When Mitch Barnhart was desperately searching for John Calipari's replacement, one of the absolute dream scenarios for Big Blue Nation was prying Billy Donovan away from the Chicago Bulls.
The problem? Donovan made it explicitly clear that he would not engage in contract discussions with any college program until his NBA season officially concluded.
In the modern era of college basketball, waiting until late April or May to hire a head coach is roster suicide. The Transfer Portal calendar waits for no man, and it opens tomorrow.
Because of that intense timeline, Kentucky was forced into what many considered a panic hire, landing on Mark Pope after missing out on Dan Hurley, Scott Drew, and not wanting to wait for the Bulls season to end.
Now, just a couple of years later, the North Carolina Tar Heels have found themselves staring down the exact same barrel. And they are about to make an incredibly similar gamble.
After firing Hubert Davis, UNC naturally set its sights on Donovan, too.
But with the portal opening tomorrow and Donovan refusing to talk until after the Bulls' season once again, reports are rapidly swirling that the Tar Heels are now hiring former Denver Nuggets head coach Michael Malone.
It is a fascinating parallel to the Mark Pope hire, but the ultimate question is: will it actually work out?
The Mark Pope mixed bag
When Kentucky pulled the trigger on Pope, the criticisms were immediate and entirely valid. They hired a coach with zero career NCAA Tournament wins and no track record of recruiting 5-star high school talent, outside of Collin Chandler. And Chandler had the BYU connection because of his faith.
Pope was hired strictly to build an immediate roster through the transfer portal and implement a modern offense. And so far, the results have been a massive mixed bag.
On one hand, Pope proved he can coach Xs and Os at a high level. In year one, he secured a record eight wins against AP Top 15 opponents and managed to navigate the roster to the Sweet 16. That is the proof of concept that shows Mark Pope can actually coach and win at a high level.
But on the other hand, the lows have been incredibly jarring. Being soundly booed off the court against Gonzaga is not something I can really remember. Follow that up with the absolute 20-turnover embarrassment that eliminated the Wildcats against Iowa State this year, and the fanbase is already heavily divided on whether the "panic hire" was actually the right move.
Yes Mark Pope loves Kentucky, and Kentucky loves Mark Pope the person. But the coach is still being evaluated.
The Michael Malone experiment
Now, UNC is stepping up to the roulette wheel. By hiring Michael Malone, the Tar Heels are definitely proving that blue-blood athletic directors are absolutely terrified of waiting. They do not want to hire a coach after the Portal is open. And I understand that. If Donovan says no, and they wait, then what option would they have?
They would rather hire a wildcard immediately than wait a month. To Malone's credit, his resume carries significantly more weight than Pope's did. Malone is a proven NBA Champion who literally built the Nuggets into a juggernaut. He commands immediate respect when he walks into a living room.
But coaching Nikola Jokic is vastly different than convincing a 19-year-old transfer guard from a mid-major to accept a specific NIL package. Or sit in the living room of a high school recruit and convince them UNC is the place to be.
Malone has not coached at the college level since he was an assistant at Manhattan in 2001. He has never had to navigate the chaotic waters of the transfer portal, NIL collectives, or the modern AAU recruiting circuit. That is a big danger.
North Carolina is betting that Malone's championship pedigree will instantly translate to college basketball's wild west. But as Kentucky fans have quickly learned with Mark Pope, when you let the transfer portal calendar dictate your coaching search, the results are rarely a smooth ride.