After firing Hubert Davis, the North Carolina Tar Heels are now in need of a new head coach. As their search begins, several major candidates are already in the rumor mill. One former Tar Heel might be flying under the radar as a strong option.
Jerry Stackhouse is no stranger to the Tar Heels. He was an All-American in his sophomore season with UNC while leading them to the Final Four in 1994-95.
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His NC basketball roots go even further back than that. As a native of Kinston, NC, Stackhouse hails from a city often viewed as “Basketball Heaven.”
Known for producing loads of NBA talent, a long list of players including Stackhouse, Brandon Ingram and Cedric Maxwell started their basketball journey in Kinston.
Stackhouse went on to become a two-time NBA All-Star and averaged a blistering 29.8 points per game for the Detroit Pistons in the 2000-01 season.
His experience in the pros is deep, and what Stackhouse may offer that other UNC alumni won’t provide is an identity change.
He’s spent years working in the NBA as an assistant coach for several teams. As a current assistant for the Golden State Warriors, he would bring a broader appeal to recruits, who may favor Stackhouse given his experience at the professional level.
He could completely reshape the identity and culture of the Tar Heels, who have struggled to produce elite-level NBA talent in recent years. He’s been the head coach of the Toronto Raptors’ G-League team and was an assistant with the Raptors and Memphis Grizzlies before joining the Warriors.
At the college level, Stackhouse was the head coach for Vanderbilt from 2019-2024, albeit with limited success. It would be fair to argue that those five seasons aren’t a great sample size to draw a conclusion about his coaching ability at the college level, especially considering his longtime coaching stint in the NBA.
If hired, Stackhouse could even bring on his former high school and college teammate Jeff McInnis as an assistant coach.
McInnis earned All-ACC honors twice while helping Stackhouse lead UNC to the Final Four. He went on to play 11 seasons in the NBA and has been an assistant coach at the College of Charleston for the last two seasons before he parted ways with the team in December. McInnis is highly respected in the AAU world given his success with Team Charlotte as well as winning Coach of the Year honors in 2015.
The Tar Heels have been heavily out-recruited by its crosstown rival, Duke, since Jon Scheyer‘s hiring in 2022. Stackhouse’s name carries major weight, both in the state of North Carolina as well as nationally.
Stackhouse’s resume for the role may look a lot different than many of the other candidates, but that could be exactly what sets him apart as someone that could reshape the Tar Heels culture.
What story would be better than a Tar Heel legend returning to lead them back to the Final Four?
James Parker and Brandon Williams contributed to this story.
