All right. Maybe you watched it on WREL and WREL Plus, but if not, we’ll give you a quick rundown of what happened as Michael Malone was introduced as the new head coach of the North Carolina Tar Heels. I’m Chris Lee. That’s Brian Murphy. Pat Walter is on vacation right now, and he missed a good one because there was a lot of Carolina royalty in the building tonight, starting with uh Roy Williams, and then also a lot of former players, some current players. Current players who are in the transfer portal, it was interesting to see who came out to see head coach Michael Malone. Yeah, lots of people turned out. Bill Belichick was here. Andy Banger was here. uh, Mike Shaw, who’s the head coach of the volleyball team, was here, and he played an important role in helping Michael Malone get here, probably the lead recruiter, because Bridget Malone, who is Michael Malone’s daughter, plays on the UNC volleyball team, and it was through that relationship. Uh, Michael Malone pointed out a couple of times that he was fired from the Denver Nuggets and thus had a lot of time on his hands last year. And because his daughter plays volleyball here, he and his wife spent a lot of time in Chapel Hill, and part of that time was spent coming to basketball practices, getting to know Steve Newmark and Bubba Cunningham, uh, through his relationship with Pat Sullivan. Um, he talked about Hubert Davis. I mean, for a guy who’s an outsider to the Carolina family, he sure knows a lot about Carolina, sure has spent a lot of time around the program. For sure. And then just to stay right there on the Pat Sullivan thing, he brought up Pat Sullivan’s name a lot, uh, today during his press conference and talked about their time going back when he grew up in New Jersey. Of course, uh, Coach Malone grew up in Queens, New York, and, uh, they knew each other from, you know, their basketball time as, as kids. And, and so this is a, a lifelong connection that ends up benefiting him, right? Like, he said that, uh, you know, he had some time on his hands, came down to visit his daughter, and he’s like, hey, you know, Can I come watch practice? I’ve got nothing to do. I just got fired back in April and, uh, ends up becoming a head coach out of it, you know, months later. Yeah, I thought it was, the timing was very interesting. Steve Newmark said, well, the first person he called when he started this job search was Michael Malone. I thought it was a call to be like, hey, I’ve got to find a new head coach. Who should I be talking to? Who should I be looking at? What kind of characteristics should I be looking at? But as Steve Newmark explained to me, No, it was a conversation about interviewing Michael Malone, uh, to be the next head coach. And after that conversation, it sounds like Michael Malone said, thank you, but look, I’m going back to the NBA, um, and there were subsequent calls. Michael Malone said every time he said no, he felt a little pang of regret. And so that kept the door open. And as North Carolina went through this process of talking to other coaches, including Tommy Lloyd at Arizona, they eventually Circle back to Michael Malone on Easter Sunday. Steve Newmark flying from Indianapolis in the Final Four out to Colorado to convince Michael Malone to take this job and was able, was a pretty good salesman because Michael Malone is now the head coach at UNC. No, didn’t mean no in that case, right? No meant maybe, and he just didn’t know it at the time. And he talked about how, uh, Steve Newmark was so persistent with him this entire time, like, didn’t take that no, uh, and just say, OK, well, I tried. He, He kept trying. Uh, and also, it’s, it was important for him to mention that his wife, Jocelyn was also with it as well. And I thought it was interesting him bringing up this idea too. He knows that now coming here as a former NBA head coach, as a former NBA champion, uh, as the head coach of the men’s basketball team here at UNC Chapel Hill, he’s gonna take the spotlight. He was worried about the spotlight being taken away from his Daughter, who, uh, you said, you know, of course, was, uh, you know, the, uh, player on the volleyball team here. I thought that was a very interesting part of the press conference as well. Yeah, I thought it was one of the most interesting parts, right? He talked about how his daughter convinced him to come and she said, yes, I want you to take this job, but he was worried about now that puts her in a fishbowl. She’s no longer just Bridget Malone, volleyball player for the UNC Tar Heels, who are having a, who are having a volleyball resurgence. She’s Been a player. They went to the NCAA tournament this year. That goes all the way. Now she’s Michael Malone’s daughter. Michael Malone is the head coach of the team. I thought that was a really interesting look at their family dynamics and how she, he asked her repeatedly whether she wanted him to take the job because it’s going to change her life in ways that she probably can’t even comprehend right now. Yeah. Um, I, I also thought it was just interesting going in, um, hearing him talk more and more about his love, uh, for Carolina as an outsider. Um, I wanted to ask him a question in particular and it came to my mind. I had a different question in mind, uh, when I raised my hand, but as he was talking, I realized People are, of course, gonna judge him based off of if he can put banners up and if he can win the ACC tournament, that type of thing. But he’s really gonna be judged what’s gonna happen every 1st weekend of February and every 1st week, 1st weekend of March, and potentially a 3rd time in the ACC tournament the very next week, and that’s going against the Duke Blue Devils, right? And, you know, there’s an argument that could be put out there that maybe if Jon Shire hadn’t been doing so well over in Durham, Hubert Davis might still be here. And, uh, I thought it was very interesting with his answer. That he’s ready for that. And he was excited when he watched Seth Trimble hit that corner 3 for Carolina to take the lead for the very first time in the game and win the game. Him and his wife were jumping up and down and his daughter FaceTimes him as she’s walking out of this building. I thought that was a very sport, uh, special and important part of this press conference as well. You know, as great as winning an NBA championship is, and he led the Nuggets to an NBA championship in 2023, uh, pointed out that only one coach, Larry Brown, has ever won an NCAA championship and an NBA championship. Um, that, that is the task that, that Michael Malone has, but As great as the NBA is and as great as winning a championship is, like, those moments don’t really happen in the NBA. Nikole Jokic can have a triple-double and, and hit a game-winning shot, and your daughter’s probably not FaceTiming you from the game because that’s just what college basketball means. And, and that’s what it means here in the triangle. That’s what it means that probably only a handful of places around the country, um, and so I thought that was important, and I think that’s something that he learned. He talked about Hubert Davis a lot in this press conference. That Hubert Davis taught him that you need to treat this place with respect for all the people that have come before you. And I think we saw that Roy Williams was here. Other former players, I saw Dick Bor, the longtime athletic director, was here. So that Carolina family came out for Michael Malone, and I think part of the reason he has this job is because of his respect sort of for that history, for that tradition. He said that he wrote Dean Smith asking for a job one time. Uh, that didn’t come up at the press conference, but it’s come up. In other places. He also talked about, um, how Hubert invited him in and, and let him come down and, and sit on the floor and talk to the team, things that are normally reserved for people in the family. Um, so I do think that connection maybe made Michael Malone more palatable maybe than some other coaches who have zero connection to the universe. Yeah, for sure, and somebody who really loves this place, understands what this place means. Let’s get down to the meat and potatoes because right now as we’re talking. The transfer portal has opened about 18 hours ago, 17 hours ago, whatever it was from when we’re talking 1000 players in it already. It, it’s crazy. Uh, right now I kind of think it’s more newsworthy for players who actually stay, but, um, there, there’s work to do. There’s right now 3 members of the North Carolina basketball team, uh, who plays, you know, significant minutes who right now are not in the transfer portal as we’re talking, um. What do you think needs to happen for him to try to retain certain guys like maybe a Derek Dixon and then look into the portal for other guys. There’s a Flori Badunga who’s out there, right? There’s other big-time names from other big-time programs. What is ahead of him in the next few days to make sure that this team is successful next season? Yeah, well, this is gonna come down to money, right? A lot of this is gonna come down to. Money. I thought in the, in the contract, it was interesting. Guaranteed 6.7 million, 6.75 million in revenue sharing throughout the term of his contract. Uh, Carolina put about 7 million in the men’s basketball for revenue sharing this year, but the revenue sharing cap keeps going up. So you’d think that the money would keep going up. You know, Henry Vasar, I think is the most important player. Can they get Henry Vasar back? And he’s gonna cost a lot of money because he has the option to go to the pros. He’s also, if he enters the transfer portal, would be one of the most coveted big men. In the portal. So can they bring him back? Can they bring Dixon back? Can they build a team in Mike Malone’s first year because the patience is gone, right? This is not a sport where you bring in a bunch of freshmen and think 3 or 4 years down the line, we’re gonna be really good. When you’re a new coach and you’re getting the kind of money that Michael Malone’s getting, and you have the kind of resume that he has, they want. He wins right away. And so how he does in this transfer portal is gonna be, is gonna be key. He said he’s keeping people like Jim Tanner, uh, Sean May, others around. He didn’t say permanently, but they’ll be around to help with this transition, at least. Guys who have been, you know, very familiar with college basketball, know what’s happening in the portal. And Sean May was one of the first people to greet him when he came off the plane. Um, it’ll be interesting to see just how quickly he starts to make his mark in the portal because the portal really comes down to money and relationships. Carolina should have some money. Do they have enough relationships to land some of those people? And are people, are players, 18 to 22 year olds, excited about playing for Michael Malone? That’s really an unknown question at the moment. And that’s probably why you have a guy like. May you have a guy like Sullivan who are still sticking around Jim Tanner because maybe they have those relationships that’s already there. And then it’ll also be big if they can still, um, you know, retain their 5 stars, uh, from high school who have, uh, said that they will come here to Carolina. I, I wanna get down to this question though. Uh, we talked about Duke, we talked about the wins and trying to win immediately. What do you think? Is a failure here at Carolina for, uh, for Michael Malone next year. What is the baseline he needs to achieve in his first season? Well, I’m not gonna steal Will Wade’s red reckoning, but I mean, it’s a blue wave. What what Wade talked about was we’re gonna be in the top half of the ACC and we’re gonna be in the NCAA tournament consistently. I think you need to raise that bar a little bit at Carolina. You’re gonna be in the top 4 of the ACC and you’re gonna be top 4 seeds in the NCAA tournament, I mean. Hubert Davis made the NCAA tournament. He made the tournament, you know, 4 out of 5 years. Uh, they bounced in the first round twice. They made it to the Sweet 16 once, and they made it to the Final Four and the national championship game once, and that wasn’t good enough. So the bar is not losing on in the first weekend of the NCAA tournament. The bar is Sweet 16s and Elite Eights and having a chance to be one of those teams that are cutting down the nets. And so, I, to me, I don’t, you know, failure success is hard in that first year, but I think he was brought in to raise the level of this team back to that consistency of top 4 seeds in the ACC tournament, top 4 seeds in the NCAA tournament, and playing deep in March, Sweet 16s, Elite Eights, Final Fours, having a chance. To win the national championship, that’s the bar. I mean, when you get rid of Hubert Davis for making 4 tournaments in 5 years, but not getting out of the first round in the last 2 years, well, that’s the bar. The bar is to play, uh, in the Sweet 16 and the Elite Eight. And I think Michael Malone knows that he’s certainly being paid well. Uh, he knows that those are the expectations. And, and I think. Chancellor Lee Roberts, those, those are the expectations, and Steve Newmark, the incoming AD, they’ve established that those are the expectations for college basketball in Chapel Hill. My answer to that is, you know, I was just from what I, where I look at it, the way I’m sitting, is that you just need to be a little bit better than Hubert Davis your first year. And that’s tough because Hubert Davis technically had a pretty good year, right? Like, I, I, I can’t remember the exact record, but they were 24 and 11 or something like that to end. The season. So, if you can get to 25 wins, if you can get to uh the round of 32, I, I think that in, and when, let’s say one more game, uh, in the ACC tournament, which means making it to the semifinals, right? Uh, of the ACC tournament, which means you make it to Friday. I think that that is good enough for the first season. That’s a good introduction. It gives you a little bit of cushion because there is going to be uh a little bit of a learning curve, maybe not in the actual X’s and O’s, but also maybe just how you coach and relate to young uh college players, and also how you deal with the transfer portal, things like that. After that, The races is off to the races. Like you, you have to get close to 30 wins. You’re gonna have to get to, uh, the second, uh, weekend of the NCAA tournament and, and get to a Final Four at least one time within the 1st 34 years. Yeah, and I think, um, you know, fortunately or unfortunately at Carolina, they’ve tried this route before. They hired a professional coach to coach their, a very accomplished professional coach, maybe the most accomplished professional coach to coach their football team, and they went 4 and 8 in the first season. Now, like, basketball is different. Michael Malone is 54, not 73, um, but, you know, he had the benefit of having one of the very best players in the NBA. He helps him lead that to that championship. In, in Nikole Jokic, much like Bill Belichick had Tom Brady, and there will always be questions about can he do it without that guy. If you look at his numbers in the NBA, his regular season winning percentage is not very good without Kola Jokic. I’m not saying he can’t coach. I’m not saying they’re gonna end up 4 and 8 or the equivalent of 4-8 for a basketball team, but I am saying that, you know, there is very recent history in Chapel Hill of a coach coming in with a great resume and saying all the right things at the press conference and then not delivering on that. Now basketball, it’s a little easier. You just need a couple of players and, and you’ve got yourself a team. And obviously Carolina is committed to that, and Carolina has basketball history where they don’t have football history. But all that being said, there is an example right down the street of bringing in a pro coach, paying him an awful lot of money and not getting the results. And, and I think this has got to work for the, for the administrators. This has got to work. They’ve staked a lot now on the football hire and the basketball hire. 18 million plus a year just for two coaches here on campus, two of the highest paid people in the state of North Carolina as far as public, uh, funds are concerned. So yeah, I mean, I was filled up with some people. You gotta raise even more money, right? This is an athletic department that has really put itself out there and said. You know, we’re going to hire the very best coaches that we think we can get, and now you’ve, that’s got to pay off. They’re very good in all these Olympic sports, and I’m not downplaying all those sports, but football and men’s basketball pay the bills, and they are, they are giving a lot of money. Mike Malone is on a 6-year, $50 million contract. Uh, that goes up to about $9 million in its last year. He’s got an $8 million buyout. He’s getting $4 million for his assistant coaches, which is a huge jump and puts you at the very top of, of college basketball, men’s college basketball. And so. The res they’re pouring the resources in. This place needs to be full and jumping and have a chance to beat Duke and take care of business against NC State and beat the very best teams that come in here. I would meet him at the airport too, if that type of money was on the line. Uh, make sure you go to WRL.com. All the reporting that we had from the entire day is right there. Of course, uh, we’ll have more covering Michael Malone as this continues. I’m sure you’ll see our faces, a lot more, myself and Brian, uh, Murphy, and then also, uh, Pat Walter when, uh, he’s coming back. But make sure you stay tuned right here to WRAL as we have more from the journey of Michael Malone as the new head coach of the UNC Tar Heels.
