Dusty May and Nate Oats should have UNC basketball rethinking its blue blood authority

Dusty May and Michigan are headed to the national championship game in one of the most dominant NCAA Tournament runs in recent history. The Wolverines stomped Arizona to reach the national title game for the first time since 2018 May’s quick turnaround of the Wolverines basketball program also shows the changing of the guard, and proves that the traditional college basketball blue bloods aren’t the same as they once were.

The same can be said about what Nate Oats has built at Alabama. Duke, Kansas and Michigan State are still powerhouses, but UNC has fallen off. Michigan and Alabama have entered the conversation and the Tar Heels have to figure out where to go from here. Carolina thought Hubert Davis was the answer, and he ended up getting fired.

Advertisement

The next coach the Tar Heels turn to doesn’t just have the pressure of returning UNC back to the top of the ACC and NCAA Tournament contender. They’ll also have the pressure of getting this program its confidence back, because right now, it sure seems like the landscape is shifting under their feet.

Why you can’t blame Dusty May and Nate Oats for turning down UNC

For the same reason you can’t blame a lot of the coaches that took themselves out of consideration for the Alabama job when Nick Saban retired, you can’t blame May or Oats for passing up on UNC now. Everything May and Oats can do at UNC, they can also do at Bama and Michigan. The blue blood status is similar to the SEC brand in football: It used to be enough to move the needle and monopolize recruiting, but not anymore.

UNC is a good job, but it’s not as attractive as it once was. The transfer portal and NIL leveled the playing field, allowing other schools to flip their rosters and make runs at talent if they were willing to pay, which is why new teams have worked their way into the blue-blood fold. What makes a blue blood team now? Are the traditional ones still as good in the transfer portal era as they were before it?

VCU Rams guard Nyk Lewis (1) goes to the…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/dusty-may-nate-oats-unc-022755420.html

Author :

Publish date : 2026-04-06 02:27:00

Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.