Heel Tough Blog: Who Should UNC Be Focused on Now?

With the announcement from Tommy Lloyd on Friday afternoon that he was going to be staying at Arizona, the Tar Heels have been forced to shift their focus in the search for their next head coach. As the Tar Heels reset their board, I have done the same with my wishlist today. Here is a look at the five coaches that I believe the search committee should be turning their attention to as soon as possible.

Dusty May (Current Michigan Head Coach)

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Career Record: 188-82 | Record at Current School: 62-13

May is another young coach who is high on my list. This is just May’s second season at Michigan, and he has already turned them into one of the top teams in the country following the disaster that was the Juwan Howard era. Last year had its ups and downs in the regular season, but when it came to the conference tournament, Michigan went on a run, winning the tournament that would help spark a run to the Sweet 16 in the NCAA Tournament. This year, he has registered a 35-3 record and has his team playing for a chance to make it to the championship game if they beat Arizona. This is his second appearance on the sport's biggest stage after he took Florida Atlantic there back in 2022-23 and he’s hoping to finish it with a national title. May would be an outstanding hire that would give the team one of the best coaches in the country.

Billy Donovan (Current Chicago Bulls Head Coach)

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Career Record: 502-206 | Record at Current School: N/A

Donovan is the candidate that has the best track record, considering he is a two-time national champion and a basketball hall of famer, but I am not putting him in that elite coach category like some others are. I like the success that he has had at the college level, but there is a little concern about the fact that he has been out of the sport for eleven years. Even still, he is a tremendous X’s and O’s coach that would bring a level of excellence to the sideline in that area that it didn’t feel like the team had under Hubert Davis. Donovan’s titles might be 20 years in the rearview, but his success with the Gators extended until his final season, as the team made runs to the Elite 8 or further in four straight seasons from 2010-11 through 2013-14. Some people might be concerned about his lack of success in recent years with the Bulls, but that is a team that has been poorly pieced together by the front office. It seems like there is some risk here with his time away from the sport and his age (60), but the Tar Heels could do a lot worse. The only problem is that they will likely have to wait for him to finish up his regular season to end, which will put the team at a disadvantage in the transfer portal, which opens Tuesday. This might be a coach worth waiting for, though.

Mark Byington (Current Vanderbilt Head Coach)

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Career Record: 260-155 | Record at Current School: 47-22

Byington is one of the hottest up-and-coming coaches in the country and is someone that the Tar Heels should consider if they get this far down on the list. While Georgia Southern may not have made the NCAA Tournament under him, he led them to one of the most successful stretches in program history before he left for James Madison, where he would turn the Dukes into one of the best mid-major teams in the country in his final season in 2023-24. Byington took on a tough job when he took over at Vandy, but he brought them to their first tournament in eight years last year and had them as a 5-seed in this year’s tournament after reaching the 25-win mark with the program for the first time since 2011-12. Byington isn’t on the level of May right now, but he has plenty of potential that would make him a very solid hire for the program.

Ben McCollum (Current Iowa Head Coach)

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Career Record: 54-16 | Record at Current School: 23-12

McCollum is a guy who should only get consideration if the Tar Heels get this far down on the list, but he has some early success as a head coach that makes him worth looking at if things get to this point. After a really strong first season as a head coach last year at Drake, McCollum took the Iowa Hawkeyes to the Elite 8 for the first time since 1987. McCollum’s teams play a slower pace and are built for the defensive end of the floor, and one thing that you never have to question with them is their effort. It wouldn’t be the splash that many were hoping for with this search, but he is another coach on the rise who would be worth the hire because of his upside if it got to this point.

Grant McCasland (Current Texas Tech Head Coach)

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Career Record: 229-108 | Record at Current School: 74-31

McCasland is another young coach who I have further down on the list that should get consideration if it gets to this point. Everywhere that McCasland has gone so far he has won, including in his current stop at Texas Tech. He has taken the Red Raiders to the NCAA Tournament in each of his first three seasons and has made them one of the better teams in the Big 12, which is viewed as one of if not the best conference in the sport. This would not be looked at as the hire that the Tar Heels were hoping for but would be a high-upside one that could work in the long run.

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