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April 4, 2036

CHAPEL HILL - Chris Hobbs was fired on Thursday, after just one season as the men’s basketball coach at the University of North Carolina.

The decision was announced by Director of Athletics Aaron O’Hare in a press conference held in the Roy A. Williams Conference Room in the newly-constructed wing of the Dean Smith Center.

“It is regrettable that we’ve had to make a change after Coach Hobbs had just one season to prove himself,” O’Hare said to the gathered media. “But I’ve always said that if someone is a liability, you just have to cut them loose.”

UNC Chancellor Will Johnson—a former Carolina basketball player and Morehead Scholar--competed against Hobbs in college when Hobbs was playing for Clemson.

“It’s unfortunate that it’s come to this, because Coach Hobbs really seemed to have the best interest of the University in mind,” Johnson said. “He was committed to ensuring that his players succeeded in the classroom.”

But while Hobbs maintained an acceptable—some would even say “stellar”—program off the court, his team’s struggles on the court were myriad.

Most glaringly, the Tar Heels managed to win only one game on their home court—finishing the season with a 1-16 record in games played in the Smith Center. The lone win was an 83-82 victory over Clemson in Carolina’s ACC opener in December.

“Coach Hobbs was constantly reminding us that Chapel Hill was 'his town' and promising us that he'd win the majority of his games here," O'Hare said. "So when we got the win against Clemson, we were hopeful that the team had turned the corner and that we could start getting some wins in the Smith Center."

But as it turned out, the basketball gods were just keeping things tidy by giving the Tigers their seventy-fifth straight loss in Chapel Hill.

Most of the Tar Heels problems came from an inability to keep their key players on the court for the entire game. In all but three games, Carolina saw at least four of their starters foul out with more than five minutes left to play.

“It’s been said that teams take on the personality of their coach, and in this case, we certainly found that to be the case,” said Pat Sullivan, Hobbs’ top assistant coach. “At practice, Coach Hobbs would often encourage the players to play a very physical style of basketball.”

Hobbs hiring last May came as a shock to many as he became the first non-Carolina alumnus to serve as men’s basketball coach since Bill Guthridge retired more than 35 years ago. At the time, O'Hare felt that hiring a Chapel Hill native was a necessary step toward patching up the relationship between the University and the Town of Chapel Hill. When the Chapel Hill Town Council decided to ban Carolina car flags and windsocks because they were deemed to be a violation of the town's sign ordinance, the town-gown relationship became a rocky one.

"When the town outlawed the car flags, things got really heated for a while, and I thought that this would be a way to help patch things up," O'Hare admitted.

But after a 22-loss season that trumped the program's previous low-point of 8-20 during the 2001-02 season, releasing Hobbs was a decision that O'Hare felt he had no choice but to make.

“This is a difficult day for all of us who love the University of North Carolina,” O'Hare said. “When we decided to hire outside of the Carolina Family, we were prepared for the possibility that things might not work out perfectly. However, we were not prepared for an unmitigated disaster.”

O'Hare would not comment on who the potential candidates to replace Hobbs might be, but sources close to the program have indicated that three former Carolina players will top the list: Sullivan, Oklahoma head coach Wes Miller, and Chicago Bulls assistant Bobby Frasor.

O'Hare says that he hopes to have the new coach in place by the end of the month.