Before UNC blew a 19 point lead against VCU and battle lines were drawn between those who wanted Hubert Davis to be fired and those who didn’t, the biggest issue dividing Carolina Basketball internally and externally was what to do about the Smith Center. The administration has pushed hard for building a new arena at Carolina North by the old airport while notable figures such as Roy Williams and former players, among others, came out in support of renovating the Smith Center in order to keep it on campus.
With Bubba Cunningham and incoming Athletic Director Steve Newmark focused on step one of getting the program back to the standard expected of it by hiring a new head coach, the conversation about what to do about the arena has been put on hold. WRAL reports that the goal in doing so is to remove distractions from the coaching search and to allow the new coaching to develop his program without the cloud of the arena decision hanging over him.
Carolina is going to be on the hook for paying Davis’ buyout, potentially paying a buyout for the coach they want to hire, as well as needing to up their NIL spend in order to compete at the highest level. Doing so requires donors to be united behind one goal, and they’ve decided the more important goal for now is getting the program right.
Asking a new head coach to walk into that Civil War immediately could have been enough to give a candidate for the job pause. Removing that cloud over the program for now and giving the new coach time to build goodwill and find success before revisiting the issue down the road feels like a much smarter decision. UNC fans have been understandably nervous about the basketball coaching search because of how the Bill Belichick hiring came about. Maybe, just maybe, this is a reason to feel a little more optimistic this time around.
