there's been a larger

Group a massing kind in that middle

And so it's somewhat a they they balance beam

Where you you've got people on the on the either end a lot of people in the middle

And just a little bit of momentum one way or the other can shift that middle group to one side or the other

And that can cause is the complete change in perspective

So the idea that's just hey one game really decides it

Yeah, that's not fair. I don't think anybody is going to judge a coach in that matter

But there are some you know expectations and some some ideas and play

That people you factor in and look I've been quite clear about my stance on the incidentally tournament

It's a one and done situation

It's very difficult to get a good judge on um coaches in that scenario

So when coaches lose in the first or second round

You know on occasion. It's not that big of a deal. You're Dean Smith won two national championships

Does that mean he was not as good of a coach as coach K who had five?

I don't know that anybody watching this would think that right

And it's just a it's a difficult thing

However, there are a lot of people that place a lot of value on postseason play for good reason

You know when in the ACC regular season championship

Is good it may not be enough

A lot of people really focus on

How the team fares in the postseason you know

2022 is a great example

Is up and down is that regular season was

A lot of people say hey got national championship game. This all it matters

So there's some of that as well. So

Long story short

There's a lot of different perspectives. There's a lot of data that goes into this

And it's just the matter of when the season comes to a close

Where does everybody stand and that's kind of wherever I right now

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Yeah a couple great points in there one

um

The money aspect of it is

It has rocketed up the list

In this day and age. I mean you've got to have it. You can't just smooth recruits and be the granddad that they were the

Of the father or the brother they all come play for

um

There's money involved so that aspect of it to your point about the NCA tournament and I tend to agree

Yes, coaches are

Certainly judged on their success in that but there's a reason baseball plays series. There's a reason the NBA plays

Series it one and done is a tough ask and to your point about Dean Smith

I think people forget that he won two in 36 seasons

Think about that now that being said

The five-year narrative or the five-year

What we've seen is certainly troubling and that's why we're here

Discussing these things and in this situation with Chapel Hill athletics last question for you Greg

How much does and we talked about this a lot?

um

You know both air and on air as we were building to this point how much does the

So much going on in Chapel Hill have to do with all of this. I mean

It is it is quite hectic around Chapel Hill

With a lot more things than just a coaching search though. I do believe

Um Carolina basketball head coach situations probably

Or should be or has been at the top of the list

Yeah, it certainly plays a role and this is just my my take on it

But I do think you know talking with people say a month ago

Uh, there was the belief this is gonna right around when when Caleb Wilson got hurt

It was believed that Hubert had probably done enough at that point in time to probably get another year

Uh, when you factor in some of the injuries

And I think a lot of that was kind of to your point that there's just so much going on

I mean you've got the you know the Smith Center situation

Uh, which is which is a big factor and just in terms of taking up a lot of bandwidth

um

When we were having the Smith Center conversations you know one thing that

Bubba Cunningham

laid out was that

One of the reasons that there was a a fracture and communication in that process

is because if you go back to

You're really the fall of 24 and in ever since um

There's been a lot of focus on the football program and Bill Bella check and and trying to deal with

Some of the issues that your rose last fall last summer

Um, and that kind of played a role and some of this um

lack of preparation in terms of the communication on the Smith Center's out of things

So that's kind of an indication is how much is on their plate

Um, and you've got the athlete director of transition, right? I mean it's the situation where Bubba's the

uh, athlete director right now

In two months it'll be Steve Newmark

So how does that transition plane to things if people can say that as an excuse

That is an awful lot of

New ones to work through in this process

And then the other thing I want to say before we get off time. You mentioned the money aspect of things

um

Sometimes there can be major swings in that type of thing

That have dramatic um force in decision-making processes and example that I'll give as if you go back to 2018

With football

I'm Larry Fedora coming into that year even though they'd had a bad year in 17

There was a lot of expectation that he would be back

You had the whole situation where they were building the

The indoor practice facility

Everybody knew that the field situation was a mess if people were getting hurt

Um, it wasn't a good surface the way they expected it to be

Um, you had some injuries a quarterback

So there were just a variety of things that kind of had worked against the football program

At that point in time and therefore there was expectation that Larry would be back

And really I think the the straw that broke the camel's back was that recruiting cratered

And there are a few things that you can come back from as a coach

And in football certainly recruiting is at the top of the list

And when when recruiting went south

It was kind of like all right well if you can't recruit

Then what's the path forward here?

And it made the decision a lot easier especially when Matt Brown kind of threw his name in the

In the ring late in the season

And I really think now I mean money and recruiting is all kind of the same thing at this point

With with an aisle and revsher and that type of thing

And so there when there becomes an issue of all right

We may not have enough money

They're appropriately fun to roster to be competitive the next season

That changes the dynamics very quickly

And so I think that's a that's a key point for people to understand as well

Indeed it is

Money makes the world go around you better have it especially this day and age

um

Because it is a major factor that's Greg Barnes

I'm Tommy actually spend inside Carolina daily

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Greg it is first thing monday morning

We know how fast the world turns

Um by the time you read this could be dated but the information we've discussed is certainly relevant

And evergreen when it comes to this stuff for for Carolina basketball and Carolina athletics

Appreciate it Greg

Thanks Tommy

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