Betting odds to replace Roy Williams favor former UNC basketball players

That didn’t take long. Hours after Roy Williams announced he was retiring as the men’s basketball coach at North Carolina, the speculation on who would take his spot had started.

No question that athletic director Bubba Cunningham will make his most important hire since arriving in Chapel Hill the next few months. Sportsline.com already has the odds of who will be replacing the Hall of Fame coach.

Sports Betting Dime thinks Cunningham won’t have to look far for Williams’ replacement. The online betting site has UNC assistant Hubert Davis as the favorite (-110) to take over for Williams.

Davis played at Carolina under Dean Smith and just wrapped up his ninth season as an assistant under Williams. He also coaches the UNC junior varsity program, which is his only head coaching experience. Before returning to Chapel Hill, Davis spent seven years as an ESPN analyst.

There has been speculation around Chapel Hill for years that Davis came home to be groomed by Williams as his successor. Another popular pick, and next most likely choice according to SBD, is former UNC guard and current UNC-Greensboro head coach Wes Miller.

SBD has Miller’s odds of taking over at +350.

Miller is one of the hottest up-and-comers in the coaching profession. The fact that he’s had so much success right up the road in Greensboro has only added to the speculation.

Miller, 38, was a member of the UNC 2005 national championship team, the first of three championships at UNC for Williams. He became the Spartans’ head coach in 2011 and has led UNCG to the NCAA Tournament twice. Miller has an overall record of 185-134 as a head coach. He’s won three Southern Conference championships.

SBD’s list also includes UNC assistant Steve Robinson, who has head coaching experience at Tulsa (46-18) and Florida State (110-104) before joining Williams at Kansas and UNC.

Stanford coach Jerod Haase (+4900) played under Williams at Kansas and was a member of the UNC staff from 2003-2009; he has the next-best odds beind Robinson. Former Carolina players on the list include Vanderbilt head coach Jerry Stackhouse, TNT basketball analyst Kenny Smith and longtime NBA and college coach Larry Brown, whose last run in college basketball was at SMU from 2012-2016.

Two more interesting names reside at the bottom of the list Former national player of the year Tyler Hansbrough (+2,500,000) and former Tar Heel, and current Jordan High School coach, Rasheed Wallace (+3,000,000) are two longshots to take over for Williams.

SBD also thinks the odds that the next coach will be a former UNC player sit at -950.

Here are the SBD odds of who will be the next basketball coach at North Carolina.

Odds to become next UNC coach

• Hubert Davis: -110
• Wes Miller: +350
• Jerry Stackhouse: +1100
• Steve Robinson: +2400
• Jerod Haase: +4900
• Scott Drew: +5200
• Brad Stevens: +9000
• Kenny Smith: +9900
• Rick Pitino: +15000
• Mark Turgeon: +17500
• Larry Brown: +17500
• Mark Few: +20000
• Tyler Hansbrough: +2,500,000
• Rasheed Wallace: +3,000,000
• FIELD: +4800

This story was originally published April 1, 2021 at 3:59 PM with the headline "Betting odds to replace Roy Williams favor former UNC basketball players."