ESPN insider IDs next targets for North Carolina after missing on Tommy Lloyd
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ESPN insider Pete Thamel was immersed on Saturday in the Final Four, because in a matter of hours Illinois was going to be facing UConn followed by the titanic matchup of No. 1 seeds with Michigan facing Arizona.
But while the backdrop in Indianapolis centered around 2 very important basketball games, Thamel was also speaking about a really important head coaching search that has gripped the sport along with the Final Four. North Carolina parted ways with Hubert Davis after its first-round flop against VCU in this NCAA Tournament, and now it’s searching far and wide for the next person to lead the proud program.
On Friday, while he got his Arizona team ready to face Michigan, Wildcats head coach Tommy Lloyd announced that he’s staying in Tucson and won’t pursue the North Carolina opening. That took a big name out of the mix for the UNC job, but there are plenty of other names that Thamel revealed during his report on Saturday afternoon.
A few of them happen to be coaching on Saturday, minus Lloyd of course, after his Friday revelation. There was UConn head coach Dan Hurley, who’s led the Huskies to 2 national titles, and Thamel also mentioned Michigan’s Dusty May, who led the Wolverines to the Big Ten regular-season title this season and has his program positioned for a national title come Monday night.
There were also some SEC ties to Thamel’s report on Saturday, with the insider mentioning Vanderbilt‘s Mark Byington as a name to watch in the UNC search. He also named Billy Donovan, the former Florida head coach and current Chicago Bulls head coach, as a name to keep an eye on.
There are a bevy of names right now who are in the mix to be UNC’s next head coach, and here is what the Kalshi market is currently saying about the odds in North Carolina’s coaching search:
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
