UNC's Big Decisions Require Patience | IC Daily | College Basketball

Welcome in. I see daily for Monday March 30th. I'm Tommy Ashley. That's Greg Barnes,

sponsor about Johnny T shirt. And as always, go to insidecarolina.com and sign up for your premium

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Greg, we've got some things to talk about, but I have to start on the game last night.

I know this is inside carolina podcast, but I've never seen anything like it. Like I said,

offline, it was absolutely an incredible college basketball. So it makes March madness so amazing.

But I still I'm still stoned at how Yukon was able to win that one.

Yeah, I mean, just a tremendous ending. The NCAA tournament always delivers.

And I think one of the one of the complaints with the NIL era is that you maybe don't have

as many of the the lower seed upsets in the opening round that we used to see. It's just because

so much talent is moving to the major conference teams. But yet we see that type of game where

Duke had it in hand and just some poor decision making. And the final seconds led to their

departure. They're they're tripped back home the drone. I mean, a couple days before you saw

Nebraska with this unbelievable blunder with Fred Hoyberg only having four players on the court

at a critical moment in the final final minutes. And then the Duke game as good of a job as John

Shire has done. There's no reason to try to advance the ball in that scenario. The 10 second shot or

10 second back court aspect was off the table. All you have to do is inbound the ball. That's it.

And then Yukon's going to have to value you go to the free throw line and then see how it goes from

there. But it seemed pretty clear. If you watch Shire's kind of reaction as that moment was

playing out that he wasn't yelling as players just to hold the ball. He was kind of pointing forward

at teammates who were open down the court. This how it appeared. And that decision led to just a

unbelievable turn of events. And that the Duke Yukon series and then see the alternative as

provided us was just some incredible outcomes. And this one has to be near the top of the list.

Yeah, I mean, it's like, yeah, like I said, I've got no words. I will echo John Shire in his

post game. I've got no words. But to your point, the one thing Yukon did have the possession there,

I believe. So if a hailed ball is called, but you know, they're going to call a foul. I mean,

there's no way they don't call a foul. But look, like I tweeted out, folks can say what they want

about Danny Hurley, but you better throw a great coach in there because that dude coaches his

rear end off. And yeah, I call it. No, I mean, the impressive thing there about Hurley. He's

great with sets and he's one of the bright minds in that regard. But they were getting their rear

ends kicked and not making outside shots. And so what did he do a halftime? He said, we're

going to pound the ball inside, even though we're down double digits, and we're going to do it

all game won't. And they kept pounding the ball down to read. And eventually it worked. And that's

what set up Yukon's comeback. I'm, I'm old school. I'm of the Roy Williams mindset that you

got to have bigs to have success. We're seeing that with the final four teams. They're all very big.

You know, Arizona does not take many threes because they're so dominant in the post. We saw what

Michigan's done. But the willingness to trust the inside presence is what really led to Yukon

winning. And a lot of coaches go away from that and they settle for threes and trying to make deficits.

And I think that's just coaching brilliance. To your point, a lot of people don't like

Hurley and I get it. But man, the guy can coach. I personally think he's hilarious. I mean, he's a

but oh, at times, but he is, he is fun to watch to me in that regard because he doesn't get

under skin. But yeah, the final four set, obviously, if you're a part of inside Carolina, you're

watching this on Monday afternoon or Monday at around lunchtime. Greg dropped the coaching scoop.

Final four is next weekend. You need to check out that scoop if you're part of the premium membership.

And there's some information in there, but the overall thought is patience. If you're a

Carolina fan, which is tough to be, it's tough to have patience in this day and age.

But Greg, the longest year of Carolina fans life will be this next week.

Yeah, somebody posted on the message board. This is where our message board is so great.

You know, the scene in a saving private run where he's looking down at the ground and it morphs

into the old man. And that's what it feels like. It's only been six days since you were

Davis was let go. And there's another year's worth of a week coming ahead. It sounds like

Greg, one aspect of this. And we're talking with Greg here on inside Carolina daily for Monday to

30. One aspect that came out, doing I talked about it a little bit on Saturday when I dropped

that podcast with him, which if you're watching this, too, is another great one to listen to.

But the arena deal, it's amazing how a week ago, two weeks ago, three weeks ago, it was all

about the Smith Center. And then it's not about the Smith Center, but the Smith Center is still a

thing in Carolina's decided to sort of put that down the road a little bit. Your thoughts on that

decision and why that's important here? Yeah, it's funny how it's also interconnected, right?

Because when we checked in with sources, I guess back mid February, the conversation was along the

lines of, you know, the basketball teams probably doing well enough that he will keep his job

because we've got the arena discussion on the table. We've got all these other things going on

that will probably just stand back. And then things kind of transpired the way they did in the

closing weeks. And everything kind of gets thrown into the blender, which is where we are.

And so it makes sense, right? I mean, North Carolina has decided to kind of hold off for a while.

And I think that the language and the official statement was telling is not just about when North

Carolina hires its next coach. It's when that next coach can kind of get traction and get his

feet on the ground in Chapel Hill and kind of build the program that he wants. And it's an

important detail because as we talk about the arena aspect of things, one thing that has

probably received the most attention is the cost involved. You know, even if you do a massive

renovation to the current facility, you're talking to minimum of $500 million. And then, of course,

if you expand out to the new arenas, you know, Carolina North is pushing 800 million. That is a

tremendous amount of money. And while you can generate a lot of revenue through sponsorships

and seat licenses and those types of things, the fundraising component is a key part of it as well.

And if you don't have a head coach in place or one with an established track record within the

UNC community, that becomes very challenging. And so I think it's important for North Carolina to

focus on getting that right coach to come in. And there's so many different components of being

the head coach of a blue blood program that you have to master. And even if we're talking about a

coach who's had significant success at power conference teams or potentially in the NBA,

it's still a process of kind of learning what that's about in Chapel Hill and all the parties

involved in those types of things. So I think it's very important, very wise for North Carolina to do

this. And lastly, you want to do is bring in a new coach. And this is still a hot button topic.

In the first conversations that he has is what do you stand on the Smith Center debate?

Which way, which way are you leaning? That's just a very difficult position to step into.

And so by putting this on hold, the head coach is not going to have to fill those questions

immediately. We'll have time to kind of process and get a lay of the land and figure out what's best

for the program moving forward. So that's a key component of all of this.

Yeah, key words there, step into it. Because if you had a new coach, especially when this

court outside of the family, as we talked about, and then you ask them about the Smith Center,

and they say something that people don't like, they will have stepped in it right out of the gate.

So yeah, a solid move about that ad men of sort of pushing this down the line. Greg,

when you look at all of this, what's been your sense, and I mentioned patients earlier,

and this is a little bit of speculation, but what's been your sense about the patients from the

people you talked to the, I mean, we see it on the message boards, folks are, it is a lively

debate about everything. But as far as the people that have to make the decision, how tough is it

for people in those roles to have patients to let the process play to let it settle out? Because

the inclination is, oh my gosh, we got to do something right away. And it's just not really,

it doesn't work that way, even if it feels that way, if that question makes sense.

Yeah, well, I mean, this pertains to pretty much everything. And I think we saw when North Carolina

officials maybe got a little bit ahead of themselves with the arena conversation last December,

when they were ready to move forward with Carolina North, they saw very quickly that they were

significant pushback, and then they determined wisely. Okay, let's pump the brakes a little bit.

Let's make sure we have all stakeholders involved, no former players, students,

and make sure we have a full understanding of where everybody stands on this topic,

as it pertains to the arena discussion. And I think that's a smart decision. And that extends

into every other decision, including the coaching search, right? Now, of course, they're not going

to go around and ask pee stakeholders preferences on coaches. I mean, they have a search advisory

committee that's assisting, but that's really a very select group of people who are

helping to make the decision about the top candidates and kind of forming out a list and then

going from there. But it is a matter of having to have patients and able to understand the big

picture. We've talked about, sometimes you kind of miss the farce for the trees.

And if, for example, if you're so focused on this upcoming portal period, which begins just hours

after the national championship game ends, then you're looking too much at maybe next season.

When the focus needs to be, look, where's North Carolina basketball projected to be in five years,

and ten years. That's what matters. And yes, you want to be competitive every single year.

And yes, you can't wait till June to make a decision. Everybody knows that.

But you do have to be willing to have patients to make sure you get the right guy.

And if you do that, everything else kind of falls in the place. You may not be able to maximize

the roster for next year. I mean, maybe you can. But if you can't, then you just

agree to deliver those consequences. That's part of the deal. But you know that moving forward,

you're going to be in really good shape. And so it is having that patience of not being rushed,

taking your time, understanding what's important, making sure you have all the details from various

various people, and then make the right choice. And I think North Carolina has a lot of key

individuals that have a lot of street smarts, a lot of business smarts that that Carolina should be

in pretty good shape with this decision as it pertains to the coaching search. And then

once you get a coach in place, let things play out, maybe give them a year or so. And then you

can really start having those Smith Center conversations once again.

Never ending. Never ending things. I said, the Smith Center decision answer was one of the

biggest answers and biggest deals in Carolina basketball history. And here we are. You had the

coach on top of it. And so yeah, just a lot going on in Chapel Hill. But we've seen, and something

we talked about is did they have this stomach to do it all at once and to handle it all this?

And it seems like they're pushing forward in segments of getting it all done at once. Greg,

I'm going to get us out of here on Monday, a lot going on another week at Inside Carolina.

Another great reason for you to be an Inside Carolina premium subscriber. You get all that

man's work right there on the screen with me and you get all the other stuff from Shrel and Don.

One thing I need to mention, Don Callahan is quietly pumping out crazy content on North Carolina

football recruiting in North Carolina football like that. It is, don't sleep on getting that

information as well. That's the one thing the football go ahead. No, I was going to say, I mean, Don,

does a phenomenal job. Shrel and Billent does a phenomenal job. So I think Inside Carolina has

arguably the two best recruiting analyst experts for their respective sports in the country.

It's just an amazing amount of work that they do and content that they pump out.

Yeah, and it's two in our own horns or two in their horns, but it is well worth it because like

Greg said, there's none better across the country for specific teams than Inside Carolina crews.

Just it is what it is and it's 75% off. Greg, we'll talk soon and shout out Johnny T shirt,

Johnny T shirt, dot com. Greg, get some sleep at some point, my man.

There is no offseason. Tell me