CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — Michael Malone has learned to coach more toward the process, not hang his head on every win or loss. Because believe it or not — the mighty North Carolina men’s basketball program against the Southern Conference’s Western Carolina on a day that was supposed to spur a new, promising era for a team with seven national championships — the Tar Heels coach said he figured Monday would be a “dogfight.”

“I’m watching film (on) Western Carolina, and to me, they look like UCLA under John Wooden,” Malone said a few days before Monday’s season opener. “We’re gonna have a hard time beating this team.”

And the Tar Heels did, narrowly holding off the Catamounts, 80-72, on Monday at the Dean E. Smith Center.

UNC (1-0) missed 21 3-pointers. The teams shot a combined 62 free throws. Malone’s debut was nearly 2 hours, 30 minutes long and not at all pretty, yet still a win. He joked with reporters as he entered the media room, asking if they had as much fun as he did. “Welcome to the roller coaster,” Malone said before the start of his press conference. He has been around long enough and has won enough games — including a 2023 NBA championship with the Denver Nuggets — to know how this goes.

Because Malone’s first game as a head coach was a win, too. That Oct. 30, 2013, win, coincidentally, came against the Nuggets. But then his Sacramento Kings lost their next five games. On Nov. 13, they had the Brooklyn Nets. “Kevin Garnett ... they were loaded,” Malone recalled. The doubt set in. He lay in bed without sleeping, wondering if he’d ever win a game again, wondering if he’s the right person for the job he has, wondering if he’s a good head coach at all. The Kings beat Brooklyn, which provided slight relief. But eventually, the second-guessing would return.

“Your mind can take you to really dark places,” Malone recalled.

But the bad you go through as a coach is part of it. So the Tar Heels’ coach isn’t going to sound alarms after Monday. UNC has 11 new players, and he expected this would be a process. Things are always easier to clean up after a win. Even if, clearly, there are things to clean up.

It’s much of the same stuff. UNC was out-rebounded 41-32. Its starting frontcourt had a combined four rebounds, which is the same as forward Jarin Stevenson and Sayon Keita had in the Tar Heels’ final exhibition game against Charlotte. But for all the works in progress, UNC seems to trust its coach’s track record. Guard Matt Able said he knew Malone was an “elite coach,” but Able said some of the X’s and O’s Malone displays on out-of-bounds plays is stuff that the sophomore guard has never seen before.

“He ran some high-low thing for Jarin,” Able said. “… And it was kind of just like, ‘Man, like that was so easy.’ ”

There are times Malone is probably frustrated, but Able said he’s always the same person, level-headed. Of course, a loss Monday wouldn’t have ended the season for the Tar Heels. And in a win, Malone is still aware there’s plenty more to build. His first season with the Nuggets, he won 33 games. It took eight years to win a championship in Denver. As much as he’s aware that fan bases don’t want to hear that these things don’t happen immediately, he said he shifted his mindset long ago, sharing the same advice with young coaches he encountered: The goal, early, is to “create an identity, to create a culture, and try to get guys to buy into that.”

Malone is just at the start of that process with UNC. He’s a self-declared “outsider,” but in the lead-up to his debut, he marveled at sitting in the same chair as Dean Smith, Bill Guthridge, Roy Williams and Hubert Davis. He has felt the love from the crowd — the thunderous roar he received before the Tar Heels’ exhibition opener in Greensboro, the first welcome to the Smith Center against Charlotte and Monday, where it was a much milder reception, almost seeming to catch the 15,735 in attendance by surprise as he took the floor.

Before exiting the tunnel, he spotted Williams in the stands, rose and shook the former North Carolina coach’s hand. And despite that anticipation, Malone alluded he wasn’t expecting perfection. And that’s not what he got.

So Monday, he wasn’t planning on taking any extra time after the game to relish that first win. Tar Heels Director of Operations Eric Hoots told him they’d like to present him with the game ball. Malone said no, he wanted to go to the locker room. But then he saw Williams on the floor.

“No disrespect to Steve Newmark,” Malone joked about the Tar Heels’ athletic director. “But you know, Roy Williams is one of the greatest to ever do it.”

Newmark narrated the moment, noting that Malone has had many wins, but Monday was the first here.

Malone said Williams could see it on the new coach’s face. He was glad his first game was a win, yes, but there are a lot of things “we need to get better at in a hurry.” But that will be a process. Malone has experience with that.

Williams handed Malone the ball and the two North Carolina coaches wrapped in a hug. For a brief moment, he got to hang with a win.

“I just want to make sure I’m doing my job to make the Carolina family proud,” Malone said. “I don’t take this opportunity lightly, and that’s a huge responsibility.”

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