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NBA champion or not, legendary Duke Blue Devils basketball head coach Mike Krzyzewski isn’t too worried about Michael Malone, who was reportedly hired to replace Hubert Davis with the UNC Tar Heels, getting the program back on track.
After all, Krzyzewski’s biggest rival during his illustrious tenure at Duke was UNC. And he invoked Bill Belichick when asked about hiring Malone during his appearance on “The Pat McAfee Show” on Monday.
“They had an NFL champion hired as a coach, and Duke beat Carolina football this year,” Krzyzewski told McAfee and AJ Hawk with a smile on the show. “That doesn’t mean Coach Belichick isn’t a great coach, but there is time to make adjustments. It takes longer to go from the pros to college.”
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Head coach Mike Krzyzewski of the Duke Blue Devils watches during practice before the Final Four of the 2022 men’s basketball tournament at Caesars Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana, on April 1, 2022. (Jamie Squire/Getty Images)
Belichick learned that firsthand last season, his first in college football with the Tar Heels. While Duke finished with a 9-5 overall record and won the ACC title, UNC went a miserable 4-8 with a 2-6 ACC record.
Additionally, as Krzyzewski mentioned, Duke defeated Belichick’s UNC team, 32-25, to end its first season with a loss.
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Of course, the college game has completely changed now, with name, image and likeness (NIL) deals paving the way for richer programs to pay top of the crop in the transfer portal, as well as out of high school.
Belichick and his staff will have to be more creative, and perhaps open their checkbooks more, as this new university system remains in place.
But football isn’t king in Chapel Hill: basketball reigns supreme. Krzyzewski knows this, as the Blue Devils typically faced the Tar Heels as the best teams in the country fighting not only for bragging rights, but also for national titles.
Head coach Michael Malone of the Denver Nuggets watches the game against the Golden State Warriors during the second quarter at the Chase Center in San Francisco, California, on April 4, 2025. (Eakin Howard/Getty Images)
Malone coached the Denver Nuggets for 10 seasons, which included an NBA title in 2023. However, he was fired in April 2025 and quickly took on a sports media role with ESPN a month later.
The Tar Heels, who fired Davis following UNC’s crushing loss to VCU in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, are taking a similar path as the football program: a coach with a deep pro track record but no college head coaching experience.
Malone was an assistant in Oakland, Providence and Manhattan before transitioning to the NBA with the New York Knicks in 2001. His first NBA head coaching job was with the Sacramento Kings before solidifying his spot in Denver.
Mike Krzyzewski hosted a Jimmy V Foundation event in his hometown of Chicago last month. (Pak Gazette)
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“Mike is a fantastic coach and a fantastic guy; there is a learning curve,” Krzyzewski added. “Whatever the reasoning, maybe they’re changing; they now have two professional coaches coaching at the university. Their athletic department infrastructure will now become more of a pro-organization organization, which I think everyone should do. He knows how to do it, and so does Coach Belichick. Maybe it’s a sign that they’re moving in that direction organizationally.”
Malone hopes to have a better inaugural season in Chapel Hill than Belichick, who returns for another season of football looking to turn things around on the playing field.
