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UNC didn’t take long to find its next head coach.
The Tar Heels plan to hire NBA champion coach Michael Malone as their next men’s basketball coach, according to ESPN. The financial details of the deal were not immediately available.
Malone spent 12 years as an NBA head coach and holds a 510–394 record. He coached two seasons with the Kings and 10 with the Nuggets, leading Denver to the 2023 NBA championship.
Malone did not coach this past season after he was suddenly fired by Denver last April, 10 days before the NBA playoffs. He spent this past season as an NBA analyst for ESPN.
Malone was a college assistant from 1994 to 2001 at Oakland, Providence, and Manhattan. He was also the director of men’s basketball administration at the University of Virginia in the 1998–99 season.
His daughter, Bridget, is a sophomore on the UNC women’s volleyball team.
Malone’s hiring comes less than two weeks after UNC fired Hubert Davis days after the No. 6 Tar Heels were knocked out of March Madness in the first round after blowing a 19-point lead.
Davis took over for legendary UNC coach Roy Williams in 2021. He had an up-and-down tenure, leading the Tar Heels to the national championship game in his first season, then missing the tournament in his second year.
Davis is owed $5.3 million by UNC for the remaining four years on his contract.
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