The North Carolina Tar Heels ended the Hubert Davis era in Chapel Hill on Tuesday night, firing the 55-year-old after five seasons at the helm with a 125-54 record. Now, UNC's search begins for a true Roy Williams replacement who can win titles in the northeast-central region of North Carolina.
Could retired Auburn Tigers head coach Bruce Pearl be a suitable replacement for the seat after retiring from his head coaching seat at AU last September?
Well, yes, he could, in theory. But how realistic is it?
Bruce Pearl is still on Auburn's payroll
Pearl is still an employee of Auburn University's athletic department as Special Assistant to the Athletics Director and an ambassador of AU. Giving up that seat would be awkward, to say the least. It'd also rub Tiger fans the wrong way. Especially after the way he handed his son Steven the basketball program, potentially knowing this roster didn't have enough talent to contend with the most difficult schedule in the country this past season.
Pearl knocked off UNC in the 2019 Sweet 16, the first major upset of Auburn's unlikely run to the Final Four. Later, he gave Walker Kessler a chance and turned him into a successful NBA-caliber talent, stealing him from the Tar Heels. To see Pearl turn around and take the money to join a team he "owned" would be disappointing.
Surely, North Carolina is ready to invest in its next head coach. With the Bill Belichick football program crashing and burning, basketball is still the king in Chapel Hill. They'd throw the bag at Pearl in a second.
It's just about whether he would take it. The Tar Heels offer unlimited resources and the chance for Bruce to win his first Division I title. Does Bruce use his current commentating gig as the off-ramp to coaching at Auburn and the on-ramp to coach at a program with more win-now potential?
Bruce Pearl is all about sharing his opinion right now. Not coaching.
Pearl is a pundit now. Mostly, a political one.
Whether it's embarrassingly politicking for Steven's underperforming Tigers to make the NCAA Tournament on CBS airwaves or even more embarrassingly politicking for a war abroad to solely benefit a foreign nation, it doesn't seem like Bruce wants to coach at this point.
That could change in the future, especially if a scandal reveals something ugly that Auburn fans previously didn't know about how his program was being run. There's no inkling of anything truly nefarious popping up, outside of Bruce's very obvious, blatant nepotism to hand his son his job. Most saw that coming before it happened, though.
For now, cross Bruce off your UNC hotboards. He'd more likely return for an opportunity like the Indiana Hoosiers to make IU a basketball school again.