CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — For the first time in more than 70 years, North Carolina starts a basketball season with a head coach who never played or coached for the program before. Michael Malone, the former Denver Nuggets coach, leads the Tar Heels into Monday’s opener against Western Carolina at the Smith Center, with tipoff at 7 p.m. on ACC Network.
Malone was hired April 7 as the 21st head coach at UNC. He spent 12 seasons as an NBA head coach, won the 2023 title with Denver and is the Nuggets’ all-time winningest coach, finishing with a 510-394 regular-season record and 44-36 in the playoffs. The last outsider to take over in Chapel Hill was Frank McGuire in 1952.
He inherits a mostly new roster. The Tar Heels have 11 newcomers among 16 players, and forward Jarin Stevenson is the only returning starter from a 24-9 team. It is the first time since 2019-20 that no returning Tar Heel averaged double figures. Media picked UNC fifth in the ACC preseason poll.
The exhibitions showed both promise and problems. UNC beat Southern California 88-70 in Greensboro, lost 76-58 to Indiana and edged Charlotte 89-82 in overtime, but it trailed at halftime in all three and gave up 20 offensive rebounds at Indiana. Guard Terrence Brown scored 27 against Charlotte. Fens, a 7-foot center, is still sidelined as a legal fight over his eligibility works through Tennessee courts.
Western Carolina, in its third season under Tim Craft, returns only four players and was picked eighth of 11 in the Southern Conference. Forward Samuel Dada averaged 7.6 rebounds last season, a test for a UNC frontcourt that has struggled on the boards.
History is on Carolina’s side: the Tar Heels are 104-12 in openers, have won 21 openers in a row and carry a 24-game winning streak in home openers. Monday begins a six-game homestand, the first time UNC has opened a season with six in a row at home.
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