back-to-back NCAA championships at Florida in 2006 and 2007<\/a> and built a powerhouse program before leaving for the NBA in 2015. He spent seven seasons with the Oklahoma City Thunder before joining the Bulls in 2020. He signed a multiyear contract extension with Chicago in July 2025.<\/p>\nHis NBA tenure in Chicago has been mixed. Donovan\u2019s overall record with the Bulls stands at 224-249 (.474 winning percentage) entering the final week of the 2025-26 regular season. The team has hovered around .400 or worse most of the year and is currently on the outside looking in for playoff positioning.<\/p>\n
The Bulls\u2019 struggles this season, combined with Donovan\u2019s long-standing ties to the college game and his Hall of Fame induction last year, have fueled the narrative that he could be open to a return to the NCAA level, especially at a blue-blood program like North Carolina.<\/p>\n
Why UNC Makes Sense \u2014 and Why It Might Not<\/p>\n
North Carolina views Donovan as a needle-moving hire who could immediately stabilize the program and compete at the highest level in the evolving NIL and transfer-portal era. His experience recruiting elite talent and developing players would translate well, and several analysts have called him a \u201cperfect fit\u201d for the modern college game.<\/p>\n
However, several factors complicate the picture. Donovan has a contract in Chicago and has repeatedly emphasized his commitment to the Bulls roster. The Bulls front office has not commented publicly on the rumors, and any move would likely require a significant buyout or mutual agreement.<\/p>\n
Donovan has also noted the differences between today\u2019s college game and the NBA cycle, saying, \u201cIt\u2019s different in dealing with players who are being paid now. I also think the cycle of the NBA today is totally different than the cycle of college.\u201d<\/p>\n
What Happens Next for the Bulls and Donovan<\/p>\n
No formal offer has been reported, and the UNC search remains fluid. Other names such as Rick Pitino, Iowa State\u2019s TJ Otzelberger, and Vanderbilt\u2019s Mark Byington have also surfaced, but Donovan\u2019s name continues to dominate conversation among fans and media. Especially in Chicago. <\/p>\n
For the Bulls, losing Donovan at (or near) the end of the season would mark the end of a coaching era in Chicago. The franchise would need to pivot quickly to a new coach while navigating a roster in transition and a fan base already frustrated with the current direction.<\/p>\n
Donovan has one of the most decorated r\u00e9sum\u00e9s in basketball, and a move to Chapel Hill would represent a full-circle return to the college ranks at one of its most iconic programs. Whether that happens remains to be seen, but the speculation has reached a fever pitch in the days since North Carolina\u2019s coaching change.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chicago Bulls coach Billy Donovan emerges as top candidate for UNC basketball job after Hubert Davis firing. Donovan…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":687379,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3771],"tags":[7,3363,920,919,329,3824,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-687378","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago-bulls","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-billy-donovan","10":"tag-bulls","11":"tag-chicago","12":"tag-chicago-bulls","13":"tag-chicagobulls","14":"tag-nba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116316305190963821","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/687378","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=687378"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/687378\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/687379"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=687378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=687378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=687378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}