Yesterday, the news broke that the North Carolina Tar Heels will move on from their head coach, Hubert Davis. North Carolina was the No. 6 seed in the NCAA Tournament and led by as much as 19 in the second half, but the Tar Heels had a massive collapse and lost in the first round, prompting UNC to move on from Davis.
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Now, one of Louisville basketball’s toughest opponents will begin its head coach search, and the Cardinals got a big sigh of relief when the Tar Heels were rejected from their No. 1 choice. Brad Stevens, the Boston Celtics head coach, was one of the Tar Heels' top choices, but the NBA coach quickly turned the job down and didn’t give it much of a thought.
North Carolina swung for the fences and missed badly
Stevens is one of the top coaches in the NBA, and no one thought he would consider returning to the college level, but UNC is a blue-blood program and one of the top jobs in college basketball. Not many coaches would turn UNC down, but with the success Stevens has had at the NBA level, this one was obvious.
It was definitely worth a shot for the Tar Heels, as Stevens was formerly the coach at Butler and, with the Celtics, has a dominant 636-354 record, has finished in the top five for Coach of the Year three times, and won the NBA Championship in 2024. If UNC had been able to pull this miracle off, the Tar Heels would have been most likely to land some elite recruits and contend for a title yearly, but Stevens “already removed himself from consideration for the UNC job.”
NEWS: Brad Stevens—who was atop the list of targets—has already removed himself from consideration for the UNC job, sources told @CBSSports. No surprise of course, but notable all the same as Carolina starts its search to replace Hubert Davis.
— Matt Norlander (@MattNorlander) March 25, 2026
Story: https://t.co/CJy6517vfF
Louisville fans will watch closely who the Tar Heels are going to interview and who the hire might be. North Carolina is a powerhouse program in college basketball, and with a good coach and recruiter, they have a chance to be one of the top teams in the ACC and the nation.
So, Louisville fans are taking a sigh of relief after hearing Stevens declined, but now they will patiently wait to see who North Carolina will interview and hire. Louisville fans should hope the search drags on for a long time, as the longer the search for a head coach goes, the more likely the team is to settle.
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