So this is interesting: former Duke greats Jason Williams and Grant Hill disagree about whether UNC is still a Blue Blood or not. Both of them grew up Carolina fans before they developed more refined taste, incidentally.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Williams argues that UNC is no longer a Blue Blood, that they\u2019ve fallen off for too long. Hill counters that UNC has won a championship more recently than has Duke, and has been to a championship game more recently too, both of which are undeniably true.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
It\u2019s an interesting question, really.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
The traditional Blue Bloods – a stupid term, by the way – are roughly this:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
- \n
- Duke<\/span><\/li>\n
- UNC<\/span><\/li>\n
- Kentucky<\/span><\/li>\n
- Kansas<\/span><\/li>\n
- Indiana<\/span><\/li>\n
- UCLA<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n
\nA more contemporary list is closer to this:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\n- \n
- Duke<\/span><\/li>\n
- UNC<\/span><\/li>\n
- Kentucky<\/span><\/li>\n
- Kansas<\/span><\/li>\n
- Michigan State<\/span><\/li>\n
- UConn<\/span><\/li>\n
- Gonzaga<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n
\nYou no doubt have a few schools you might like to add or subtract. The funny thing is, with the game in such flux, it really is hard to define. Take Kentucky.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\nKentucky legend Dan Issel said something truly funny the other day: when everyone is paying players, it\u2019s harder to cheat. It\u2019s funny, but there is truth to it. In fact, we were told by a former Kentucky player that Wildcat players were absolutely paid.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\nNo one knows what will happen to Kansas when Bill Self retires, but like a lot of older coaches, he\u2019s tailed off at the end of his career. In the last four years, Kansas has not made it out of the first weekend of the NCAA tournament, and they\u2019ve finished 5th, 6th, and 3rd in the Big 12 in the last three seasons – this after finishing 1st or tied for 1st for 14 straight years.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\nWhat happens when he steps down? No one knows.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\nDuke and UNC approached succession quite differently. Mike Krzyzewski and Jon Scheyer worked closely together in Coach K\u2019s final season. Scheyer won over his own recruits and built his team his way. It was an astonishing succession, nearly perfectly executed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\nIn Chapel Hill, Roy Williams stepped down and made it clear that Hubert Davis was his preferred replacement.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\nAs it turned out, Davis didn\u2019t communicate with his players very well, coached teams that were wildly erratic, and was dismissed after another yo-yo season.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\nIn his defense, losing Caleb Wilson to injuries was a fatal blow, but on the other hand, allowing him to dunk when he was still recovering from a wrist injury was just foolish (it was not the same hand, but that doesn\u2019t make it any smarter).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\nWith the Dean Smith coaching tree out of candidates, UNC hired NBA coach Michael Malone. Will he restore or keep UNC as a Blue Blood?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\nQuite possibly. He\u2019s done a decent job of identifying and acquiring talent, and he\u2019s placated the traditionalists by hiring a number of former UNC players to fill out his staff.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\nHowever, the track record of NBA coaches moving to college is not great. Fred Hoiberg has done well at Nebraska, and Larry Brown was a brilliant coach who would have succeeded anywhere, at least for a few seasons, before his wanderlust kicked in.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\nAnd Kevin Young has done well at BYU.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\nBut the list of failures is long: Isiah Thomas, Mike Dunleavy Sr., Chris Mullin, and Patrick Ewing, to name a few.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\nA big part of the reason why they failed is not as relevant anymore, and that\u2019s recruiting. You can work the portal and get a pretty good team in a hurry. At least for now, you can recruit overseas too (that may change soon with some proposed new rules).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\nBut it\u2019s also different in that you\u2019re dealing with much younger players. Duke will have a 17-year-0ld next year in Joaquim Boumtje Boumtje. A lot of freshmen are 17.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\nMalone is used to dealing with people who, for the most part, are reliable professionals in their 20s and 30s. It\u2019s going to be fascinating to see how he goes from being, for lack of a better comparison, a manager to a teacher.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\nIf he succeeds, the question will be answered. If he does not succeed, the question is much more pressing for UNC. And keep in mind that in the recent past, Indiana, Kentucky, and UNC all had coaching searches. All swung for the fences, assuming that their history would sway an accomplished college coach.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\nIt didn\u2019t work for any of them.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\nSo perhaps we should consider this an open question for the near future.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\nGo to the DBR Boards<\/a> to find Blue Healer Auctions<\/em> || Drop us a line<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"So this is interesting: former Duke greats Jason Williams and Grant Hill disagree about whether UNC is still a Blue<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31744,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_animmysite_disable_animation":false,"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/platform.dukebasketballreport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2026\/05\/gettyimages-2205147050.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C10.741124221823%2C100%2C78.517751556354&w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[213],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31743","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trending-sports-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/trendifyhubusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31743","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/trendifyhubusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/trendifyhubusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trendifyhubusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trendifyhubusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31743"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/trendifyhubusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31743\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trendifyhubusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31744"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/trendifyhubusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trendifyhubusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trendifyhubusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
- UNC<\/span><\/li>\n
- UNC<\/span><\/li>\n