In the wake of Tommy Lloyd getting a college basketball-altering deal to stay at Arizona, that in turn moves Dusty May to the front of the line for the North Carolina head-coaching vacancy. May does not need to leave Michigan for all that Chapel Hill has to offer, but this incredible amount of leverage could play a part in him getting paid big time. Michigan will have to fork up a ton of cash to keep him.
Isaac Trotter of CBS Sports identified these six candidates as the ones who North Carolina is eyeing.
- Michigan Wolverines head coach Dusty May
- Chicago Bulls head coach Billy Donovan
- Vanderbilt Commodores head coach Mark Byington
- Iowa Hawkeyes head coach Ben McCollum
- Texas Tech Red Raiders head coach Grant McCasland
- Saint Louis Billikens head coach Josh Schertz
When it comes to putting this half-dozen into tiers, here is the general consensus. May has moved past Chicago Bulls head coach Billy Donovan to the front of the pack. After that, Vanderbilt's Mark Byington, Iowa's Ben McCollum, Texas Tech's Grant McCasland, and Saint Louis' Josh Schertz are all battling for third place to be North Carolina's next head coach. McCasland is the one to watch there.
While Donovan may be the only one who is ready to move on, someone else may jump at the chance.
Dusty May moves to the front of the line to take over at North Carolina
Let's work our way backwards from the fringe candidates to the real ones. McCollum and Schertz have been tied to bigger jobs than merely Iowa and Saint Louis, but they just got there. They could move, but they may not be ready for what coaching at North Carolina could have in store for them. Byington just got extended by Vanderbilt, making McCasland slightly more ripe for the picking here.
Again, Donovan could be had. All North Carolina has to do is wait until week until the Bulls' miserable season comes to an end. While he has tremendous success before in the college game, his iconic run at Florida was about a decade ago. Donovan is no spring chicken. The game has changed many times over since he was last calling the shots in Gainesville. He could be had, but what about May?
Right now, look for May to use this UNC head-coaching vacancy as leverage to get more money out of his school like Lloyd did at Arizona. There is a chance McCasland could do the same thing over in Lubbock, but that is an athletic department dripping in financial resources in the wonderful world of NIL. At this time, it feels like Donovan is most likely to take the job because he wants to leave Chicago.
May is only really being pushed to the forefront of this head-coaching search because of Lloyd.