UNC Decision Will Shape the Future - IC Daily | College Basketball

Your vehicle doesn't just get you from here to there.

It's a bridge to the people and places that matter most.

It's how you show up for your family, your community,

and everyone else that depends on you.

That's why for 125 years,

Firestone has been building tires with one thing in mind

to deliver products that are as reliable as you are.

Firestone always dependable since 1900.

Hey sweetie, your mother showed me this Carvana thing for selling the car.

I'm going to give it a try. Wish me luck.

Me again, I put in the license plate. It gave me an offer.

Unbelievable.

Okay, I accepted the offer. They're picking it up Tuesday from the driveway.

I haven't even left my chair.

It's done. The car's gone. I'm holding a check.

Anyway, Carvana, give it a whirl. Love ya.

So good, you'll want to leave a voicemail about it.

Sell your car today on Carvana.

Pick up these may apply.

Welcome into another inside Carvana daily.

I'm Tommy. Actually, that's Greg Barnes Thursday, March 26th.

Time is flying by.

But we are only about 36 hours out from Hubert Davis being let go

at North Carolina. Greg, as we talked about going into

when we finally heard official word from North Carolina on Hubert Davis,

this is a process.

And it's a process that while the season is going on,

it's going to take a little bit of time, I think.

But overall for you, just.

It nothing is ever fast.

I think that's probably the motto here.

You're, you're taking there and your thoughts on the process that's playing out.

You're right, Tommy. And if, if everybody is in the same building,

in the same office, and you're trying to reach a decision,

you can just say, hey, come, come into my office and let's hammer this out

over the next two hours.

And it's just not that way when you have so many people in play,

trying to make decisions, trying to project forward, trying to,

you know, finalize details.

There's just a lot going on.

And so it doesn't happen as, as quickly as I know the,

the fan base and certainly the media would like it times.

It's just kind of how it goes.

But I think now that we have some, some conclusion with the Hubert Davis era,

everybody can kind of turn their attention forward.

And dating back to really the VCU game last Thursday night,

which is wild that we're not even really a full week away from that.

But very quickly after that game, it became apparent that a change

was likely, you know, and as we reported on Friday afternoon,

everybody, most people in terms of the stakeholders,

had decided that a, you know, North Carolina needed to make a change

and needed to move forward.

And so from that point forward, you really kind of had this situation

where there were some team members focused on the Hubert set of things

and there are other team members really starting the process,

they're trying to determine, okay, what are our options?

You assume we go through with this for the next basketball coach.

The one thing that we've talked about before, Tommy,

is whenever you make this type of decision,

it's just not in the vacuum of the here and now.

Because there's so much in play for North Carolina.

I mean, just on campus, right?

I mean, you've got the Smith Center arena discussion.

And rather you, whether you renovate or build new,

I mean, you're talking probably $500 million.

So you need somebody in place that can embrace the fundraising part of it,

can be a vocal figurehead in that campaign,

because that's going to be necessary.

And beyond that, as you look out five years, ten years from now,

where is North Carolina in the grand scope of the college landscape?

Is Carolina still in the ACC?

Honestly, I would be surprised if we're five, ten years out

and Carolina is still in the ACC.

But things change all the time, right?

So we don't know that,

but as you project out, that's kind of the conversation you have to have.

And if North Carolina is in the SEC or the Big Ten or wherever it may be,

what do you need in terms of making sure Carolina basketball remains elite?

I don't know, you know, both at the conference level as well as nationally.

So as you start looking at what your options are in terms of your next head coach,

all these things factor in.

And then you get into the details of, okay, what's its salary, its support staff,

is this individual a good fit with the North Carolina community?

And we can have the conversation about, you know, North Carolina kind of moving away

from the Carolina lineage, the Carolina family tree.

But ultimately, you've got to have somebody who appreciates what Carolina basketball is about,

who understands what it's about, that values what Carolina basketball is about,

and what's meant so much to so many for so long.

I mean, that is critically important.

And everybody involved understands that.

So all these things have to be factored in,

and then you come up with a list.

And, you know, essentially, what we've been told from the get-go was,

you know, if a change is made,

North Carolina wants to make sure that they hire an elite level coach

that has a strong track record.

And that sets the bar really high.

But this is North Carolina basketball.

The bar should be set very high.

And now it's just the process of talking representation,

trying to figure out who's actually available,

because a lot of coaches that you may want are still playing.

You know, this week's 16 tips off tonight,

and you've also got coaches maybe in other leagues that are in play.

So a lot to work through as North Carolina is in the process of this situation.

But we're starting to see some movement forward.

And as we've updated on the boards with the coaching search board,

as well as the scoop that we posted yesterday afternoon.

Some progress is being made, but still a long way to go.

Indeed, and folks, if you're watching this,

most of you guys are probably already inside Carolina premium subscribers.

If you're not, you see the scroll at the bottom 75% off your annual membership at the moment.

And as Greg said, the message boards are just loaded with content loaded with names.

And everybody watching this pretty much knows the names.

We're talking about Greg.

I think Sherrell and Rob and you when we talk the other night,

hit on all these things and hit on the importance of the best,

not a Carolina family.

Obviously, that's out the window, but the best coach possible.

And for the reasons why my question to you is,

how far do you go to get the best?

I guess is that a fair, is that a fair question to ask?

How far do you go and either wait for somebody to become available after their season

or all those things to absolutely get the best?

My question is, is Carolina all in on accomplishing those goals you believe from everything you've heard and seen?

Yes, absolutely.

No doubt about it.

And one thing that Chancellor Lee Roberts said a couple of months ago,

this is in relation to the arena discussion.

But one of the one of the stated goals is to make sure that Carolina basketball remains elite.

And we've talked about how the last seven years, six years,

have really kind of been difficult for North Carolina basketball,

unlike really what we've seen, right?

I mean, with Carolina being a six seed this year,

it's the second worst or second best seed that Carolina's had since 2019.

That is not Carolina basketball that most of us grew up knowing.

And it's a matter of getting back to that benchmark, right?

And there's a lot of changes that have taken place in college of basketball,

you have NIL, you have the transfer portal, you now have revshare,

there's an influx of money,

all these things have to be factored in.

And so I know there's concern in some circles about,

all right, we'll look at Kentucky, right?

I mean, Kentucky wanted Dan Hurley.

They wanted Nate Oats, they wanted Scott Drew.

All these options fell through.

And then what ended up happening?

Bad to settle a little more, Pope.

It, Pope's only two years in,

we'll have to see exactly how that plays out.

But he's already kind of dug himself a little bit of a hole,

even though he had probably the most expensive roster in the country this past year.

You certainly don't want that.

And I think UNC officials are aware of that.

And so it becomes that, that process of right,

if we're doing this, we need to do it.

We need to do it right.

And there's different levels of that.

One is, they're paying Hubert Davis a little bit more than $3 million a year.

You're going to have to do a lot more than that.

Everybody understands that.

You also have the support staff question.

And I think Carolina has proven with the hire of Jim Tanner last year,

because he's one of the highest pay gyms in the, in the country.

I think as of July 1st, his salary is set to increase to a little bit over a million dollars a year.

That's indication that North Carolina certainly is willing to pay for that type of position,

which is important.

But then you also have the NIL component.

And look, I mean, Carolina basketball last year,

this roster was roughly $14 million.

Everything we know is that's, that's at least top 10 in the country.

Probably going to have to be a little bit more for the next coach coming in.

But these are the conversations that are taking place.

And you have to check all these benchmarks to be attractive beyond just what the Carolina brand is.

And I think that's one thing that they're aware of at this point in time.

You know, in the past is, oh, it's Carolina.

Of course, people want to come here.

Of course, kids want to come here.

Miss Michael Jordan.

It's Carolina blue.

It's a Smith Center.

Those things still matter for sure.

It's different now because there's so much money floating around the college landscape these days.

So you have to package that tradition with finances.

That's just the bottom line.

And then it's a matter of, okay, once you make sure you have all these key ingredients in place.

Who are options that will come in that will fit well with the community.

That will fit well with boosters that understand the current landscape.

It can have success moving forward for a lengthy amount of time.

You don't want somebody to come in just for five years.

You want somebody to come in who can coach for, you know, 10, 15 years and then see how it plays out.

And one of the concerns, which I think kind of is where you, your question was leading.

There's a lot of people that you're interested in that are still playing.

Well, the transfer portal opens on April 7th.

The championship gains on April 6th.

I don't think that's that big of a deal to be honest with you.

You have to get the head coach that you won't that you think is a good fit.

You deal with the portal later.

And if that means that you don't have the best of best rosters for next year, so be it.

You have to make sure you get the coach that you want and get the coaching staff and the program set up exactly how it needs to be.

For the future, not just for next year.

And so all these things are part of the process, trying to determine where North Carolina stands and each of these areas.

And that helps you create this attractive proposal for whatever coach you decide to make an offer to.

And that puts you in position to avoid some of the issues that Kentucky had.

Your vehicle doesn't just get you from here to there.

It's a bridge to the people and places that matter most.

It's how you show up for your family, your community, and everyone else that depends on you.

That's why for 125 years, Firestone has been building tires with one thing in mind to deliver products that are as reliable as you are.

Firestone, always dependable since 1900.

It's a great point there, Rob Harrington again on our show said you don't...

You potentially not sacrifice next year, but you...

It's not about next season.

It's about the next 10 to your point, the next 15 to the next 20.

So I want Greg Barnes here on IC Daily.

Go to Johnny T. Shirt and support our sponsors, please, either online or in person.

They're great friends of in South Carolina.

Greg, let me ask you about the autonomy question.

If well, from your reporting and your coverage and your research,

how much leeway, not leeway, but how much control will the new head coach have?

Look on the football side.

They pay Bill Belichick a lot of money and he's doing it all his way.

I don't see any guardrails set by anybody at Carolina previously on the guy like Bill Belichick.

How does that play out for the basketball program?

We know and we've talked about the Carolina family and expectations and all those type things.

But how does that play out in this search as far as a head coach?

Because a head coach could come in and want to clean house.

We saw Dirty come in and clean out a lot of people that were there for a long time and it did not go well.

How free to do and see and do it as they see fit?

Do you think it's going to be given to the next head coach?

I think that's important in this day and age.

I agree with you and I keep beating this drum.

But I think there's a lot of lessons that North Carolina officials can learn from the Bill Belichick process.

With regard to giving Belichick full autonomy, you'd have to ask Carolina officials,

is that exactly how it needed to be in terms of letting him control everything?

And maybe they say sure, right?

I guess it probably depends on who you talk to.

But that's part of the conversation of we see exactly what's played out when Belichick has had full command of that football program.

Without much intervention whatsoever, is that what you want for basketball?

And they have first hand experience of what that looks like, which is a good thing.

The other component that we've already talked about, so I won't spend too much time on it as because North Carolina was willing to take that big step and paying Belichick pretty much double what they had originally planned to pay a head coach.

That really gave them an understanding of the money involved and trying to be elite.

And I think that's a good thing for the program and for the Rams Club to understand that, okay, we can do this.

It's going to take a lot more work, but if we want to continue to be nationally relevant, these are the things that we have to do.

I think that's a good thing.

And I think donors have been receptive.

And I think that's that's kind of shown out.

And in what North Carolina was able to do with this roster, with it being $14 million for the basketball team, as well as their ability to raise money for the football roster.

So all those are good things and they've kind of been born out of that Belichick higher in process.

So as you apply that to the basketball higher, you have to figure out, okay, we understand that there's a lot of Carolina tradition that's important.

You bring in somebody new, you can't tell them, look, here are the handcuffs, you can't fire this person, you can't fire this person, you have to do this this way.

I don't think you're going to have any success doing that, but what the conversation can be is, look, it's important that you understand the tradition.

There's ties to the past and ties to the old guard, that is very important.

And if you want to have success as a head coach here, you have to be aware of that.

We want to help you with that, but we're also going to give you full range to make decisions that you want to make.

And I think there's a communication there, conversation that takes place.

And that is probably part of the negotiation process.

And that would probably lead North Carolina and say, all right, well, we've had these conversations.

This candidate is fully on board with kind of how we see this plan out.

And it's going to work, or maybe it won't work.

You maybe there's a coach like Dirty that comes in saying, I'm firing all the office staff, blah, blah, blah.

And that may not work for whatever reason.

So these are the details that you have to get into as you have to honor the past.

I mean, I don't think there's any way around that.

And I think there are plenty of head coaches across the country who understand what Carolina basketball is.

I mean, this is one of the top jobs in the country for a reason.

A lot of people would love to come to Chapel Hill and coach this program.

So it's just making sure you have that right fit in addition to having the access to to build your support staff out how you want it and those types of things.

Yeah, I think it's certainly relevant.

And I mean, there's the arena deal.

What if somebody comes in and they don't, they want to go a certain place with the arena or they want to do this and that?

All these type of questions may seem not small, but it matters to coaches because coaches like to run their program like they see fit.

And to your point, there may be some, these are some ideas, but you ultimately had the ultimate decision.

Anything left on this side, what, you know, with games still going on, it's going to be, like I said, off the top.

It's going to be a process.

We see that, you know, we haven't had the full on.

I don't give a s about North Carolina yet, but we've had some denials or some, some, I'm focused on my team conversations from some guys.

What do you expect in your reporting in all on a timeline?

Is it strictly wait and see, or if somebody that's in the mix loses, could there be movement?

I mean, how does that work?

I know that's one of those questions like, you can't really answer, but you can certainly speculate.

We do that well.

It is.

And I really think it's a situation.

I mean, there are always back channeling conversations that can place representation.

I think that's, that's important to say.

So usually it's kind of have a, an understanding of where to stand.

And once a, once a coach is no longer coaching and a season comes to an end, those conversations can start very quickly.

You know, if you go back to the football search, for example, North Carolina, while they're making progress with Bill Belichick, they were really considering Matt Campbell.

But Matt Campbell was playing, his team was playing in the big 12 championship game.

And Campbell was quite clear that he's not going to have conversations with other schools while his team is playing and preparing for that championship game.

So it wasn't until after Iowa State played in that championship game that he was willing to have a conversation.

And that's, I mean, you can't, can't blame him at all for that, right?

I mean, that's, that's respectful to the program and to your players and those sorts of things.

But once the season ends, those conversations can start up.

Now, it may be a situation where a coach loses this weekend, that's North Carolina's number one guy.

And things can move forward very quickly.

But if that's not the case, then you just, you make sure you start those conversations.

And then you, you still have other people that you're talking to and you have to ultimately make a decision about which direction you want to go.

And I think that's a key part.

And look, I know we've seen Tommy Lloyd be asked about the Carolina job.

Osaburger was asked about it.

Billy Donovan's been asked about it.

That's, is that weird setup where reporters have to ask those questions.

That is their job.

The coaches know that question's coming and they have to dance around it as best they can.

And if they're not interested in the job and it's not something that's legitimately ever going to work.

Well, then they'll come out and say, I'm not interested whatsoever. I don't want that job.

But more times than not, that's not going to be the answer. I mean, you listen to Tommy Lloyd's answer, right?

And he did it very well. He just kind of danced around it.

And it's just the matter to be respectful to the process and to your team.

And I mean, you want somebody like that, right?

I mean, you don't want somebody to come out and you give any insight.

The hey, yeah, maybe interested in the Carolina job.

By the way, our guys are trying to play for a final four, but, you know, they'll be okay.

You don't want that coach anyway, right?

So there's that song and dance you have to go through.

And it's just, yes, a process. And so I think what people should probably do at this point in time is watch the games.

Do a little bit of self-scouting.

And you know, there's a lot of options available playing this weekend.

And then once some of those teams in question lose,

well, then then you know that some of the more in-depth conversations can actually take place.

And one thing I want to add, just this is kind of off the wall, Tommy.

But got this question a couple of times on the message board.

You brought up the arena piece.

And somebody asked if the arena decision, if that process played any role in Hubert Davis is firing.

No, I've not heard a single thing to suggest that that is factored into it.

You know, Hubert Davis, while he talked about how much he loved the Smith Center,

he was not one behind the scenes that was making a big state one way or the other.

And so that did not play a factor into this decision whatsoever.

It is a, yeah, a lot going on in Chapel Hill, like you say.

My question, last question, Greg.

Hey, how's the weather? I promised I would ask about the weather.

It's going to be pretty here.

Got the yard freshly sotted.

Got a lot of water to get down.

Of course, it won't rain for a month.

How's the weather where you are, Greg?

It looks like it could be a pretty one here in central North Carolina.

It should be. It's going to be 87 tomorrow.

I've got a dunk truck of mulch coming to my college age kid, who's home for spring break,

is going to have the opportunity to get out in sunshine and make use of it.

So now it's just a matter of seeing if we can find time to get on the golf course

with the coaching search going on.

Absolutely.

How many times is your phone ring or your text going off in the last 36 hours?

It's like nonstop.

My wife is about to throw it out the window.

But that's, of course.

It just rattles off the table because it won't stop.

That is Greg Barnes.

I'm timing to actually.

Greg is certainly the goat of reporting and covering this stuff.

You know, if you scroll YouTube, you'll see Greg on like every other show in the country

doing talking about this.

So we're lucky enough to have him here.

It's like Carolina.

And I'm lucky enough to be able to do these most every day.

Shout out to Johnny T shirt.

JohnnyTshirt.com.

Like I said, if you want to know what's going on up to the minute, literally,

the morning AMA thread that Ben Sherman did on the message board after he was let go

is probably one of the most epic threads in the history of fan message boards.

It's just another reason to sign up for inside Carolina.

It said me for five percent of.

Thanks, Greg.

Thanks, Tommy.

Spring starts at the Home Depot and we are bringing the heat to your backyard this season.

Fire up the flavor with our wide variety of grills for under $300.

Like the next grill for burner gas grill that's perfect for hosting your spring cookout.

Then set the scene and turn your outdoor space into the go-to spot the patio sets for every budget.

Bring it this season with grills that deliver flavor and patios that set the vibe from the Home Depot.

Start your spring with low prices guaranteed at the Home Depot.

Exclusions with pricey Home Depot.com slash price match for details.