Michael Malone, the first-year head coach of the University of North Carolina men’s basketball team, has completed the hiring of his coaching and basketball staff.
Malone will direct a coaching and development rgroup that includes several returning members of the Carolina basketball program (Sean May, Pat Sullivan, Eric Hoots), three coaches from other college teams (Chuck Martin, Bryan Tibaldi, Jorge Sanz) and two additional former Tar Heel standouts (Brandon Robinson, Deon Thompson).
“It’s a great mix of Tar Heel players who have won championships and maintain a connection to Carolina’s tradition of excellence with a blend of coaches from other programs and experiences as we chart a new path forward to compete at the highest level of college basketball,” says Malone.
“Pat Sullivan won an NCAA title playing for Dean Smith in 1993 and Sean May, Deon Thompson and Brandon Robinson were part of three different national championship teams with Roy Williams. Chuck Martin has coached for 30 years with head coaching experience and is one of the top recruiters in the country, Bryan Tibaldi has a blend of NBA and college experience on both sides of the ball and Jorge Sanz has been a part of a top program for nearly a decade with extensive international connections and brings a number of unique basketball experiences to the staff.
“Each member of the staff has worked with and/or played for Hall of Fame coaches.
“It was important to construct a staff that had connections to Carolina’s many decades of excellence while also bringing in other individuals who can enhance this great University and basketball program.”
Assistant coaches Sean May and Pat Sullivan and director of basketball operations Eric Hoots, who have a combined 55 years with the program, remain on staff.
May and Sullivan were on the bench when the Tar Heels won the 2022 NCAA East Regional and advanced to the national championship game. They’ve been on staffs under four previous head coaches that developed numerous UNC standouts, including Vince Carter, Antawn Jamison, Ed Cota, Brendan Haywood, Joseph Forte, Brice Johnson, Marcus Paige, Kennedy Meeks, Justin Jackson, Joel Berry II, Theo Pinson, Cole Anthony, Armando Bacot, Brady Manek, Caleb Love, RJ Davis, Harrison Ingram, Cormac Ryan, Seth Trimble, Henri Veesaar and Caleb Wilson.
May, the Most Outstanding Player in the 2005 NCAA Final Four, will begin his 12th season on staff and sixth as an assistant coach. He played for and began his coaching career under head coach Roy Williams.
Sports Illustrated named May the National Player of the Year in 2005. In 2013, ESPN selected him one of the top 75 players in the history of the NCAA Tournament. He scored 1,213 points and grabbed 771 rebounds as a Tar Heel from 2002-05, was the ACC’s Male Athlete of the Year and a first-round NBA Draft pick following his junior season in 2005.
Sullivan played for Dean Smith, appearing in more NCAA Tournament wins than any Tar Heel in history, including the 1993 national championship season. He returns for his ninth season as an assistant coach at UNC and has played or coached in seven Final Fours.
Sullivan first served as an assistant coach at UNC under head coach Bill Guthridge, helping the Tar Heels reach the Final Four in 1998 and 2000. He coached 18 seasons in the NBA, working on staffs led by Hall of Fame coaches Larry Brown and Doc Rivers, before returning to Chapel Hill in 2021.
Associate head coach Chuck Martin comes to UNC from Arkansas, assistant coach Bryan Tibaldi from Providence and assistant coach Jorge Sanz from Gonzaga.
Martin is a Tar Heel after three seasons as an assistant coach on John Calipari’s staffs at Kentucky (2023-24) and Arkansas (2024-26). Martin has coached numerous collegiate and NBA standouts, including 2008 No. 1 overall draft pick Derrick Rose, 2026 Bob Cousy Award winner Darius Acuff Jr. and OG Anunoby of the 2026 NBA champion New York Knicks.
A veteran of more than 25 years on the bench, Martin was recruiting coordinator at Arkansas when the Razorbacks signed Acuff, who won the Cousy Award as the best point guard in the nation and was the No. 7 pick in the first round of the NBA Draft, and Meleek Thomas, the 34th pick in the 2026 NBA Draft. Arkansas’ recruiting classes with Martin were both ranked in the top 10 after signing the top-ranked point guard in each class (Boogie Fland in 2024 and Acuff in 2025). Kentucky’s 2023 class was rated the second-best in the country.
Martin was the head coach at Marist from 2008-13. He has made coaching stops as assistant coach at St. John’s, Drexel, UMass, Manhattan, Memphis, Indiana, South Carolina, Oregon, Kentucky and Arkansas.
Tibaldi has spent the last 19 seasons on coaching staffs at the NBA, G-League and collegiate levels. He played for Hall-of-Fame coach Tom Izzo at Michigan State.
Tibaldi was an assistant coach and the offensive coordinator last season at Providence. The Friars improved 233 spots nationally in scoring average, climbing to 16th in the country at 85.3 points per game, and 55 places in offensive efficiency. Jaylin Sellers led the Big East in scoring (19.6 ppg) and was second-team all-conference, while Jamier Jones and Stefan Vaaks both earned Big East All-Freshman honors.
Tibaldi spent six seasons on staff with the Cleveland Cavaliers, where he helped build the Cavaliers into one of the NBA’s top defensive teams. He was an assistant coach under Kenny Atkinson with the Cavs in 2024-25, when they went 64-18, the second-best record in franchise history, produced three NBA All-Stars in Donovan Mitchell, Darius Garland and Evan Mobley and advanced to the Eastern Conference semifinals.
Sanz joins the Tar Heel coaching staff after eight seasons on Hall-of-Famer Mark Few’s coaching staff at Gonzaga, including the past three seasons as assistant coach and director of operations.
In his eight seasons in Spokane, the Bulldogs went 238-38, won six regular-season and six WCC Tournament championships. Gonzaga was a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament three times, played in the 2021 national championship game vs. Baylor and advanced to two other regional finals and two Sweet 16s.
During Sanz’ tenure, Gonzaga produced numerous NBA players, including six first-round draft picks, led by Chet Holmgren, the No. 2 pick in the 2022 NBA Draft. Other first-round picks included Brandon Clarke, Rui Hachimura, Corey Kispert, Julian Strawther and Jalen Suggs. Holmgren finished second in the NBA Rookie-of-the-Year voting in 2024 and was a key figure in Oklahoma City winning the NBA championship in 2025.
A native of Zaragoza, Spain, Sanz holds the Entrenador Superior certification, the highest coaching qualification in Spanish basketball.
Brandon Robinson returns to Carolina in his first season as assistant coach. He played in 130 games for the Tar Heels from 2016-20 and has worked on college, NBA and G-League staffs the past six seasons.
Robinson was a freshman on the 2017 NCAA champions. He scored 532 points at UNC, averaging a career-high 11.8 as a senior. He made 98 three-pointers and shot 37.3% from the beyond the arc.
He served as a graduate manager with the Tar Heels in 2021-22, spent four seasons as assistant video coordinator with the Charlotte Hornets (2022-23) and Utah Jazz (2023-26) and was an assistant coach in 2025-26 in the G-League with the Salt Lake City Stars.
Deon Thompson, the starting power forward on UNC’s 2009 NCAA champions, is in his first year as director of player development. He joins Malone’s staff after retiring from international basketball following a 16-year career in which he played in 16 countries.
Thompson set the NCAA record for most games played in a four-year career. He totaled 1,414 points (9.3 ppg), 743 rebounds (4.9 rpg) and 141 blocks in 152 games as a Tar Heel from 2006-10.
He played five years in the Euroleague, the highest level of European basketball, was a four-time all-star and played for teams that won the Slovenian, German and Serbian Cups and league championships in Germany, Israel, Serbia, the Adriatic League and Lithuania.
Sullivan (1993), May (2005), Thompson (2009) and Robinson (2017) represent Carolina’s last four NCAA championship teams.
The 2026-27 season will be Hoots’ 28th with the program. He began as an undergraduate manager and has worked for four head coaches in operations and been part of three national championship teams.
Veterans Jonas Sahratian, Doug Halverson and Kiersten Steinbacher also remain with the basketball program. Sahratian is in 23rd season as strength and conditioning coordinator, Halverson is in his 14th year as head athletic trainer and Steinbacher, the assistant to the director of operations, is in her ninth year.
Thomas Malone, a 2005 Hofstra graduate and a graduate manager with the Iona basketball team last season, joins the program as video coordinator.
https://goheels.com/news/2026/9/3/michael-malone-announces-tar-heel-mens-basketball-staff
