We are in a quiet period of the head catching search for Carolina Basketball. A lot of that silence has to do with two of the top candidates still being in the NCAA Tournament, and another part of that has to do with one of the candidates still finishing out the NBA season. The name of the game seems to be patience, but that can be difficult for a fan base that just dealt with one of the most insane coaching hires in recent memory for football.
Still, we wanted to provide an update with everything
that we are hearing in various circles. Let’s start with the first name on our list, and work our way through all three reported candidates.
Tommy Lloyd
Perhaps the name that we are hearing about the most in the head coach search, Arizona head coach Tommy Lloyd has had an interesting weekend. Let’s start with his comments during one of his press conferences before Arizona faced Purdue on Sunday:
When asked about the UNC job, Lloyd gave a very sterile, predictable response to the question. He said that he was focused on his current team and achieving what they are trying to achieve this season.
From there, things got interesting:
“Arizona’s going to have a good coach after me” when there is an active head coach search taking place is an interesting choice of words, but still, one could argue that there isn’t enough there, right? Perhaps he was making a very general statement that doesn’t mean a lot.
But then why did his son like this Instagram post?
Later on in the evening, though, 247’s Grant Hughes noticed that Liam Lloyd unliked the post:
Here’s what we are able to confirm: there’s a lot of smoke around this Tommy Lloyd thing. It’s well-known that he is one of the leading candidates, but of course the problem is whether or not UNC is willing to wait for Arizona to finish their season. Also, does that season end with a NCAA title? Does that make things complicated for Lloyd? We’ll find out how everything plays out over the next seven days.
Dusty May
There hasn’t been a lot happening when it comes to Michigan head coach Dusty May, but what we are able to confirm is that Michigan’s AD Warde Manuel is interested in making a deal with May to lock him in. Here’s what Manuel said last Wednesday regarding his head coach:
It’s worth noting that Arizona’s AD hasn’t had the same bass in her voice when it comes to retaining Lloyd, but with May the question will be whether or not he would accept any kind of extension. This situation feels more like a question of whether or not May can be attracted by the Carolina blue lights in Chapel Hill than anything else. I could see the Wolverines setting him up nicely moving forward from a contract and roster standpoint, but we’ll see how everything plays out.
Billy Donovan
All of the rumbling surrounding Bulls head coach Billy Donovan is getting pretty loud in Chicago. With the front office officially entering rebuild mode, a lot of people think that Donovan doesn’t have it in him to participate in the process. Nobody can blame him, either: the Bulls have spent Donovan’s entire tenure providing him with weird rosters with a lot of role players, no true stars, and no real structure. Putting Zach Lavine, Demar DeRozan, and Nikola Vucevic all on one team as the main focal pieces only looks more and more insane the further the Bulls are removed from that situation. Now Matas Buzelis and Josh Giddey are the pieces that they are building around, which only works if they have lottery draft luck or swing for the fences during free agency.
That said, Donovan seems to be exploring other options, but it isn’t just UNC. It’s possible that he steps away from basketball for a while, but it’s also possible that he thinks college will be less cumbersome. Does that make sense in the NIL era? Absolutely not, and keep in mind that he got burnt out while he was coaching Florida. It sounds like Donovan’s people are really pushing the UNC thing hard, but that’s all that can be confirmed at the moment. It’s hard to imagine that Donovan could just casually return to his Florida Gator self in Chapel Hill, but for what it’s worth his NBA scheme/knowledge could be a positive. Would it work with less talented players, though? That is the question everyone should ask themselves, including Donovan.
We would love to hear your thoughts on how the coaching search has gone so far. Do you think UNC is focused on the right candidates? Are they making a mistake with one of these three guys? Let us know in the comments below.
