UNC basketball coach Michael Malone opens up on new roster, biggest challenges
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Michael Malone gave his first press conference in five months Tuesday at UNC. As he spoke, 10 feet away on his right, large photos of Dean Smith and Roy Williams looked over the proceedings — stark reminders of the standards you’re held to when you’re hired as North Carolina’s men’s basketball coach.
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Malone is still new enough to his new job that he and his wife have yet to settle on a house to buy in Chapel Hill. But he’s been on the job long enough now to create his initial roster and to get a strong sense of the “Wild, Wild West” element of college sports.
“What is strange about college athletics is that it seems like the rules change every day, like literally every day,” Malone said. “And so that is the hardest part. The transfer portal, recruiting, all those things, I had a good idea what that was going to entail, having been in college before going to the NBA 25 years ago. But the fact that there are rules that change every single day — I think I’m speaking just for myself, for all coaches, that makes it kind of hard.”
No one said this job was going to be easy, of course. Malone sounded like he was thriving on the work, although he added that he had to “train my eyes” because he was so used to looking at NBA-level players rather than college ones after a coaching lifetime spent at the top level of the game (where he won an NBA championship with the Denver Nuggets).
“You’ve got to remember, I was in the NBA for 25 years and was a head coach for the last 12,” Malone said. “…. So, training my eyes and realizing these (possible recruiting targets) are 16-17 years old. They’re not 25-year-old NBA players with years of experience.”
Malone’s first roster — which includes 11 newcomers and five returning players (only three of whom were on scholarship a season ago) — won’t be his best at UNC. The Tar Heels lost two NBA players in Caleb Wilson and Henri Veesaar from a team that lost in the round of 64 in March at the NCAA Tournament, a defeat that precipitated the firing of former men’s head coach Hubert Davis.
But the 2026-27 version of the Tar Heels will have some scoring talent in the backcourt with players like Terrence Brown (a Utah transfer), Matt Able (an N.C. State transfer) and Neo Avdalas (a Virginia Tech transfer). UNC will also have a slew of big men who will compete for time. One of those, 7-foot South Dakota graduate transfer Cameron Fens who is a “grown-ass man” in Malone’s phrasing, remains in eligibility limbo at the moment, but is working out with the team.
“Defense is going to be the most important thing,” Malone said. “If you ask our players right now, ‘What do you guys spend a lot of time on?’ It’s defense. I’m a firm believer that defense wins championships. And for us to play the way we want to play offensively, you have to defend.”
As for his living situation, I asked Malone where he was sleeping if he still hadn’t found a place to reside permanently. I meant in general — I didn’t want him to spill his address in front of the cameras — but the coach took it as an opportunity to lighten the mood.
“You’re crazy if you think I’m gonna tell you where I live,” Malone cracked. “I don’t really want come down the elevator and see you guys in the lobby…. My wife Jocelyn is in charge of finding a house, and she must set pretty high standards because that’s been going on for a while.”
Read more UNC basketball coach Michael Malone opens up on new roster, biggest challenges
Malone also has been fulfilling his role as a volleyball dad, since his daughter Bridget plays on UNC’s team. But he’s no longer an anonymous one, as he was a year ago when he could move around the Chapel Hill campus and beyond unnoticed. When Malone and his wife drove to Davidson for a recent UNC volleyball game, as he put it, “there were Tar Heels everywhere.”
But while the NBA is all about winning and nothing else, Malone realizes that the UNC basketball head-coaching role includes gladhanding, being a general goodwill ambassador and so on.
“Unless I plan on putting on a disguise, there’s also going to be people that want to be able to talk and take a picture,” said Malone, whose team plays its home opener Nov. 2 vs. Western Carolina. “That’s something I welcome as well.”
Former UNC basketball star Antawn Jamison told me recently that one of the things that impressed him the most about Malone was that when both Jamison and LeBron James were playing for Cleveland and Malone was an assistant coach, he got after James just as much as he did the other players.
“This is when LeBron was LeBron,” Jamison said. “And some of the coaches kind of walked on eggshells when it came to LeBron. Not Coach Malone. He demanded that respect, and LeBron really paid it.”
Given that, it’s no surprise that Malone is exacting with his new players at UNC, but also is trying to ensure they know he’s on their side in the long run.
“I have challenged myself to make sure that I am being demanding, holding you accountable, but also making sure, most importantly, that our players know that I love them and I care about them,” Malone said. “Because if they don’t know that, and you’re being hard on them, well, that’s only going to go so far….
“My father (former NBA coach Brendan Malone), who passed away a little under three years ago, had a huge impact in my life,” Malone continued. “He taught me so many different things, but one of the greatest things he told me was the greatest gift I can give any player is confidence. So I try to pour love and confidence into our players every day. And you can do both: I can get on you. I can demand more from you. But I can also wrap my arm around you, so you know that I care about you, and I have your back.”
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This story was originally published September 3, 2026 at 12:11 PM.
