With North Carolina's decision to hire Michael Malone to be its next head coach, it came as somewhat of a surprise around the college basketball landscape.
Some former North Carolina players believed they deserved a shot, though hiring Malone makes a lot of sense for the program. Not only does he have an opportunity to be a very good head coach in Chapel Hill, but he's also an NBA champion and has coached some of the greatest players of all time, mainly Nikola Jokic.
Still, that hasn't stopped others from being upset about not getting the job, including North Carolina alum Jerry Stackhouse.
Stackhouse, who put together a really good college career for himself, as well as being a two-time NBA All-Star and an All-Rookie selection, said he wasn't surprised that North Carolina looked outside the family in this coaching search. However, he wanted an interview, and North Carolina stated that it didn't have any plans to give him a shot.
"Yeah, I was, and I wasn't [surprised UNC looked outside the family for the head coaching hire]," Stackhouse said, per Logan Lazarczyk. "I think it's with what was going on there, with Hubert [Davis], I think nobody really liked how that went down for him. It had been part of the family, and then to not have an opportunity to talk about it, I think that was the most disappointing thing for me."
"They were like, 'We're not [going to] interview you,' and I felt like I had a resume that could stand up to anybody," Stackhouse explained.
"I won the coach of the year in the SEC. I had a team that finished fourth in the SEC when we weren't even participating in NIL, so I feel like just from an X and O standpoint and being able to get and develop guys, guys that weren't all four- and five-star guys, but we developed them, and they became all-league players."
It's a bit strange to hear that Stackhouse didn't even get a look, but if North Carolina knew that it wanted Malone, there really isn't much reason for the university not to go with its first choice.
Stackhouse has some coaching experience, but he went 70-92 at Vanderbilt and was fired after a 9-23 season in 2024.