| | By Andy Katz
ESPN.com
North Carolina's national "internal" coaching search won't be repeated often in college basketball, simply because few programs have the Tar Heels' depth of candidates among former players and coaches.
|  | | Roy Williams, left, and Matt Doherty extended North Carolina's coaching tree to Kansas. |
"There's no trend to it," Oklahoma coach Kelvin Sampson said after Notre Dame's Matt Doherty left the Irish to return to his alma mater in Chapel Hill. "North Carolina was a unique situation. The ideal coach was Roy (Williams of Kansas). When you have the tradition and the thing is in place, you can afford to keep it in the family. There aren't too many North Carolinas in the world."
Actually, there are only two others.
Certainly, there are a number of programs that have promoted from within, ranging from Michigan State (Jud Heathcote to Tom Izzo) to Massachusetts (John Calipari to Bruiser Flint) to Gonzaga (Dan Fitzgerald to Dan Monson to Mark Few).
But North Carolina is the first high-profile program to go through a national search limited to coaches with ties to former coach Dean Smith. Indiana and Duke both have the depth of former coaches and players to conduct similar searches whenever Bob Knight and Mike Krzyzewski, respectively, retire. Duke is more likely to stay within its current coaching family than Indiana -- especially after Knight nearly lost his job in May.
"North Carolina, Duke and Indiana may be the only programs that have turned out enough good players and coaches to hire exclusively from within," LSU coach John Brady said.
Brady is a part of a coaching tree that begins with Chicago Bulls coach Tim Floyd. Floyd has former assistants and offspring on his staff and at major universities around the country: Larry Eustachy (Utah State to Iowa State), Phil Johnson (San Jose State to the Bulls) Steve Barnes (San Jose State), Kermit Davis (Idaho to LSU assistant) and Jim Wooldridge (Bulls assistant to Kansas State).
"The difference is that we're all Tim's friends whereas at Carolina they are all former players or coaches," Brady said.
Plenty of other coaches have influenced hires across the country, including Williams (Kevin Stallings and Jerry Green). Rick Pitino (Herb Sendek and Billy Donovan) and Eddie Sutton (Rob Evans, Bill Self and Paul Graham) have had similar influences in getting their former assistants head-coaching jobs.
But coaches such as Brady and Sampson -- and everyone else who has been successful recently -- never had the chance to interview with North Carolina. The process began when Bill Guthridge resigned June 30. Williams was the first on the list, thanks to his 11 years as a Smith assistant and 12 highly successful years at Kansas. He took a week to turn down the Tar Heels.
The only other names to show up on North Carolina wish lists were coaches who had Carolina ties, and the Tar Heel administration went about trying to receive permission to talk to a handful of coaches. South Carolina's Eddie Fogler, Philadelphia 76ers coach Larry Brown and Milwaukee Bucks coach George Karl all withdrew their names from consideration.
Brown was the only one actually interviewed, after Fogler pulled his name the day after Williams turned the school down and Karl never received permission by the Bucks to speak with the Tar Heels. Middle Tennessee State's Randy Wiel, who interviewed for the job earlier on Tuesday (the day Doherty took the job), and Tennessee Tech's Jeff Lebo were also on the list because of their ties to Carolina. Lebo never interviewed.
"Four coaches from top 20 teams told me at the Nike camp they would have taken the job at Carolina if offered without hesitation," said a high-profile former coach, who asked for anonymity because he didn't want to upset the Carolina family. "No one is surprised they stayed in the family but I don't think it's necessary. If they went outside, they could have gotten at least 17 of the top 25 coaches who coached top 25 teams last year."
While that may be true, Carolina still got a high-profile candidate by staying in the family. Doherty will inject some life into a program that had started taking on Guthridge's quiet demeanor, and Doherty should enjoy long-term success in Chapel Hill. Had Doherty turned down the job for some reason, the Tar Heels likely would have been ripped for continuing to stay within the family.
"When you have something that has been successful at a high-level over time, it makes sense to continue the same path," said Missouri's Quin Snyder, a Krzyzewski disciple. "Those places have a certain culture. The players and coaches usually understand what made that place successful and unique."
Andy Katz is a senior writer at ESPN.com.
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AUDIO/VIDEO
 George Karl has confidence in UNC coach Matt Doherty.
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Brad Daugherty talks about the importance of "family" at North Carolina.
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Antawn Jamison is glad the UNC job stayed in the Tar Heel "family."
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