If there's anyone who knows what it takes to be successful at North Carolina, no one can argue with the fact that Tyler Hansbrough has a great idea on things. Fans haven't forgotten about his legendary playing days in Chapel Hill and neither has he.
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At the same time, it's no question eating Hansbrough that North Carolina isn't even coming close to the same success the program was having while he was on campus. We all saw the loss to VCU in truly disgusting fashion.
Hansbrough himself was livid with that performance and he knows changes need to be made. However, it's not that he wants Hubert Davis fired. He made it quite clear he's not advocating for that. With that said, Hansbrough wants to see UNC be a bit smarter in the transfer portal. So, how can Carolina do that?
Tyler Hansbrough is ready for UNC to make needed changes for the program
“When I look over the years, I think we’ve had some portal misses,” Hansbrough said. “We’ve had some big misses and we’ve paid a lot of money for some guys who really haven’t lived up to what we thought they would be. You’ve got to be able to scout the portal and other teams better. I would actually approach it more like an NBA-type setting where you have a GM. First of all we have a GM who’s making a significant amount of money, but then you can have a scouting team below him that goes and scouts to these different games, looks at players and is in contact with the coaches to evaluate the players they think fit in to our system, our program, our needs, and then you have the GM who comes in and says, ‘okay this is what we can offer this guy,’ and the GM would be pretty much in the know of what the market value is for certain portal guys.
“I think that’s the big issue right now with the portal overall. We’re not getting a good evaluation of what’s a good market value for certain players. When you pay ridiculous amounts for one-year guys, it just throws the market value off. We have no clue because there’s no regulations or kind of structure around the portal or NIL in general. Those are the kinds of changes I would make.”
Tell us how you really feel, Tyler. It's easy to agree with him too. There simply has to be a better structure in place when it comes to the transfer portal, as there indeed have been way too many misses there. It's not all on Jim Tanner, as he needs some help. So does Davis. Fellow UNC legend Justin Jackson seems to agree with things too.
UNC great Justin Jackson is ready for UNC to improve its transfer portal efforts
“To Tyler’s point, we didn’t hit at all in the transfer portal the year before,” Jackson said. “So, we came out and it was almost like whatever big names are out there, let’s just throw a big net out, offer as much as they think that they should get and then boom, we should be good as opposed to okay, this guy may not fit around Caleb Wilson and Henri Veesaar. If that’s who you’re going to build around, then build everything else around it and find people that fit. It might not be the biggest name.”
There's something not clicking for North Carolina and its portal efforts. It's up in the air if Davis sticks around, but if he does, changes 100 percent need to be made to help evaluate the best talent. The Tar Heels and Tanner would be wise to listen to Hansbrough and Jackson here.