{"id":689376,"date":"2026-03-29T04:11:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-29T04:11:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/689376\/"},"modified":"2026-03-29T04:11:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-29T04:11:14","slug":"north-carolina-coaching-search-bruce-pearl-shoots-down-charles-barkley-endorsement-for-unc-job","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/689376\/","title":{"rendered":"North Carolina coaching search: Bruce Pearl shoots down Charles Barkley endorsement for UNC job"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>At halftime of the Elite Eight game between <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.on3.com\/college\/arizona-wildcats\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Arizona<\/a><\/strong> and <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.on3.com\/teams\/purdue-boilermakers\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Purdue<\/a><\/strong>, a fun game was played by the TBS broadcast. Host Nate Burleson asked questions to a panel of Charles Barkley, Clark Kellogg, Kenny Smith, and <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.on3.com\/rivals\/coach\/bruce-pearl-132645\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Bruce Pearl<\/a><\/strong>. The last of which revolved around the <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.on3.com\/teams\/north-carolina-tar-heels\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">North Carolina<\/a><\/strong> coaching search. Each guy provided an answer for who they think should take over in Chapel Hill.<\/p>\n<p>Barkley took a few moments to think, only to light up with an idea. He called for UNC to give a call to Pearl.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou know what? I personally got great faith in this man,\u201d Barkley said with a smile. \u201cI\u2019m not opposed to Bruce Pearl taking that job.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>There was a quick denial from Pearl, despite the crew creating some hype. Pearl said TNT is his new team and there would be no leaving them. Maybe a sigh of relief for <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.on3.com\/teams\/auburn-tigers\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Auburn<\/a><\/strong> fans, who just saw the legendary head coach retire before the 2025-2026 season. And for North Carolina, Barkley\u2019s endorsement turned out to be short-lived.<\/p>\n<p>Pearl filled multiple roles for Turner throughout the season. His main job was a studio analyst, usually working alongside the likes of Adam Lefkoe, Jamal Mashburn, and Jalen Rose. He served as the coach of the panel, talking about the game from that perspective. A nice call-up did come for the Elite Eight, getting into the studio with the four previously mentioned names.<\/p>\n<p>Bruce Pearl reacts to North Carolina\u2019s firing of Hubert Davis<\/p>\n<p>Former\u00a0Auburn\u00a0head coach\u00a0Bruce Pearl\u00a0is the latest prominent college basketball figure to weigh in on the\u00a0Hubert Davis\u00a0situation at\u00a0North Carolina.<\/p>\n<p>For the first time in program history, the Tar Heels have lost back-to-back NCAA Tournament First Round games. Both losses came under Davis, who just completed his fifth season with the program.<\/p>\n<p>The Tar Heels led No. 11 seed\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.on3.com\/college\/vcu-rams\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">VCU<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0Thursday night by as many as 19 points in the second half, but ended up falling in overtime to the Rams 82-78. This has led to immense backlash from\u00a0<strong>North Carolina<\/strong>\u00a0fans, upset with how the past four seasons have played out.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHuge RESPECT for\u00a0<strong>Hubert Davis<\/strong>!\u201d Pearl wrote on X\/Twitter. \u201cUNC is one of the top 5 jobs in the country and back-to-back first-round exits won\u2019t cut it. Coach Davis would be the first to admit it. Hope the UNC family finds a way to support Hubert and his staff! Stay tuned!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>On3\u2019s Daniel Hager contributed to this report<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At halftime of the Elite Eight game between Arizona and Purdue, a fun game was played by the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":689377,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[1318,1317,1315,1316,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-689376","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-ncaa","10":"tag-ncaa-football","11":"tag-ncaafootball","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116310513064153850","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/689376","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=689376"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/689376\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/689377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=689376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=689376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=689376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}