Tar Heels look to keep Hatchell

With South Carolina looking at Sylvia Hatchell for its vacancy, North Carolina’s athletics director said the Tar Heels are committed to keeping Hatchell as their women’s basketball coach.

“She’s done a tremendous job of leading this program,” Dick Baddour said. “I hope that she’ll continue to do that.”

Hatchell met with South Carolina officials late last week at Hatchell’s beach house in North Myrtle Beach, Hatchell’s agent, Jeff Meadows, confirmed.

“Where it goes from here, I can’t say,” Meadows said.

Hatchell, who has been at UNC for 22 seasons and coached for 32 seasons, has not returned multiple messages left on her cell phone, but she was back in Chapel Hill on Monday after her vacation.

The Gamecocks went 16-16 and lost in the second round of the WNIT this past season. Susan Walvius resigned April 14 after 11 seasons.

Hatchell has a number of ties to the Palmetto State: Her first job was at Francis Marion in Florence; she signed Ivory Latta out of McConnells; she schedules at least two games in Myrtle Beach every year.

Asked if Hatchell had serious interest in South Carolina, Meadows said, “I’m not going to comment on any of that.”

Even before South Carolina’s interest became known, Baddour said he had initiated conversations with Hatchell about reworking her contract.

“We want coach Hatchell to be our coach, and we’ll do what we can to keep her,” Baddour said.

Hatchell, who ranks third in wins among active coaches, agreed to a six-year contract extension in May, 2006 that paid her a base salary of $260,000 this past season.

While she is believed to make substantially more than that thanks to her summer camps, the annual salary puts her well behind many of women’s basketball’s top coaches. Tennessee’s Pat Summitt and Connecticut’s Geno Auriemma both make more than $1 million. When Gail Goestenkors left Duke for Texas, she signed a contract that guarantees her $1 million annually.

The Tar Heels just finished the best four-year stretch in program history, posting a 130-13 record while winning four consecutive ACC tournament championships and reaching two Final Fours.