Pat Sullivan’s hire means all the boys are back in town.
The Tar Heels’ new head of player development on Hubert Davis’ staff is a great hire in several ways.
First, it completes Davis’ pledge to form a staff who all played for Carolina in the Dean Smith and Roy Williams eras. Second, it speaks to giving recruits and players sound advice about what it takes to make the NBA. Third, after all, Sullivan has 18 years in the league.
He was one of three mistakes Matt Doherty made in the summer of 2000 when he took over and brought all three assistants with him from his one season at Notre Dame. Doherty has admitted such in his recent book, not retaining at least one or two from Bill Guthridge’s bench of Sullivan, Phil Ford sand Dave Hanners.
As the pup in the trio, with Ford and Hanners who are now well into retirement, Sullivan is not yet 50 and has worked for a handful of NBA coaches including Larry Brown. Long-time fan Bret Dougherty (no relation to Matt) calls Sullivan a “solid advance scout, one of the best X and O and film guys around. The bridge and the glue.”
Sullivan wasn’t a great player by any means, but Dean Smith gave him his ultimate backhanded compliment of being “fundamentally sound.” Sullivan personifies why most star players don’t go on to be successful head coaches; the reserves had more time to watch and study.
So Hubert’s latest hire along with another great X and O guy, Jeff Lebo, will bring a new experience in how to play and join Brad Frederick and Sean May from Roy’s staff to take Carolina’s talent and maximize it. In some ways, Sullivan will be like Hubert was, understated and deferring to the head coach while giving input.
But the staff Davis has put together has the one common bond. They know the history of the program and worked under the three Hall of Fame coaches (now that Guthridge is in the assistants HOF), and they have the experience coaching and watching others at different schools and at the next level.
They can bring all that to their Tar Heels and try to build a team of which their iconic coaching mentors would be proud.
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