Mike Malone taking the North Carolina job was a bit of a surprise, but there’s a lot to like about it. Outside of the questions on whether he can recruit at the level UNC needs him to, which are important, Malone is a great coach.
David Adelman, who was on Malone’s staff with the Denver Nuggets before Malone was let go, believes Malone is the man for the job. He said that it was just as surprising to him as it was to us, but that he believes he can succeed in the college basketball world.
“(I was) Super excited when I read it. Very unexpected just because I hadn't heard anything about that… Not just the basketball part which is a historic job to take, but just the cool part of his daughter going to school there and just all the elements to it. Basketball in America has changed with the NIL in college and the hiring processes are different at a different level. Kevin Young was an assistant coach, but taking over BYU right around the time the NIL hit, I think it made a lot of sense. The coaching pool is different. It's not just the recruiting and being in Vegas until midnight watching games.
“There's general managers and I just think it has changed everything. And a guy like him, he'd be perfect for that job. For all the guys that are here that had known him, we were all super excited after shootaround (when) we saw that it was a possibility. I'm just happy for him and his family. He belongs coaching and that's what he should be doing,” he said, per USA Today.
Adelman added why someone like Malone makes sense in today’s version of the college game.
“I just think the discipline, the fact that it's more of a professional environment now, especially at schools like that where you have to look at it like these guys are under contract now. I think a lot of NBA coaches understand what it means to coach somebody that's making money. And there is a level you can't go to like it's 1950, but there's definitely a level somewhere in the middle. And I think that's what's appropriate nowadays for the college game. Just watching the Final Four, Illinois is a Euroleague team.
“It's a completely different landscape now, so I think you're gonna see a lot more pro coaches of coach Malone's caliber looking at jobs like that. And it makes a lot of sense to me. Overall happiness, I haven't talked to the players yet, but they know him well. But it seems like a really good fit for him and I'm really excited to see how he fills out his staff, all those things, as an NBA guy watching another NBA person take over a situation like that (and) what the steps he'll take.”
With NIL, transfer portal, and front office structures becoming more common, college programs are starting to resemble NBA organizations more than ever. Malone should benefit with that.