This has a case to be the best job in college hoops, so the Tar Heels will swing big with some well-known names and established coaches.
Davis, who was Roy Williams’s handpicked successor in Chapel Hill, N.C., had gotten off to a roaring start with a trip to the national title game and a win over Duke in Mike Krzyzewski’s final game in 2022.
But since then, things have been rocky. Last year’s near miss of the NCAA men’s tournament was a mess and put Davis on a warm seat entering this season. While for much of this season Davis seemed to be doing enough to save his job, the Heels stumbled late once star Caleb Wilson was ruled out for the season. A collapse after leading by 19 in the first round of the NCAA tournament accelerated conversations, and just a few days later, Davis is now out. The North Carolina job has a legitimate case for being the best job in the sport. It has just about everything needed to compete for championships: brand, history, support and resources. North Carolinaregularly be competing for Final Fours and national championships. That means the pool of candidates will be as strong as any search in recent history, with the school expected to at least gauge the interest of many of the sport’s best coaches. However, the vast majority of elite jobs that have opened of late have struggled to poach the type of monster names North Carolina will undoubtedly be pursuing. Will the Tar Heels be able to buck that trend?Donovan’s name inevitably gets brought up every time a blueblood job opens. By all accounts, he’s very happy in the NBA and has previously rebuffed college interest from many of the sport’s biggest programs. But the Bulls organization seems stuck in purgatory with no clear path to contention, and if they go the complete rebuild route, it’s possible Donovan won’t be there for the full flip. North Carolina will undoubtedly gauge his interest, and it’s the type of job he’d likely have to at least hear out. The more professionalized nature of college basketball today might appeal to Donovan, who could hire a general manager to handle the nitty-gritty of roster building and focus on the coaching side. It still won’t be easy to convince Donovan to leave the cushy lifestyle of the NBA for a college return, but North Carolina may have the best chance yet.Golden coached Florida to last year’s national title and earned a No. 1 seed this season. At 40 years old, he seems poised to be one of the coaching superstars of the next generation. He also plays a fast, physical brand of basketball that would remind Carolina fans of the Williams era. The big issue here is the buyout. Even if North Carolina could convince Golden to leave Gainesville, Fla., which is far from a layup, it’d be extremely pricey. Florida would be owed $16 million before April 15 in addition to what you’d have to pay Golden, his staff and the new roster.May is clearly building a monster at Michigan, and seems to have all the resources at play to maintain it for the long term. But every part of his profile makes him a grand slam candidate for the Tar Heels to at least take a swing at. When May was being pursued by high-majors in 2024 after his time at FAU, there was a feeling he preferred a job where he could avoid the spotlight of being at a basketball factory and liked a place like Michigan where football was king. Going for the Carolina job would be a reversal.Oats has been elite at Alabama, vaulting a program known as a football school to the top of the SEC and in national contention every year. On coaching résumé alone, he’d be as good as any option on the market. He has become a bit of a firebrand though, with controversy following the Alabama program in recent years with everything from player arrests to poor crisis management. Plus, like Golden it’d be an extraordinarily expensive move, with an $18 million buyout if he leaves before April 1 and still $10 million after that.A longtime assistant under Mark Few, Lloyd has consistently had Arizona near the top of the sport in his five years as a head coach. He has gotten a top-two seed in the NCAA tournament in four of five seasons, including a No. 1 seed this season. The one thing missing has been a deep March run, though the Wildcats have what it takes to end that streak this year. This would be a slam dunk hire. While it’s far from a sure thing he’d take the job, Lloyd feels more realistic than some of the other dream candidates.Otzelberger is perhaps the most movable elite coach on the market right now, at least from a cost perspective. His buyout to leave Iowa State is a much more palatable $4 million, having dropped substantially in his latest contract extension. He has done an incredible job at Iowa State, building a top-tier program year in and year out centered around an elite defense. He has deep roots in Ames, Iowa, and a strong relationship with athletic director Jamie Pollard, but this is the type of job that could make anyone have wandering eyes.Odom is rapidly emerging as one of the top names in the next generation of coaches, with a 30-win first season at Virginia the latest impressive achievement after previous success at VCU, Utah State and UMBC. He has deep ties to the state and the ACC as a whole dating back to his father Dave’s time as the head coach at Wake Forest. He’s another with a job you usually wouldn’t expect someone to leave, but is certainly a logical name for North Carolina to at least gauge interest from.Byington has the Vanderbilt program on a meteoric trajectory, making the NCAA tournament in his first year and leading the Commodores to a No. 5 seed this season. He’s clearly a sharp tactical mind with experience using the portal to find under-the-radar studs, a breath of fresh air after some of the Heels’ whiffs under Davis. He’s a Virginia native who played his college ball at UNC Wilmington, so he certainly fits into the UNC footprint.If North Carolina has to dip into the mid-major ranks, Schertz is the obvious answer. A longtime winner at Division II Lincoln Memorial, Schertz has translated effectively to Division I at both Indiana State and now Saint Louis, where he just led the Billikens to their first NCAA tournament win in over a decade. His teams play a beautiful brand of basketball, and with the resources of a place like North Carolina he’d be able to build a monster. Schertz just agreed to an extension to stay at Saint Louis earlier this month, but North Carolina is a different beast than the other jobs on the market that didn’t pique Schertz’s interest.If keeping things in the North Carolina family is important, Williams is a potential name to monitor having played for the Heels from 2001 to ’05. He’s now considered a rising star in NBA coaching circles, making the move from Sacramento to Cleveland in the offseason and appearing on some early NBA head coaching lists. He’s still very connected to the program and would bring a fresh perspective from outside the college ranks.Kevin Sweeney is a staff writer at Sports Illustrated covering college basketball and the NBA Draft, and is an analyst for The Field of 68. A graduate of Northwestern, Kevin is a voter for the Naismith Trophy and is a member of the U.S. Basketball Writers Association .
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