Heel Tough Blog: Tar Heels Finalizing Associate Head Coach Hire

Walt Beazley- Arkansas Athletics

The Tar Heels introduced new head coach Michael Malone last night in the Smith Center and now it appears that he has his first staff member officially lined up.

As first reported by CBS college basketball insider Jon Rothstein, the Tar Heels are finalizing a deal to bring in current Arkansas assistant Chuck Martin to be Malone’s Associate Head Coach. This comes after Martin was tied to the search for staff members by Inside Carolina.

Martin, who has spent the last two years at Arkansas under John Calipari, worked with Malone back in the late 90s and early 2000s on the Manhattan staff. At Arkansas, Martin has held the title of assistant coach and recruiting coordinator and is heavily credited for the success that the Razorbacks have had on the high school recruiting the past two years. Prior to his time in Fayetteville, he spent one season as the recruiting coordinator at Kentucky under Calipari where he would help piece together the No. 2 recruiting class in that cycle. He has also had assistant coaching stints with Indiana (2014-17), South Carolina (2017-22) and Oregon (2022-23) and even spent time in the NBA with the Oklahoma City Thunder back in in the 2013-14 season after being fired from his lone head coaching job at the college level, Marist, which he held from 2008-13. Other stops as an assistant for Martin prior to taking the job at Marist include Memphis (2006-08), St. John’s (2004-06), Drexel (2001-04), UMass (2000-01) and Manhattan (1999-00).

This is a massive addition to the coaching staff that gives the Tar Heels one of the nation’s top recruiters heading up a staff for a former NBA head coach that will have to make an adjustment to college coaching lifestyle.