Michael Malone has officially completed his first UNC basketball staff, blending longtime Tar Heel ties and championship pedigree with experienced coaches from the NBA and college ranks.
Michael Malone’s first North Carolina men’s basketball staff is officially complete.
UNC announced the full coaching and basketball staff for the 2026-27 season on September 3, providing a clear look at how Malone intends to balance the program’s storied history with fresh voices and outside perspectives as he begins his tenure in Chapel Hill.
That balance might be the defining characteristic of the group.
Malone retained Assistant Coaches Sean May and Pat Sullivan along with Director of Basketball Operations Eric Hoots. The trio has a combined 55 years of experience with the Carolina program, providing significant continuity through the transition from the previous coaching staff.
May will enter his 12th season on the UNC staff and sixth as an Assistant Coach, while Sullivan begins his ninth season as a Tar Heel assistant. Hoots is entering an incredible 28th season with the program.
But Malone also made sure to supplement that institutional knowledge with extensive experience from elsewhere.
Chuck Martin joins the program as Associate Head Coach after spending the previous three seasons on John Calipari’s staffs at Kentucky and Arkansas. Martin brings more than 25 years of coaching experience, including five seasons as the head coach at Marist, and has developed a reputation as a high-level recruiter.
Bryan Tibaldi comes aboard as an Assistant Coach after serving as Providence’s offensive coordinator last season. The Friars climbed all the way to 16th nationally at 85.3 points per game, improving 233 spots in scoring average from the previous season. Tibaldi also owns significant NBA experience, including six seasons with the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Jorge Sanz rounds out that trio of outside additions after eight seasons at Gonzaga. Sanz spent the last three years as both an Assistant Coach and Director of Operations under Mark Few and also brings substantial international experience and connections. Gonzaga went 238-38 during his eight seasons in Spokane.
Perhaps most interestingly, Malone has also surrounded the program with former Tar Heel players who span multiple championship eras.
Brandon Robinson returns as an Assistant Coach after previously playing at UNC from 2016-20. Robinson was part of the 2017 national championship team before beginning a coaching career that included stops with the Charlotte Hornets, Utah Jazz and G-League’s Salt Lake City Stars.
Former Tar Heel Deon Thompson, meanwhile, joins the staff as Director of Player Development. Thompson started at power forward for Carolina’s 2009 national championship team before playing professionally overseas for 16 years.
That means Sullivan (1993), May (2005), Thompson (2009) and Robinson (2017) collectively represent each of North Carolina’s last four national championship teams.
Veteran staffers Jonas Sahratian, Doug Halverson and Kiersten Steinbacher will also remain with the program, while Thomas Malone joins the Tar Heels as video coordinator.
“It was important to construct a staff that had connections to Carolina’s many decades of excellence while also bringing in other individuals who can enhance this great University and basketball program,” Malone said.
That sentence effectively summarizes the construction of Malone’s staff.
UNC did not completely sever its connection with what has made Carolina basketball Carolina basketball. May, Sullivan, Hoots and several other longtime staffers ensure plenty of institutional knowledge remains in Chapel Hill.
At the same time, Martin, Tibaldi and Sanz bring different recruiting relationships, philosophies and experiences from across college basketball and the NBA.
For a first-year head coach attempting to honor North Carolina’s past while simultaneously ushering the program into a new era, Malone appears to have intentionally built a staff capable of doing both.
