The North Carolina Tar Heels have hired Michael Malone as the program’s next head coach in a decision that has left many in the college basketball community surprised. The 54-year-old will replace Hubert Davis, who was fired after UNC’s dismal first-round exit in the NCAA Tournament.
Many big names were linked with the UNC job, including Michigan’s Dusty May and Chicago Bulls head coach Billy Donovan. But the Tar Heels have decided to appoint Malone in what appears to be a left-field move at first glance.
Possible Reason For Michael Malone’s Decision to Join UNC Revealed
One possible reason why Malone may have accepted the UNC job is that his daughter, Bridget, is an outside hitter for the Tar Heels volleyball team, as PFSN’s Alex Kennedy pointed out.
She is a sophomore at UNC and has also represented Team USA at the youth level.
Mike Malone’s daughter is a volleyball player at UNC, as @GoodmanHoops notes. This may help explain his shocking college-basketball pivot to coach the Tar Heels. pic.twitter.com/F4TVbGOf0u
— Alex Kennedy (@AlexKennedyNBA) April 6, 2026
“Mike Malone’s daughter is a volleyball player at UNC, as @GoodmanHoops notes,” Kennedy wrote on X. “This may help explain his shocking college-basketball pivot to coach the Tar Heels.”
It remains to be seen just how much of a role this played in his decision to join UNC. But this will certainly give him the opportunity to stay close to his family while continuing to coach basketball at a high level.
Nuggets beat writer Bennett Durando also mentioned how Malone once missed an NBA Cup game to watch his daughter play at a state tournament.
Happy for Michael Malone. His daughter Bridget is on the UNC volleyball team and he’s her biggest fan. He even skipped an NBA Cup game a couple years ago to see her play in the state tournament. Not that he’ll have a lot of free time with this job, but a cool landing spot for him
— Bennett Durando (@BennettDurando) April 6, 2026
“Happy for Michael Malone. His daughter Bridget is on the UNC volleyball team and he’s her biggest fan. He even skipped an NBA Cup game a couple years ago to see her play in the state tournament. Not that he’ll have a lot of free time with this job, but a cool landing spot for him,” he wrote.
The two were also on the cover of the “Mile High Sports Magazine” in March 2025.
Malone does not have any head-coaching experience in collegiate basketball, but did work as an assistant coach at Oakland, Providence, and Manhattan before joining the NBA in 2001 with the New York Knicks.
After holding several scouting and coaching roles in the NBA, Malone received his first head coaching opportunity with the Sacramento Kings in 2013. He was fired 18 months later and then became the Denver Nuggets’ head coach.
Malone enjoyed a memorable decade-long stint as the Nuggets’ head coach and helped them win the NBA championship in 2023. This will be his first coaching job since leaving the Nuggets in 2025.
It will be interesting to see how Malone adapts to college basketball and all that comes with it, including recruiting, player development, and NIL. But Malone is a shrewd coach who is more than capable of turning the tide at UNC and making the program a force again.
The Tar Heels’ job will also give Malone a chance to become only the second coach in history to win the NBA championship and an NCAA Tournament national championship after Hall of Famer Larry Brown.
