Monday was a really newsy day for Carolina Basketball.
Mostly the news was between the incoming and outgoing pieces in the transfer portal, as well as former Hubert Davis recruits who new coach Michael Malone has decided he no longer needs. Lost in all of this was a little nugget about the final member of the coaching staff that will join Malone on the bench.
Kim English has been hired to the UNC staff per multiple reports, and the hiring likely finishes out the coaching staff. Though, in this day
and age it’s always possible more will hop on in some capacity. That said, it’s clear now the five members of the staff that will assist Malone will be English, Chuck Martin, Sean May, Pat Sullivan, and Eric Hoots.
It’s an intriguing mix of people. The latest hire in English brings perhaps the most head coaching experience to the bench as English was coming off being the head coach at George Mason and Providence before being let go this past season. Even at only 38 he has a pretty deep pedigree of being a player at Missouri, playing professionally for three years, then being an assistant under Frank Haith, Tad Boyle, and Rick Barnes. That’s a wide mix of personalities, experience, and conferences that is a perspective unique to Carolina coming to the bench. He also will easily be the youngest coach on the staff now that Marcus Paige has moved on to Charlotte.
The staff now has a career assistant in Martin along with excellent recruiting skills and familiarity with an evolving college basketball landscape, a young coach praised by Rick Pitino but needing to take a step back before taking the next job, and two members of the Carolina family—one of whom has been handling the recruiting, and the other who has a mix of NBA and college coaching experience in Sullivan, not to mention past experience with Malone.
The final piece of this is Hoots, who is a story in of himself. Hoots has been at Carolina since the Doherty regime, and the mere fact that he’s stayed on through Doherty, Williams, Davis, and now Malone speaks to a desire of keeping at least some connective tissue to what makes Carolina…Carolina. There’s also a real practical reason to keep Hoots on board. It’s touched on a little in my post last month about the UNC Basketball connection inside the Carolina Hurricanes—Hoots is the “get stuff done guy.” He’s the one that knows where to sit people, takes care of them when they are in the building, helps the managers in their job, and perhaps most importantly is a big force behind the non-conference schedule. Yes the coach seals the deal but Hoots has become the person who handles a lot of the work in building it out.
All in all the setup looks like one that might have helped Hubert Davis grow in the job. The blending of ideas and perspectives speaks to a coach that’s confident in some abilities and also confident in that he doesn’t know what he doesn’t know. He needs folks strong in college recruiting, familiar with today’s game, and familiar with the ongoing linage of the Carolina Family. He also needs people he feels comfortable working with.
So as the player movement continues, on the coach side it looks like in this week the Tar Heels are at least set on the bench. What do you think? Hit us up in the comments to chat about it.
