Doherty resigns with three years left on contract

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. -- Matt Doherty, who failed to make the NCAA tournament two of his three seasons as coach at North Carolina, resigned Tuesday.\nHe had three years left on a six-year contract that paid him $855,000 a season.\nThe 41-year-old Doherty, who played for the Tar Heels along with Michael Jordan in the early 1980s, left Notre Dame to succeed Bill Guthridge. North Carolina went 26-7 in his first year, but slipped to 8-20 last season -- the worst record in the program's history.\nThis year, his young team finished 19-16.\nDoherty's resignation came after athletic director Dick Baddour held a series of meetings with players and parents.\nBaddour picked the inexperienced Doherty after Roy Williams -- a former assistant to Dean Smith -- turned down UNC to remain at Kansas. It's unclear whether Williams, whose team is in the Final Four, would be a candidate again.\nDoherty was The Associated Press' coach of the year in 2001 -- when the team won 18 games in a row and was ranked No. 1 nationally. But even that team fizzled down the stretch, going 4-5 over its final nine games, including a second-round loss to Penn State in the NCAA tournament.\nOff-court problems began to surface when star sophomore Joseph Forte decided to go pro. He said one reason he left was an inability to get along with Doherty.\nThen came the disastrous 2001-02 season, when North Carolina went 8-20 -- the worst record in the program's history.\nThe team lacked the overall talent of past North Carolina clubs because of the recruiting gap that stretched from the end of the Guthridge-era to the start of Doherty's program. Still, many believe the Tar Heels should have been better.\nThree transferred -- Adam Boone, Brian Morrison and Neil Fingleton -- and some of Doherty's initial recruiting class also contemplated leaving.\nDoherty was able to smooth things over and this season brought in a top recruiting class that included Raymond Felton, Sean May and Rashad McCants. The team got off to a 5-0 start and was ranked in the top 25.\nMay then broke his foot in late December and the Tar Heels began to struggle as players and parents once again began to question Doherty's intense style in practice and drastic mood swings.\nThe team matured late in the year, beating Duke in the regular-season finale and Maryland in the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament before going three rounds in the NIT.\nAfter the team's final game last Wednesday night, most of the players said they would be returning and said they supported the coach. Baddour met with the players in a group meeting the next day and then individually on Friday.