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Heel Tough Blog: Former 4-Star LSU Commit to Visit UNC This Weekend
247Sports The Tar Heels are still working to finalize the roster for the 2026-27 season, and with all the focus primarily on the transfer portal and the international landscape, you may have forgotten that UNC could add from the high school ranks if prospects haven’t committed yet. Michael Malone and the UNC coaching staff are working to add at least one, if not two more big men to the roster for next season, with the hopes of adding at least one more shooter, to round out th

Joshua Marlow
May 112 min read


Heel Tough Blog: UNC Lands Northwestern Big Man
247Sports Needing to find a suitable replacement after Henri Veesaar declared for the 2026 NBA Draft, Michael Malone first looked internationally before turning to the transfer portal and identifying Northwestern transfer Cade Bennerman as a target, after he redshirted with the Wildcats last season. Earlier this afternoon, Bennerman committed to Michael Malone and the UNC program, becoming the fifth transfer to commit to Malone this offseason. Bennerman, committed to Northwe

Joshua Marlow
Apr 271 min read


Heel Tough Blog: UNC Hires Former NBA Champion as Next Head Coach
Field of 68 In a move that not only shocked the UNC fan base, the college basketball world, and even the NBA world, the University of North Carolina has hired former NBA head coach Mike Malone as the next head coach of the program. Over the weekend, Carolina learned that neither Arizona’s Tommy Lloyd or Michigan’s Dusty May were leaving their respective spots to take the vacant job in Chapel Hill. The belief was that Carolina had turned their attention to Billy Donovan of the

Joshua Marlow
Apr 62 min read


Heel Tough Blog: Dusty May Announces He is Staying At Michigan
Michael Reaves- Getty Images When Tommy Lloyd announced on Friday that he would be staying at Arizona and signing a long term extension, the focus of the Tar Heels search turned to Michigan head coach Dusty May. While he may have been another longshot, especially after his victory last night over Arizona in the Final Four, he was someone that you had to have tell you no before you moved to the next tier of the search. That day came on Sunday prior to tomorrow’s national champ

Anthony Pagnotta
Apr 52 min read


Heel Tough Blog: Is It Billy Donovan or Bust for UNC?
Sports Illustrated After missing out on Arizona’s Tommy Lloyd as the replacement for Hubert Davis, Bubba Cunningham, Steve Newmark, and the UNC search firm are now forced to turn their attention elsewhere to find the right man to lead Carolina Basketball back to national prominence. Lloyd was the top target for Carolina and is coming off his first appearance in the Final Four, a blowout loss to a Michigan team that is poised to win their first national championship since 1989

Joshua Marlow
Apr 55 min read


Heel Tough Blog: Tommy Lloyd to Stay At Arizona
Arizona Sports Before his team competes in tomorrow night’s Final Four, Arizona head coach Tommy Lloyd agreed to a five-year contract extension that’ll keep Lloyd in Tucson, after a week’s worth of speculation that he might leave for the vacant UNC job. After UNC fired Hubert Davis after losing in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, and hired a search firm to help conduct the search, they identified Lloyd, as their top candidate, after setting a record for most wins by a

Joshua Marlow
Apr 32 min read


Heel Tough Blog: UNC Basketball Coaching Wishlist
Arizona Desert Storm Hubert Davis was fired on Tuesday night, after 5 seasons on the UNC bench, where he compiled a 125-54 record, with an appearance in the 2022 Final Four, along with winning the 2024 ACC regular season title, and earning a #1 seed in the NCAA Tournament. But after a historic collapse in the NCAA Tournament against Duke, there was nothing the former standout player under Dean Smith, and longtime assistant under Roy Williams before becoming head coach, could

Joshua Marlow
Mar 278 min read


Heel Tough Blog: Top Candidate Removes Himself From UNC Opening
Iowa State Athletics The Carolina Basketball job hasn’t been open 48 hours yet, and there’s already been two big names to remove themself from consideration from arguably the best job in college basketball. Yesterday, Brad Stevens of the Boston Celtics made it known he wasn’t leaving the front office of the most storied franchise in the NBA for the sidelines in Chapel Hill, and just earlier today, Iowa State’s TJ Otzelberger made it known he wasn’t leaving Ames for UNC either

Joshua Marlow
Mar 261 min read
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