UNC not in men's Final Four but still looms large

It’s been over a week since North Carolina fired basketball coach Hubert Davis. Since then, there have been few updates on the Tar Heels’ coaching search.

The silence is deafening, so deafening that despite a dynamic men’s Final Four in Indianapolis this weekend — UConn vs. Illinois, Arizona vs. Michigan — UNC will be a primary topic of discussion, from power broker-filled downtown bars to news conferences in Lucas Oil Stadium, with up to three potential targets involved among the four head coaches.

“People are going to speculate all they want,” Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd said Tuesday. “This team has my full focus. Nothing, nothing, I promise you — nothing — is knocking me off that path.”

There is no doubt Lloyd is all about leading the Wildcats to a national title. What he said also wasn’t a denial of interest in the job.

And it is just the start, not just for Lloyd, but Michigan’s Dusty May and even, perhaps, Connecticut’s Dan Hurley. (Illinois’ Brad Underwood is not believed to be on the radar).

The belief is UNC is willing to go “outside the family” — i.e., a non-alumni or former assistant — for the first time since 1958, when it hired an Air Force assistant coach named Dean Smith.

If it wanted anyone else outside the Final Four teams, then this would likely be over. Yet, sources across the sport say Carolina has done little to no outreach to perceived second-tier candidates, suggesting that barring a surprise, they are waiting to talk to their top choice(s).

Meanwhile, there is the transfer portal, which is how rosters are increasingly built. It opens Tuesday. If someone isn’t in place by then — much of the work is actually already being done — then the prospects for next season are already troubling. So what else would explain the delay?

Someone among Lloyd, May and/or Hurley must be the target.

Chicago Bulls coach Billy Donovan’s name has been floated, but even if he wanted to leave the NBA, there is little chance he would do so before the end of the season on April 12. That makes his timing, portal-wise at least, even worse.

No fan wants to hear their coach linked to an opening. However, in an era where rosters are increasingly year-to-year deals, the impact of such talk is less likely to rattle a locker room.

Maybe the better question is whether any of them would actually go, rather than using the one-sided interest to garner a raise?

UNC remains a special place, and again can be a great program, but this isn’t 10 years ago, let alone 25.

The parts that made it elite — tradition, the ACC, the Duke rivalry, television exposure, fan attention, shoe company alignment, etc. — matter less. Money for players, style of play and personality of the coach matter more.

That certainly doesn’t make every job even — it’s still Carolina — but the gap likely isn’t as wide.

In the extreme, consider Hurley, who can win his third title in four years, which would be more than the two that Smith won across 36 seasons in Chapel Hill. It also would be UConn’s seventh national championship since 1999, or one more than UNC has ever won.

How isn’t UConn the best program in the country, especially for Hurley, whose general demeanor could be described as outraged New York City taxi driver?

That works in the Northeast. Maybe not elsewhere.

As for Lloyd and May, why leave places that have already proved capable of providing the resources and support to construct powerhouse teams? These aren’t upstart clubs on unexpected, underdog Final Four runs. They’ve been dominant all season.

What resources can UNC provide that they don’t currently enjoy? How much better can they get? And on the flip side, what hidden hurdles await in Chapel Hill, political or otherwise?

There is the matter of money. Lloyd (about $5.2 million annually) and May ($5.1 million) have room to climb before hitting the level of Hurley ($7.7 million) or industry leader Bill Self of Kansas ($8.8 million).

However, Arizona AD Desiree Reed-Francois and Michigan AD Warde Manual have been public about their willingness to rework contracts.

Manual, whose department is in the middle of an independent review of its practices following a series of mostly football scandals, would seem particularly averse to seeing a bright, popular young coach leave on his watch.

Looming over everything is the opening of the portal just minutes after the conclusion of Monday’s national title game. Not only does Carolina need a coach ASAP but if one of the coaches mentioned were to leave, their old spot would have to scramble. The calendar is chaotic.

So here come the whispers and speculation and news conference questions — a Carolina blue backdrop to the Final Four.