UNC’s new coach Michael Malone shares ties to a past outsider

North Carolina decided to go outside the Carolina family to hire former NBA coach Michael Malone.

It was a drastic move, given that every coach hired since Dean Smith in 1961 either had direct ties to the program or was a former Tar Heel player. That’s 65 years of staying in-house. The last time UNC hired someone with no connection to the school was in 1952. Dwight Eisenhower was president, Queen Elizabeth II had just begun her reign, and the ACC didn’t even exist yet — a reminder of how long ago that was.

That coach was Frank McGuire, a rising star who had already built a successful program at St. John’s. Malone and McGuire have a lot in common, and it’s worth highlighting their similarities.

Here are a few of them.

Both Had Success at their Previous Stops

Jun 12, 2023; Denver, Colorado, USA; Denver Nuggets head coach Michael Malone celebrates after the Nuggets won the NBA championship by defeating the Miami Heat in game five of the 2023 NBA Finals at Ball Arena. Mandatory Credit: Isaiah J. Downing-USA TODAY Sports

Both had success at their previous stops.

Like Malone, McGuire had success at St. John’s, where he compiled a 102-36 record with two NIT semifinal appearances — when the NIT was as big as the NCAA Tournament — and a national runner-up finish in 1952. The team that beat the Redmen in the NCAA title game? Kansas, which had Dean Smith on the roster.

Malone spent 12 seasons as an NBA head coach with the Sacramento Kings and Denver Nuggets, compiling a 510-394 record. He went 39-67 in a little more than one season in Sacramento before taking over in Denver, where he coached 10 seasons and went 471-327, winning the franchise’s first NBA championship in 2023, reaching the conference finals twice and the conference semifinals five times.

Both are the ultimate outsiders

Feb 1970; Unknown location, USA; FILE PHOTO; North Carolina former head coach Frank McGuire (left) talks on air with NBC announcer Curt Gowdy report from a game.. Mandatory Credit: Malcolm Emmons-USA TODAY Sports

Aside from his daughter being a member of UNC’s volleyball team, Malone has virtually no connection to the university, other than briefly coaching Antawn Jamison and Danny Green for less than a quarter of a season. He has not coached at the college level in more than 25 years, with his last stop coming at Manhattan, a mid-major program.

McGuire was an even bigger outsider than Malone, especially considering the era in which he was first hired. While the idea of a UNC “family” did not exist then, McGuire still stood out.

For starters, McGuire was a brash Irish Catholic from New York taking over at a Southern university with a predominantly Baptist community — in the 1950s, no less. He further cemented his outsider status by bringing in players from New York City, many of whom were Catholic or Jewish. That did not sit well with opposing crowds around the ACC at the time, and they often faced prejudice.

However, winning solves everything, and Malone has the chance to do that. Just ask McGuire, who helped guide the Tar Heels to their first national championship in 1957.

Both are New Yorkers

UNC basketball coach Michael Malone during his first press conference inside the Smith Center on Tuesday, April 7, 2026.

Isn’t it ironic that Malone and McGuire — the only two non-family members to be hired as head coach at Carolina — are both from New York?

McGuire, the son of a police officer, grew up in a working-class Irish American family in Hell’s Kitchen. Malone, the son of former NBA coach Brendan Malone, is originally from Queens.

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This article originally appeared on Tar Heels Wire: UNC Basketball: Michael Malone and Frank McGuire's shared path