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UNC Basketball: Former Tar Heels reunite on new coaching staff

By Blake Cockrum

CHAPEL HILL, NC - FEBRUARY 20: Assistant coach C.B. McGrath of the North Carolina Tar Heels directs players during their game against the Miami Hurricanes at the Dean Smith Center on February 20, 2016 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. North Carolina won 96-71. (Photo by Grant Halverson/Getty Images)
CHAPEL HILL, NC - FEBRUARY 20: Assistant coach C.B. McGrath of the North Carolina Tar Heels directs players during their game against the Miami Hurricanes at the Dean Smith Center on February 20, 2016 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. North Carolina won 96-71. (Photo by Grant Halverson/Getty Images) /
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A pair of former Tar Heels have reunited on the Cincinnati Bearcats’ bench.

Cincinnati Bearcats first-year head coach Wes Miller announced on Wednesday morning that C.B. McGrath would be hired as a special assistant to the team for the 2021-22 college basketball season. Details of the contract have not been released, but McGrath is the latest in a flurry of hirings that saw its staff — Miller, Mike Roberts, Chad Dollar and Andre Morgan — grow by seven on June 1.

McGrath’s last work on the basketball court was as head coach at UNC-Wilmington where he compiled a 26-58 record in three seasons from 2017 to 2020. McGrath was fired in January 2020 following a 5-14 start to the 2019-20 season that included an 0-6 mark in Colonial Athletic Association play.

Prior to his time as a head coach, McGrath worked under UNC legend and three-time national title-winner Roy Williams (Kansas 1999-2003, North Carolina 2003-2017). McGrath, a former player under Williams at the University of Kansas, was an assistant at North Carolina during Wes Miller’s four-year stint in Chapel Hill after transferring from James Madison following his freshman season. Both were part of the Tar Heels’ 2005 team that brought Williams his first national championship.

Miller put together a record of 185-135 in 10 seasons as head coach of the UNC-Greensboro Spartans. He won at least 21 games in each of his last five seasons, and his teams had four first-place finishes in the Southern Conference during his tenure there. He took UNC-Greensboro to the NCAA Tournament twice, the most recent being during the 2021-22 season. The 13th-seeded Spartans lost to the No. 4 Florida State Seminoles in the Round of 64, though the game wasn’t decided until the closing moments of the second half.

Now, the former Tar Heels will once again team up in hopes of taking the Bearcats and their revamped coaching staff into a new era.

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