North Carolina Basketball Adds General Manager While NCAA Tournament Hopes Hang in Balance
UNC has made a big move by hiring Jim Tanner as the men’s basketball general manager. The timing is crucial, the team is on the edge of missing March Madness, sitting just outside the tournament bubble with an 18-11 record.
Tanner, who spent 28 years working as a sports agent, is coming back to Chapel Hill with his UNC degree and strong basketball connections. His company, Tandem Sports + Entertainment, worked with many NBA stars and Hall of Famers.
North Carolina Basketball Future
The team needs to win three key games to make it to the tournament. They’re set to play Miami, Virginia Tech, and Duke in games they can’t afford to lose. While they’ve won their last four games, they’re still not guaranteed a spot.
“The landscape of college basketball has changed dramatically in a short period with NIL, collectives, and the transfer portal,” Tanner said in a statement to News and Observer. “It’s a highly competitive, and constantly evolving environment.”
The university showed faith in Davis with a contract through 2030. He’ll start at a $1.25 million base salary with yearly bonuses that keep growing, money that’s his to keep even if he’s let go.
The program has taken off under Davis’s leadership. His teams have picked up 78 wins and done well in conference games with a 43-17 record. They’ve won an ACC regular season title, grabbed 19 away wins, and made it to the Final Four.
Things have been up and down since Roy Williams stepped down in 2021. Davis took his first team to the championship game, but couldn’t make the tournament the next year, showing how quickly things can turn around.
Looking ahead to the 2025 tournament, Tennessee, Duke, Auburn, and Iowa State look like they’ll be top seeds. For UNC, it all comes down to how they do in their last regular season games and the ACC tournament.
