North Carolina fired head coach Hubert Davis last Thursday, hoping to hire his replacement before the end of the NCAA Tournament.
However, the Tar Heels will have to delay parts of their search for another week. Two of UNC’s top candidates, Tommy Lloyd of Arizona and Dusty May of Michigan, have both led their teams to the Final Four and will be focused on trying to add a national title to their programs’ trophy cases, according to Joe Tipton and Pete Nakos of On3.
Before taking over at Arizona, Lloyd spent two decades on the staff of Roy Williams’ close friend Mark Few. In Tucson, he has shown he can attract elite talent and build one of the nation’s strongest lineups. His work has pushed the Wildcats to their first Final Four appearance since 2001.
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Lloyd may be No. 1 not only because of his success at Arizona and his recruiting acumen with the Wildcats and during his time at Gonzaga, but also because he can ease any reluctance from the Carolina “family.”
This is the first time in 74 years the Tar Heels will hire a head coach who is not an alumnus or former North Carolina assistant. The last outsider to take over the program was Frank McGuire in 1952. He led the Tar Heels to their first national title in 1957. Four years later, North Carolina promoted Dean Smith to head coach, beginning a 65-year run in which the job was held by a former UNC player or assistant.
May, meanwhile, has quickly climbed near the top of North Carolina’s wish list. In only his second year at Michigan, he has already steered the Wolverines to the Final Four. They are 35-3 and stamped their ticket with a 33-point rout of Tennessee in the Elite Eight.
Michigan is also the second program he led to a Final Four as he led Florida Atlantic to an improbable Final Four run in 2023. Leading two different programs in four seasons to Final Four and recruiting and avaualting at a high-level in the NIL/transfer portal era will make any program throw big bucks at you to lead its program, but Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel is confident that May will stay put in Ann Arbor.
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“My hope is that Dusty is our coach for a long time and continues to do the great work he’s doing, and I will do everything in my power to support him being in that position,” Warde Manuel told The Detroit News on Saturday.
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This article originally appeared on Tar Heels Wire: UNC Basketball: Final Four causes Tar Heels to delay coaching search
