Buzz Peterson emerges as 'strong potential candidate' for North Carolina GM position

Buzz Peterson is a strong candidate to become the general manager of North Carolina basketball, On3’s Joe Tipton reported. This comes after Tar Heels coach Hubert Davis revealed on his radio show Monday evening that he planned to increase his staff by adding the position.

Peterson was most recently the assistant general manager of the NBA’s Charlotte Hornets. He also has experience as a college head coach at Tulsa (2001-02), Tennessee (2001-05), Coastal Carolina (2005-07), Appalachian State (1996-2000; 2009-10) and UNC-Wilmington (2010-14).

He is the former roomate of Michael Jordan when the two were teammates at North Carolina. The pair won a national championship together with the Tar Heels in 1982.

Peterson and Jordan both grew up in North Carolina, with Peterson attending Asheville High School, where he was the state’s Player of the Year and a McDonald’s All-American as a senior in 1981.

Peterson played 30 games that year, which was his true freshman season, but averaged only five minutes per contest. Jordan, on the other hand, was a starter and third on the team with 13.5 points per game.

Still, the pair bonded as part of the same recruiting class and Jordan was even the best man at Peterson’s wedding years later.

Peterson went on to coaching shortly after his college career and landed his first head coaching gig at Appalachian State in the 1996-97 season. He would go on to direct the Mountaineers to three straight 20-win seasons in his final three years, culminating with a SoCon Tournament title and NCAA Tournament appearance in 1999-00.

That led to him getting the job at Tulsa, where he coaching the Golden Hurricane to win the NIT Championship in his lone season. That led to him getting the job at Tennessee, where he spent four seasons and had a 61-59 overall record.

Peterson coached 16 season of college basketball total and compiled a record of 267-229 with only one NCAA Tournament appearance.

He coached his last season in 2013-14 and UNC-Wilmington before later reuiniting with Jordan, who was the owner of the Charlotte Hornets at the time, to land a front office job.

Davis spoke about the need for North Carolina to hire a general manager in the new age of NIL during his weekly radio show. Given his background both in college and the NBA, Peterson could be the perfect fit.

“The old model for Carolina basketball just doesn’t work,” Davis said. “It’s not sustainable. It has to build out because there’s so many things in play with NIL, the transfer portal, agents, international players.

“You just need a bigger staff to be able to maintain things. You need a bigger staff so I can do what I’m supposed to be doing, and that’s coaching basketball. I am gonna increase the staff, and it’s needed. I never would have thought in the four years that I took the job that 100%, what is needed, is a general manager.”