Michael Malone’s Mindset Promising for UNC

In October, Malone was interviewed, and he discussed several key points that are monumental to having success as a coach.

Malone's Thoughts

The 54-year-old head coach began by laying out the philosophy and message players must adopt to produce sustained success.

• “If you’re in the weight room lifting, you have to get better," Malone said. "If it’s player development, if it’s practice, if it’s film, whatever it may be, you have to find a way, individually and collectively, find a way to get better."

• “And when you do that throughout the course of the season, then at the end of the year, you’re going to put yourself in a really good position, because it’s so easy for everybody to say, ‘We want to win the ACC,'" Malone continued. "But are you doing what you’re supposed to do every single day, or did you cut corners in practice? Did you cut corners in the weight room? Then you’re just talking empty words.”

In addition to conveying a clear message to his players, Malone emphasized the importance of establishing a culture. Before winning occurs, a culture must be set and understood by everyone.

• “Culture is a word that is just obviously used over and over and over again," Malone explained. "And you could walk into a high school gym, a college gym, a pro gym, and you’ll see all these quotes on the wall, or all these big, fancy words on the wall. And I laugh because most of the time those words are all hollow. They look great, they sound great, but it’s not lived every day. They’re hollow words."

• “Those are the people that we want to be around every day. If you are self-motivated and have a work ethic, if you are selfless, where ‘Hey, it’s not about me, it’s about us, we over me,’ and you’re willing to trust not only the coaches, but trust each other, we would have a chance to do something special.”

Overall Thoughts

It's not that Hubert Davis did not share these same values, but his inexperience as a head coach and inability to adapt to specific situations were his ultimate downfall. Malone should provide more stability, which will translate into more wins and deeper March runs.