Former Tar Heel Brandon Robinson Joining UNC Coaching Staff

New North Carolina head coach Michael Malone is adding yet another Tar Heel national champion to his staff. Brandon Robinson, who played under Roy Williams for four seasons at UNC (2017-2020), has accepted a support staff position, according to sources close to the program.

Robinson was a freshman on UNC’s 2017 national championship team. Assistant coach Pat Sullivan was a member of Dean Smith’s second national championship squad in 1993, while assistant coach Sean May earned Most Outstanding Player honors in leading the Tar Heels to the 2005 national title.

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Inside Carolina reported on Wednesday that Deon Thompson, who played for the 2009 national championship team, is joining the program as a graduate assistant. Buzz Peterson, who has helped behind the scenes at UNC in a front office role, was a freshman on Carolina’s 1982 national title team. That gives Malone points of contact on his staff with UNC’s last five national championship teams.

Robinson returns to Chapel Hill after scoring 532 career points from 2016-20, though this will not be his first return to UNC. After Williams retired and then-assistant coach Hubert Davis was elevated to lead the program, Robinson was hired as the program’s first-ever graduate assistant in May 2021.

The Douglasville, Ga. native had previously had conversations with Williams during his playing days about a future in coaching, born out of his father Frank’s legacy as a longtime high school coach in the Atlanta area. When the COVID-19 pandemic limited his playing opportunities overseas, Robinson joined the coaching staff with his former AAU squad, EYBL’s Georgia Stars, for a brief stint before accepting the GA role in Chapel Hill.

Following UNC’s run to the national championship game in April 2022, Robinson took a job as an assistant video coordinator with the Charlotte Hornets. After one season in the Queen City, he moved west for the same role with the Utah Jazz from 2022-25.

In July 2025, Robinson became an assistant coach for Salt Lake City Stars, Utah’s G League affiliate, which provided his first opportunity as a bench coach.

In four seasons in Chapel Hill, Robinson appeared in 130 games, including 36 as a freshman during UNC’s 2017 national championship campaign. He went on to make 23 starts as a senior in 2019-20, finishing third on the team in scoring at 11.8 points per game while posting 27 points against Clemson on Jan. 11 and a career-high 29 points against Miami on Jan. 25. He completed his master’s degree in sports and exercise science in May 2023.

Robinson joins a staff that Malone has assembled that combines college, NBA, and UNC experience. As Inside Carolina previously first reported, the assistant coach pool includes former Arkansas assistant coach Chuck Martin and former NBA assistant coach Bryan Tibaldi, in addition to Sullivan and May.

A previous version of this story was inaccurate and has been updated.