UNC leaders welcome coach Michael Malone on ‘a day that will matter for decades’
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- UNC hires Michael Malone as men's basketball coach on a six-year, $50M deal.
- Board of Trustees frames $50M as brand, revenue and competitive strategy.
- University sought a teacher, leader who embraces Carolina tradition.
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UNC basketball coach search
UNC basketball coach Hubert Davis coached the Tar Heels for five seasons but was let go after they were defeated in the first round of the 2026 NCAA Tournament. On April 7, the university hired former NBA coach Michael Malone. Here’s ongoing coverage of North Carolina’s coaching transition.
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Athletic director Bubba Cunningham joked he didn’t want to put too much pressure on Michael Malone. But, as he introduced UNC’s new men’s basketball coach at the Smith Center on Tuesday night, he cracked a smile as he said North Carolina staff is already starting to move its six national championship banners over in the rafters to make room for more.
At a blue blood program like UNC, that is the standard by which the former Denver Nuggets head coach will be measured.
Malone spoke candidly on Tuesday night about his repeated denial of UNC’s offer, and his eventual acquiescence in a five-hour Easter Sunday meeting with Steve Newmark, UNC’s incoming athletic director. Now that Malone’s arrived in Chapel Hill, and his six-year, $50 million contract is approved, he said he’s ready to get started.
“I’m not only taking this job, I’m attacking this job,” Malone said.
The $50 million contract makes Malone one of the highest-paid coaches in college basketball. The investment comes after UNC bet on another former professional coach, Bill Belichick, a $50 million hire who went 4-8 in his first season at UNC.
Chancellor Lee Roberts borrowed the words of country singer Eric Church, this spring’s UNC’s commencement speaker, to describe what he sees as the immensity of this moment.
“’Most days in life won’t matter,’” Roberts said. “’But life’s about the days that will.’ I’m confident that in the long and noble history of our men’s basketball program, this is a day that will matter for decades to come.”
Unanimous support from trustees
In attendance at the announcement were members of the UNC Board of Trustees, who voted to approve Malone’s six-year, $50 million contract earlier in the day.
Trustee Ritch Allison, former CEO of Domino’s Pizza, said support for the hire was unanimous on the board.
The $50 million investment has value across multiple dimensions, Allison said. It’s about building the Carolina brand, so much of which is disseminated through the men’s basketball program, he said, but also about funding other sports programs.
“The economic value that’s created by men’s basketball and football funds a lot of what we do across all of our 28 sports, so it’s critical that we can compete at a high level in those two sports, and the cost of doing that has gone up significantly over time,” Allison said. “If we want to continue to have an elite men’s basketball program, we’ve got to invest in that program for the future.”
For UNC trustee Ralph Meekins, the hire represents a commitment to greatness — but also an attempt to keep pace with the “wild, wild west” of college basketball in the age of NIL and the transfer portal.
Meekins and his fellow trustees voted to approve Malone’s contract Tuesday afternoon. Meekins said that $50 million is “the number that was needed to get him to come to college basketball, because I believe he would have had much better opportunity to do NBA.”
“I feel naturally some remorse about [former men’s basketball coach] Hubert [Davis], because he’s such a great man, but I don’t think we could have found a better coach that understands the history of Carolina basketball, even though he didn’t go here, didn’t coach here,” Meekins told The News & Observer. “I feel great about it.
“It’s Carolina basketball, and we have something special here that we need to keep. And while I’m not a big fan of what’s going on out there in the world [with NIL and the transfer portal], the fact that it’s kind of unregulated right now, to stay relevant, you got to compete. .... With NIL and the transfer portal, we need some help with that from the legislature, I believe, or for Congress to step in and do something about it, because it’s wild, wild west, and we don’t need that. We need some rules and some reason to it all.”
What UNC wanted in a coach
Newmark described the three most important features UNC was looking for in a new head coach:
- “They need to be an elite teacher, innovator, strategist and leader.”
- “They need to kind of display and possess the character and integrity that’s consistent with our university and our principles.”
- “They need to believe in — not just acknowledge and recognize — they need to believe in the importance of the Carolina family and the Carolina tradition and what that means to the UNC community.”
Malone exemplified all of these traits, Newmark said. His experience “warrants that type of compensation,” and “if you look at where he has been compensated in the NBA, he’s taking this [cut] because he’s passionate about it.”
Malone was fired by the Nuggets in 2025, and has worked for ESPN as an analyst since.
This story was originally published April 7, 2026 at 8:40 PM with the headline "UNC leaders welcome coach Michael Malone on ‘a day that will matter for decades’."
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