Bubba Cunningham and Steve Newmark are going big-game hunting in North Carolina basketball’s first truly open coaching search in nearly 80 years. The Tar Heels have a wishlist chalked full of the best young coaches in college basketball, a two-time national champ in Billy Donovan, and Brad Stevens even got a call.
It’s likely that UNC, still a top-five job in the entire country, will land one of its top targets, but if Dusty May, Billy Donovan, and Tommy Lloyd join Stevens and TJ Otzelberger in turning down the Tar Heels, Vanderbilt head coach Mark Byington is the ideal backup plan.
While his name is a considerable way down the list, Byington seems to be holding out hope that the call from Chapel Hill will come. The 49-year-old former UNC Wilmington guard has reportedly had a contract extension on his desk since Vanderbilt’s NCAA Tournament run came to an end in the second round against Nebraska on Saturday, but he has yet to sign it.
Context here: Mark Byington has had an extension on his desk since before the NCAA Tournament.
— Aaron Torres (@Aaron_Torres) March 26, 2026
He hasn't signed it yet.
This tweet is the Vandy administration's way of pre-emptively telling their fans: If he somehow ends up at UNC, we did everything we could to keep him. https://t.co/sRV9jPGvHt
Mark Byington is the ultimate consolation prize on the coaching carousel
The easiest assumption to make about Byington’s reluctance to re-sign with Vanderbilt is that he’s holding out hope for the UNC job, or one of the subsequent jobs that could come open as the Tar Heels fill their vacancy.
Byington doesn’t have ties to UNC, but the Salem, Virginia, native played at UNC Wilmington and has spent most of his career in the Southeast, including stints as an assistant in the ACC at Virginia and Virginia Tech. Taking the Commodores to back-to-back NCAA Tournaments after leaving James Madison, Byington has emerged as one of the hot up-and-coming coaches in college basketball, and for most jobs that aren’t UNC, he’d be a home run hire.
If the UNC coaching search gets to Byington, something has gone terribly wrong for the Tar Heels. Still, his hesitance to lock down a deal in Nashville provides some measure of comfort, knowing that the Tar Heels would not have to pay a considerable buyout to pry him away from Vanderbilt.
More likely, however, whichever program loses its head coach to UNC, presumably Arizona or Michigan, would then be able to consider Byington for its vacancy. In a potentially wild coaching carousel, Byington has positioned himself as the ultimate consolation prize, and that’s not a bad spot to be.
Then, if UNC goes the Donovan route, plucking him out of the NBA, Byington can stay at Vandy and secure a significant extension and a nice raise.