In case you missed the news over the weekend, Buzz Peterson has left Appalachian State, traveled about 300 miles down U.S. 421, and landed as the new head coach at UNC-Wilmington. Peterson had a successful return in his one-year stint back in Boone, leading the Mountaineers to a 24-12 record.
Peterson is taking some internet grief for turning into a coaching nomad like fellow Tar Heel Larry Brown, as this is his sixth job since 2000 – App State, Tulsa (one year), Tennessee, Coastal Carolina, App State (one year), and now UNCW, plus two years in basketball operations with the Charlotte Bobcats. Wilmington would seem to be a lateral move at best, but the Seahawks showed Peterson the money with a deal guaranteed at $435,000 the first season, compared to $177,500 at ASU.
Peterson was expected to bring Jason Capel, who was on the staff in Boone, with him to UNCW but multiple outlets are reporting that Appalachian State will name Capel to replace Peterson. This hire is somewhat bizarre because Capel has exactly one season of experience as a college basketball coach, which was this past season as Peterson’s assistant at App.
Capel, of course, has a special place in the heart of UNC fans as being the poster child for the 2001-02 UNC meltdown season. He also took some (undeserved) flack for supporting his brother rather than his alma mater in the NCAA tournament in 2009. Capel barely had a cup of coffee in the NBA before bouncing overseas and playing in the D-League, later trying some broadcasting for two years before joining Peterson and the Mountaineers.
If anyone can get UNCW back on track, it’s Buzz Peterson, who seems to thrive in this type of environment. Capel is a different story – ASU AD Charlie Cobb, who by many accounts is a junior Ron Wellman in his AD prowess, is taking a huge risk in hiring a 30 year-old with less than a year’s experience. Maybe Cobb is following Wellman in head-scratching basketball hiring decisions.
With Jeff Lebo at ECU, that means three of the non-ACC Division I basketball schools in North Carolina have Tar Heels at the helm. Good luck to all three.
Update[THF]: Billy Packer’s favorite Tar Heel, Scott Cherry is the head coach at High Point. That means there are five Division I basketball teams in NC with a UNC product running the show: UNC, High Point, ECU, UNCW and Appalachian St.
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I’m super excited to see Buzz end up down here in Wilmington. I might actually go watch some Seahawk games now.
I hope things work out for Capel. He might be the poster child for 8-20, but without him we might have been 0-28. I think he did as much as he could with what he had. And I’ll tell you right now that I’d support my brother any day of the week before I’d support a school. Of course, my bro is a Tar Heel too, so I guess that would be easy for me
I thought Jason Capel would be a coach some day – maybe this is a little sooner than I thought, but I wish him well.
I was as down on Jason as anyone when he got to UNC. He seemed to have a hard time “getting” that he wasn’t THE Man anymore like in HS, but I’ll tell you that family is as good as gold, and if the App job isn’t anything more than good karma paying off, it’s spot on. Good luck Jason & Buzz!
Best of luck to Jason Capel, but that is one risky hire. So much for my fellow state fans thinking Charlie Cobb is the clear best choice to replace Fowler some day(someday soon, please, for the love of God). But then again, maybe it will work out and he’ll look like a genius. Nah.
This move makes Wellman’s hire of that consonant guy look more sane, at least. The coaching carousel is entertaining if nothing else – it’s more fun when your own team is not involved.
I guess money talks. Can’t blame Buzz, but UNC-W is not any better than App State. In fact, it is a step down in my opinion as far as basketball programs go. Maybe it will be easier to recruit guys to the beach than the mountains, though. I don’t know about Capel taking over for Buzz. I guess Capel comes from a family of coaching, though, so we’ll see.
Maybe Capel can hire Kris Lang, Marcus Ginyard, and Deon Thompson as his assistants. Somehow that seems fitting……
^I think the UNC-W job is a very small step up from App. The CAA is more competitive than the Southern Conference and traditionally has had more tourney success than the southern conference (outside of Davidson’s Curry days). I think Buzz will do well there.
“but UNC-W is not any better than App State. In fact, it is a step down in my opinion as far as basketball programs go”
Yeah ASU’s 2 NCAAT appearances vs. UNC-W 4 NCAAT appearances, and ASU playing in 1 bid league like the Southern conference vs. the CAA which has gotten multiple bids on occasions, plus ASU paying less than $200K for a head coach of a DI program definitely makes it a slam dunk as being a better program or job than UNC-W……..
question is, would we want buzz as a future unc coach? what if he continues his record for jumping ship?
uncw isn’t that big a step up from asu, i could see him jumping after one year if it were a more prestigious school.
Long time reader, first time posting. I moved from Goldsboro, NC in June, 2000 to Tulsa, OK – lifetime Heel fan. Up until last October, TarHeelBlue.com was my main source for Heel info. (I don’t get much out here on ESPN) But this is an amazing site for all sorts of Heel stuff! I love your site THF! Sorry for getting off the subject of this particular thread, but I thought since I decided to create a name on here, I might as well say something!
“question is, would we want buzz as a future unc coach?”
No, unless someone steps it up big time in the next 5 years, Roy will be the last of the Dean family tree to be the Head Coach in Chapel Hill. Carolina tried the second tier of the family tree before and it was an utter failure, the best coach available should be hired by UNC when Roy retires and that person will most likely come from outside the Dean Smith coaching tree.
How many people think Phil Ford was working up the college coaching tree until his DUI problems? I even remember Dean recommending him to Texas before they hired Barnes. Ford’s making big bucks as an assistant in the NBA right now, but part of me thinks at some point he’ll come back to Chapel Hill, either as an assistant or just as an unofficial “advisor.”
I’d love to see Phil Ford back as an assistant with us. After all, Steve Robinson isn’t looking any younger!
Buzz Peterson won’t be the next coach. We’re looking at, say, 2019-20, IMO. Of all the current coaches in the Family Tree, Scott Cherry would appear (right now) a likely candidate. He is in his mid-thirties right now, and should be hitting his prime around the time Roy retires.
Still, to coach at UNC you need to recruit while not getting caught up in the dirt of the AAU circuit. Don’t think for a second that the NCAA won’t be sharpening their lenses to focus on whoever the new coach is. The pressure will be on to win from day one. If the new coach isn’t careful, a dark cloud could blanket Chapel Hill.
Other than Scott Cherry, does anyone think that Bobby Frasor will be in the coaching ranks by then? I would love to see Coach Frasor take over for Roy…it’s all hypothetical right now, but it’s fun to think about.
i’ve been saying Bobby Frasor for more than a year now.
I’d hope you’re right DF, but Roy will be in his late sixties at that point. Most coaches are done by that point. I think that even if Bobby were to quit his basketball career today and go into coaching, he’d be in his early thirties in 09/10 and probably wouldn’t be ready. I wonder if the next guy is on the bench now in either Hasse or McGrath.
Brad Stevens is how old? not that concerned about age as much as ability. some guy named Dean Smith wasnt all that aged.
Brad Stevens is a wonderful coach, but being taking on the Butler job at that age and taking on UNC at that age are two different animals. The media attention and expectations at completely different. Dean is great and I love Dean, but Dean had struggles when he took on the job, but had a long enough leash to become a great coach and in turn a legend. The scrutiny now is such that if you don’t make it work out immediately you won’t have much time to get your feet under you. Bobby is playing ball now and me be doing so for the next handful of years. That’s great and I’m happy he’s able to continue his playing life, but it’s not training to take on a challenge like the head seat at UNC. Also, after the Doherty experience, the AD is unlikely to go to what would likely be an unknown quantity at that point. That said I wouldn’t mind seeing coach Frasor on the bench in the future.
bobby is the son of a coach, and Roy said he always knew where the guys were supposed to be. he has a sense of humor, and a competitive streak.
i could be wrong, but i think he could do it. 12 years from now. bobby will be 35. Roy will be 72.
“some guy named Dean Smith wasnt all that aged.”
True, but Dean’s records his first 5 years were:
8-9
15-16
12-12
15-9
16-11
I’m not saying that that was a result of his age, but it is pretty safe to say that he probably would not have made it to year six if his first year coaching UNC was 2011, as opposed to 1961…
“bobby is the son of a coach, and Roy said he always knew where the guys were supposed to be. he has a sense of humor, and a competitive streak.
i could be wrong, but i think he could do it. 12 years from now. bobby will be 35. Roy will be 72.”
yeah, Roy won’t coach till 72, but maybe John Kuester as a bridge?
^If Roy coached until he was 72 and continued his average for his first 7 years at UNC (28 wins/yr) then he would finish the 2021-22 season with 950 wins. This would rank him 2nd All-time, behind K, who if he coaches up until the season before he turns 72 and continues his average of the last 7 years (29 wins/yr), would have 1100 wins.
Like 52, I don’t see either of them coaching much past 65.
I like Bobby Frasor, but I have to agree with sc11 – commitment to the “tree” hurt us once. Is there another coach on our “tree” that’s Roy’s caliber? Do you see any with that potential even? Remember, Dean came off the Kansas “tree.” When it’s time for a new coach (hopefully not for many years), maybe the powers that be shouldn’t be too worried about whose “tree” the candidate is coming from.
Well, if we’re talking Kansas/UNC trades, Coach Self is what, 45? 10-12 years from now he’ll still be younger than Roy is now.
I think it is safe to say that the UNC position is one that,as a head coach, you retire on. Kentucky, UCLA, and maybe Dook. I’m not sure the lure of east coast media coverage would be easy for a coach like Self to resist. Throw in the NCAA’s most marketable program, tradition, and Chapel Hill…well, everyone knows where this is going.
While it is impressive that a crop of coaches were able to keep Kansas at the forefront of the college game the past 25 years, it takes nothing short of an elite coach to keep them there. The campus is smack-dab in the middle of the country and St. Louis is the closest big city. Kansas just seems to have to earn every scrap of attention they get. Dook, by contrast, are ESPN fodder whether they are winning titles or bowing out early in the NCAAT.
UNC vs. Kansas…will it come to that? Does anyone think that Self would be in contention? Would we want him? Jay Wright is another coach who comes to mind, be he seems pretty intent on staying at Villanova…but then again, he wasn’t offered a coaching job at UNC.
^My intent wasn’t to suggest Self as the next UNC coach, it was simply to bring up the point that we have, in the distant past, hired coaches who didn’t have previous connections to our program. BTW, Self is 45.