He had done this before.
Roy Williams walked to midfield with the sporting director Steve Newmark present the Monday evening match ball to Michael Malone after Carolina’s 80-72 victory over Western Carolina.
It should have been a familiar feeling. Twenty-three years ago, Williams earned his first victory as Tar Heel head coach, a 90-64 rout of Old Dominion. This victory was largely about the new coach, getting used to seeing him on the sidelines and wondering what he could accomplish in Chapel Hill (the answer: three national championships and one of the greatest eras in UNC basketball history).
Starting over was different then. The new coach had a large number of returning players, including stars like Raymond Felton, Jawad Williams and Sean May. Jackie had a band. David Noel was better known as a wide receiver.
Malone didn’t inherit the same roster when he took the job this spring. At this time, the coach and most of the team members are new together. They looked like it during part of Monday night. Western Carolina had several opportunities to take the lead in the second half of the game, including missing an open layup in a one-point game and attempting a high-danger lob in the same situation a minute later.
“One thing I told our guys is right now we’re a team that takes two steps forward and three steps back,” Malone said after the win. “We can’t sustain anything. We have some really good streaks, but we can’t sustain them for long periods of time, and we have to find a way to develop those habits that will allow us to start stringing together longer streaks.”
Monday was probably the last game of the season where the main storyline was curiosity about Malone. Starting Friday against Wofford, it’s much more about how they actually play and what results that play gets rather than wondering how they will play.
Carolina basketball fans are well aware that putting too much weight on a first game in a very long season can be silly. The 2019 team was pressured by Wofford and went 16-2 in the ACC. The 2008 team trailed Davidson led by Steph Curry for most of the second half and ultimately won by just four in a game in which Tyler Hansbrough only got one field goal attempt in the second half…those Tar Heels ultimately went to the Final Four and Hansbrough won multiple National Player of the Year awards. The 2006 team needed a late basket to beat Gardner-Webb by three points and ultimately became one of the most fun Carolina teams to watch this century.
But it’s also true that in this new era of college basketball, we were fortunate to see Carolina in three exhibition games before the first regular season game. And some of the same issues – including lack of rebounding and sporadic offense – have been present in most of those games.
Some of these problems would be partially resolved by the eligibility of Cameron Fenswho continues to await authorization. But it is wrong to assume that it would solve everything immediately. As Malone said, the biggest challenge right now is developing the type of habits that will lead to more consistent play.
And at Carolina, there is always an extra layer of work. This is why it is one of the most sought-after jobs in the country, but also one of the most difficult jobs in the country. It’s not just about coaching the team. It’s about finding a way to coach the 2026 team while being part of something that dates back nearly 75 years before you arrived on the 1957 team. It’s pretty comfortable knowing that sharing the moment of your first college victory with a beloved Hall of Fame head coach is part of what makes Carolina unique. There are coaches who would be destabilized if they shared this spotlight. Malone, on the other hand, has regularly praised Williams and has also made an effort to talk about the current coaching staff as a whole rather than himself individually. One of the three key words the new coach had written in big letters outside the Tar Heel locker room is “selfless.” He tries to live it by example.
Terrence Brown was playing his first regular season game for the Tar Heels and was standing right there when Malone accepted the ball from Roy Williams. He broke out into a giant smile and enveloped Malone in a hug.
“Coming from where I come from, I haven’t been around that many great players in my life,” Brown said. “I’m learning from everyone…I’m very lucky to be a Tar Heel and be with all these fans and greats that have come here. I want to be the next person to do that.”
Maybe Monday’s victory wasn’t that big. The next six months will determine how much emphasis we place on this particular beginning.
Gn sports
