Thamel: UNC hiring Mike Malone
- Thread starter The_Catfather
- Start date
Interesting. May and Lloyd said no to UNC. Makes me wonder if they would say no to UK? If those 2 say no to UNC, and UNC is a top 4 Blue Blood, geez.
It’s probably best to go after disgruntled coaches who don’t feel appreciated by their admin/fans.
Troll on brother. Not one coach has ever started in the NBA and then had a successful college coaching career. Mike Dunleavy SR is the best example, so in 4-5 years good luck on your next coaching search.
Even more interesting that people believe UNC would turn him and Pitino down because of their past conduct. Pitino has had like 4 stops since he last got in trouble. And Oats also hasn't really done anything wrong, per se.
Very odd to see UNC taking this whole "integrity" stance now lol. Imagine having a decade-long systemic academic cheating scandal and also being like "we dont like that one of your players had mariajuana on them". Lol oook. Sure jan.
All that to say, what a crock of ****. They may have turned down Oats and Pitino for other reasons (or those two weren't that interested) but theres no way it was because of possible character flaws from as far back as a decade ago.
Hard to say with Pitino. He may simply be considered too old at this point.
As for Oats, I have a hard time matching some of the rumors about him to the reality of his current circumstances. If it’s true that he’s either on everyone’s “do not call” list because of the Brandon Miller thing and/or that he had custody issues preventing him from leaving the state of Alabama, then Greg Byrne is possibly the biggest idiot in college sports for continually giving him raises until he has a top 5 salary in the sport. Given that he has an established reputation as one of the best AD’s, I lean a lot more towards all the theory crafting about how he never even had a chance to go somewhere else being cope from fans of blue blood programs who can’t imagine that the coach of a “football school” would ever not be interested in them.
I could fully believe if UNC turned Pitino down due to age. That makes sense. But for the UNC fans to believe that the university turned them both down for ethical reasons is so hilariously dumb.
I mean this was the same program that had the academic scandal for years and still never really admitted to it or were rightfully punished for it.. so I wouldn't believe them anyways
I don't think they wanted to wait and punt the season by going after Donovan. Fine by me. Leaves him for us next year.
This is the SAME program that hired Belichick. They have no integrity.
As for Malone, he’s an interesting outside the box hire. It’s hard to knock the coaching ability of someone who won an NBA championship, so it’s certainly not crazy to think he could work out if he gets a good staff in place. He carries a lot more risk than I think most UNC fans, and even a lot of people here to be honest, were expecting at the start of the process though. Will his coaching style mesh with college players? Can he recruit? Can he play the game of keeping boosters happy in addition to his on court duties? We don’t know the answer to any of that yet since he’s never been a college head coach.
I do think this pretty much lays to rest the notion that a “proven” coach, as in a current college coach who’s already established a sustainable Final Four contender somewhere else is the baseline expectation for a hire at a program of our historic caliber. I’m still not Mitch’s biggest fan, but UNC pretty much approached this board’s entire wish list and possibly then some that he supposedly just didn’t have the killer instinct to pursue and got rejected by all of them. We’re just in different times now.
I do think this pretty much lays to rest the notion that a “proven” coach, as in a current college coach who’s already established a sustainable Final Four contender somewhere else is the baseline expectation for a hire at a program of our historic caliber. I’m still not Mitch’s biggest fan, but UNC pretty much approached this board’s entire wish list and possibly then some that he supposedly just didn’t have the killer instinct to pursue and got rejected by all of them. We’re just in different times now.
Agree. Excellent hire considering everything. A recent nba title and the pedigree of turning a doormat into a perennial contender.
Ya he doesn't have college coaching experience but today's college experience is really new and basically just a pro sport anyway.
I mentioned on the old football board that pro coaches will absolutely be in the mix for college jobs in both revenue sports. All the negatives of old college coaching is gone for them and now they can even get paid more in college.
Or he wanted to be considered for UNC so he could get more money from Bama.
But UNC simply wasn't interested bc of his inability to keep his players out of jail.
Already reported the Magic and Pelicans wanted to hire him. The Bulls apparently wanted him if Donovan left.
I already know your answer.
But to everyone else... Oats or Mike Malone? I'm going Oats. Don't think it's really close if for nothing other than we know Oats can handle this level of coaching. So it's gonna be really wild to see UNC turn down .. *supposedly*.. Pitino AND Oats, just to fire Mike Malone in 5 years from now.
Yeah, it doesn't pass the smell test for me either.
A ton of former UNC players are applauding the hire. Danny Green said Malone was drawing all the plays up when he was in Cleveland with LeBron.
If nothing else, it sounds like the former players are going to up their NIL donations.
If nothing else, it sounds like the former players are going to up their NIL donations.
It really doesn't matter what you think. Numerous respected journalists reported Oats' agent contacted UNC and was rebuffed. You can scream "fake news" at every confirmed news story you want.
No one here is going to take UNCs reporting at face value, internal reporting or local media... not after their academic scandal. What you're reading is what we call damage control. They're doing the whole "we didn't want him anyways!".. actually, it's exactly what you did when Lloyd turned you down.
In the end, you didn't get any of the guys that YOU and UNC fans wanted, and you settled on Malone, because you think he somehow created Jokic. lmfao. Enjoy.
He's also an excellent x's and o's coach which they didn't have with Hubert Davis.
This is honestly one of the more pathetic rival fan experiences here at RuppRafters in a long time. But it sure produced a lot of good laughs.
Need to at least give it a full day before you start hyping the guy up and acting like UNC turned everyone away. At least that is what we did over here like respectable crazies.
I heard he is fluent in Swahili gave him a leg up in hiring!!
He was their 15th choice is more what I mean. And it's not like this is a home run hire. Roy Williams was a home run hire. Time will tell.
News Flash!!!
If Donovan doesn't walk away from the NBA BEFORE the start of a season, he's probably NEVER coaching in the NCAA. The NBA season ends after the college season...
See a pattern here???
If Donovan doesn't walk away from the NBA BEFORE the start of a season, he's probably NEVER coaching in the NCAA. The NBA season ends after the college season...
See a pattern here???
Because it is proof that the top college coaches aren't motivated to leave for a blueblood? How many times do we have to see it before you realize it's not the same as it used to be. This guy wasn't even on their radar and was a desperation hire with the portal opening tomorrow. They hired this dude because all of the hot names in college said no. It's not hard to understand.
I think there is a bit of a myth of top coaches wanting to come to blue bloods has somehow changed in the modern era, but it hasn’t really.
When Kansas hired Roy Williams, he was an assistant for UNC. And when Roy Williams, who is from North Carolina and is an alum of UNC decided to leave for his old school, it wasn’t necessarily a big shock. And when they replaced Williams with Self, he was a guy with a couple Elite Eights, but he was hardly someone coming off a Final Four or something. Calipari in comparison was a massive win for UK.
I remember when Lute Olson was the guy we wanted to hire back during the probation era but turned us down. We were lucky that Pitino was just getting out of the NBA after it didn’t work out with the Knicks.
If you are a blue blood, you have to identify a coach and begin looking to make contact with them before you even get rid of your current coach. It doesn’t sound like UNC did that. I guess you could argue our AD had Drew in mind before the wife spurned Lexington.
Man you have no idea how bad Hubert was as a bench coach. Dude was constantly turning to Jeff Lebo to draw up plays for the first 4 years.
I never said UNC turned everyone away. It's clear we didn't get any of our 4 tier 1 candidates (Donovan, Lloyd, May, Otzelberger.) I'm just saying what we'll respected reporters reported several days ago... Oats' agent contacted UNC but was rebuffed because Oats has had so many off the court issues with his players.
Numerous reporters saying the Magic and the Pelicans were targeting Mike Malone this offseason. And the Bulls were going to target him if Donovan left.