North Carolina is inching closer to striking out.
The Tar Heels have now swung and missed twice at their top two coaching candidates to replace Hubert Davis, whom the Tar Heels decided to move on from after back-to-back losses in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
In the immediate aftermath of Davis' firing, North Carolina set their sights on Boston Celtics executive Brad Stevens, who had tremendous success as the head coach of the Celtics in the NBA and before that with Butler.
Stevens quickly said no.
Now, just over a week later, the candidate it appeared North Carolina was zeroing in on has also turned them down.
Arizona's Tommy Lloyd, on the eve of coaching the Wildcats against Michigan in the Final Four, agreed to a new contract to remain in Tucson, spurning the Tar Heels.
Tommy Lloyd isn't going to be the next North Carolina coach, either
The further North Carolina moves down their board, the less likely they're going to be able to hit a home run. But don't worry, regardless of who they end up hiring, they're going to pretend like that coach was the No. 1 candidate from the beginning.
But we all know the truth. They wanted Stevens. They couldn't get him.
They moved on to Lloyd. They couldn't get him, either.
There are still quality coaches out there, but UNC is a couple of swings away from having to move way down the list of candidates.
North Carolina will likely turn their attention toward Chicago Bulls head coach Billy Donovan and Michigan's Dusty May. May is likely going to remain at Michigan and could very well lead the Wolverines to the National Championship.
As for Donovan, he's unlikely to engage until the Bulls' season is over on April 12. That's five days after the Transfer Portal opens. If UNC chooses to wait to try and land Donovan, that would put them considerably behind the eight-ball in terms of building next season's roster.
You hate to see it.