Doherty has “resigned”. Williams has removed his name. Who else? Larry Brown?
I don’t know who it may be, but on the face of it I feel real bad for Doherty.
I’m torn. One part of me feels bad for Doherty, because it really looked like he was getting things back together this season. The other part of me (this would be the part that grew up a Duke fan and graduated from NC State) is doing backflips of joy - anything that’s bad for Carolina is good for that part.
As far as the next coach, I think they’d be best served to look outside the Carolina Family. Within the family I see: Roy Williams - no way he’s leaving Kansas now. Larry Brown - too old. George Karl - maybe, but if they think Doherty is too hard on players… I think their best bet would be to try and snag someone like Mark Few from Gonzaga.
DukeBasketballReport.com has a “I Said NO!” tee shirt because of all the people who refused the job two years ago. They may to start writing on the back.
…of course I meant “have to start writing on the back”. Need coffee.
UNC can have Mike Davis from IU. He’s only hard on his players after games, in the media and especially after the season. Never too hard on himself.
Did Roy already say “No” this time around, or was that from the last time? Maybe Crean from Marquette?
“Never too hard on himself” is an understatement. I’ve rarely come across a coach so quick to dismiss or excuse his own failures. But then, he DID learn from the master, Bobby Knight!
There are, obviously, a host of excellent candidates for the UNC job, but I don’t think any of the guys with Tar Heel ties are going to want the job. If Roy Williams didn’t take it last time he had the chance (when he must have really wanted it), I don’t see why he’d take it now. And, while NBA coaching can be a pain, Larry Brown is making FAR more money than even UNC could afford to pay him. And George Karl’s stock has been plummeting for years- his failure at the international games last year may have been the last nail in his coffin.
So, while UNC certainly can and should get a top-notch coach, I’m afraid they’ll have to look to an outsider, not one of Dean Smith’s old players or proteges.
As a Texas Longhorns fan, I HATE saying this, but I think Rick Barnes is just the kind of guy that UNC should be (and almost certainly IS) looking at.
Astorian - do you mean Bob Knight, now at Texas Tech, who gave back his $250,000 coaching salary this year because he said it was his fault that his team didn’t play as well as they should have? He had his faults at IU but this wasn’t one of them.
George Karl from the Bucks. He has always wanted the job. I think he even had a clause in his contract that when the NC job opened up he could ditch the Bucks.
Would it be too much of a hijack if I told everyone here how good-looking I think Doherty is? This is the only reason I applied to this thread.
I don’t think that Texas needs to worry about losing Rick Barnes to NC. NC can not match the wealth, alumni, facilities, or talent pool on Texas. They have a winning history and a winning tradition, that’s it. Also, I don’t think that NC alums would want Barnes after his notorious “standing up to Dean Smith” a few years ago.
Barnes has the opportunity to become a legend at Texas. Why would he leave that to go anywhere?
A winning history and a winning tradition beats wealth, alumni, facilities and talent pool all the time.
As for alumni, UNC==Michael Jordan.
Facilities==The Dean Dome.
Talent pool===Don’t make me laugh.
Barnes may well become a legend, in his own mind.
Phil Ford. I said it here first.
The state of Texas is a larger talent pool than the state of North Carolina. This is not an arguable point, Texas has more people, produces more division 1 athletes, produces more professional players, therefore has a better talent pool.
When Barnes asked for a new practice facility, he got one built for 40 million dollars. When he asked for the Erwin Center to be renovated he got it. Texas has better facilities because we have the wealth to make it happen.
You have Michael Jordan, we have Michael Dell, Tom Hicks, Red McCombs, and on and on. I’m not talking about former athletes, I’m talking about dedicated, rich, powerful, alumni who can make changes and won’t settle for a subpar athletic program.
Texas is the best athletic program in the country.
Also, if Rick Barnes takes Texas to multiple Final Fours, win some championships and stays at Texas, he will be a legend.
How can the past beat the present? The only way tradition even matters is if it affects the current situation, i.e. the talent pool.
Actually, on Duke’s team this year there were as many contributors from Texas (Ewing) as there were from NC (Randolph). I believe McCants is the only one of the guys at UNC that played big minutes who originally came from NC. Likewise, from the ESPN top 100 players from next year’s freshman class, 3 out of the top 15 and four out of the top 25 are from Texas, as opposed to two from North Carolina in the top 25. In other words, if Texas doesn’t draw from a better talent pool, it’s at least equal. As for the OP, I wouldn’t be shocked to see Tubby Smith move to Carolina after he said he was unappreciated in Kentucky- he hasn’t had too much luck recruiting against Pitino anyway.
On preview I see Texasspur kind of said what I said, but there you go.
Four months ago, I would have agreed. Tubby just didn’t have control of his team for a few years there, though I think the bulk of the blame can be laid on the players themselves. In December, especially after the loss to Louisville, I wouldn’t have been shocked to see Tubby’s head mounted on a post in Triangle Park. (I believe that if UK had been able to lure Billy Donovan away from Florida, Tubby would have been out on his ass.)
Then, after a lousy first half against Vanderbilt, Tubby apparently said something to the team that made them start taking him seriously, and it all came together. They won 26 games. If Keith Bogans hadn’t hurt himself, they had the best shot out there at the national title.
If you give Tubby credit for the downtime, you have to give him credit for the turnaround, too. Tubby’s days of unappreciation are over for a while. He can ride the wave of good recruiting, high exposure, and the contractual upper hand at KY, or he can start all over again at UNC.
Tubby has come too far, and has seen his work come to fruition too recently to jump ship. Besides, I can’t imagine him being more appreciated at UNC than he is at UK; if anyplace has higher expectations than UK, it has to be UNC.
Dr. J
On behalf of all majorly pissed-off Carolina fans, I’d like to apologize to University of Kansas for the distraction this has caused. Best of luck.