North Carolina Tar Heels legend Tyler Hansbrough has offered a surprising candidate to be the team's next head coach.
The North Carolina Tar Heels fired Hubert Davis following the team's ugly NCAA Tournament loss to VCU, and now, they are looking for the perfect name to bring the blue blood program out of the doldrums.
Tommy Lloyd was recently handed an extension by Arizona, so he has now been ruled out as a candidate for North Carolina. Michigan's Dusty May remains a possibility, but would he really leave the Wolverines now?
The Tar Heels will surely find an answer somewhere, and and UNC legend Tyler Hansbrough has pitched a rather surprising name for the school: Iowa's Ben McCollum.
“I like Ben McCollum too. … That’s a guy who’s won at every level,” Hansbrough said on the Field of 68. “I like bringing somebody in that’s pretty hungry.”
McCollum took over as Iowa's head coach last spring and immediately led the Hawkeyes to an NCAA Tournament appearance during his debut campaign with the team. Iowa went 24-13 and made it all the way to the Elite Eight, where it fell to Illinois.
Prior to that McCollum was the head coach of Drake and guided the Bulldogs to a 31-4 record as well as a trip to the Big Dance in 2024-25.
Iowa Hawkeyes coach Ben McCollum. Credit: Troy Taormina-Imagn Images.Oddly enough, McCollum only has two years of Division I experience. He had previously served as the head coach of Northwest Missouri State, capturing four Division II championships.
McCollum has won wherever he has been, and that includes the Big Ten. But how would he manage coaching one of the most prestigious programs in the nation?
Chances are, the 44-year-old would be just fine, so it's definitely a compelling suggestion by Hansbrough, who is one of the best players in the history of North Carolina basketball.
The Tar Heels went 125-54 under Davis, making the National Championship Game in Davis' debut campaign back in 2021-22.
Since then, though, it has been mostly disappointment for UNC, and blowing a 19-point lead to VCU in the first round of the NCAA Tournament this year was the straw that broke the camel's back for Davis.
Expect to see North Carolina's coaching search pick up after the National Championship Game on Monday night.
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