Former UNC player and member of the 1993 national championship team Scott Cherry will be announced as the head coach at High Point University on Thursday. Cherry has spent the last season as Darin Horn's top assistant at SCAR. Prior to that he held the same position under Horn at Western Kentucky. When Horn left for Columbia, Cherry was considered a candidate for the WKU job but ultimately followed Horn to SCAR. In 2006, Cherry was an assistant on the George Mason team that knock off UNC and went to the Final Four. Now, Cherry will get his own head coaching job.
Cherry was always a fan favorite and nearly caused [UNNAMED FORMER ANALYST] to lose his mind late in the 2nd half of the title game versus Michigan in 1993. Dean Smith inserted Cherry into a close game for about a minute in an effort to secure some extra rest for some of his starters for the stretch run. [UFA] was incredulous saying it was a huge risk and heavily criticized the gamble by Dean. Turns out it worked. Cherry did not make any mistakes and UNC ultimately won the game.
It will be interesting to watch Cherry's career. Players who spend more time on the bench sitting beside great coaches tend to succeed as coaches themselves. This was the case for Dean Smith and we certainly hope this will be the case for Cherry.