North Carolina’s Administration Focused on One Key Thing

• “The University of North Carolina is suspending ongoing discussions about the future of the Smith Center in order to focus on identifying and selecting a new head men’s basketball coach,” The university said in a statement. “Arena discussions will resume after the new coach has had time to acclimate to the program and focus on future needs.”

What This Means

This is how North Carolina should be handling the process. First and foremost, the Tar Heels must identify and hire a head coach whom they feel can elevate this program back to a Final Four contender.

Additionally, North Carolina has fallen behind Duke in the ACC and was not viewed as a legitimate threat in the conference with Davis at the helm, according to college basketball insider Jeff Goodman.

• "I had really hoped he was the coach forever," the anonymous coach said. "No one in the ACC was scared of him. I'm worried that they hire someone really good now because if you get a big-time guy at UNC, they could be right there with Duke again."

North Carolina's urgency and focus on the hiring process are reflected in Goodman's latest update on the coaching search.

• "My sources have told me it's unlikely Dusty May takes it," Goodman explained. "I'm not going to say there's no chance, but as I've said before, Dustin May is very happy at Michigan. To me, it falls to Tommy Lloyd being the guy at the top of the list. Arizona doesn't have the money like people think. The other part is, how happy is [Lloyd] with the administration and does he want to travel across the country."

• "The other part of this is Billy Donovan ," Goodman continued. "The thing with Billy [Donovan] is, unless you tell him he is the guy, Billy's not going to want to go through the process. I've never seen anybody talk to more people, think about things, process things more than Billy Donovan. So, Billy is going to take a week."

With the transfer portal opening on April 7, the Tar Heels cannot afford to wait too long to hire their new head coach.