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Jeff Borzello, ESPN Staff Writer
When we published this column a year ago, we weren’t anticipating too much movement from coaches. The 2023 coaching cycle was long, headlined by changes at former powerhouses Georgetown and St. John’s and the departures of a pair of longtime faces of the sport, Jim Boeheim and Bob Huggins. The early read on the 2024 hot seat felt quieter.
We were … wrong, to say the least.
The 2024 cycle was anarchy. Ohio State firing Chris Holtmann with a month left in the regular season barely registers as one of the shockers now. Ditto for Michigan parting ways with Juwan Howard. The openings at the Big Ten rivals — and Louisville — led to an intriguing waiting game around Dusty May. The Florida Atlantic coach ultimately chose the Wolverines, while Pat Kelsey moved from Charleston over to Louisville, and the Buckeyes promoted interim head coach Jake Diebler.
But the real action took place when SMU decided to fire Rob Lanier after two seasons, setting off three weeks that shifted the landscape of men’s college basketball. The Mustangs reeled in USC‘s Andy Enfield; the Trojans, in turn, poached Eric Musselman from Arkansas, which then simply went out and landed the biggest name in the sport, John Calipari. After Kentucky took a few big swings, it landed on former player Mark Pope, who had been at BYU. in mid-October.
We’re not going out on a limb in predicting the 2025 coaching carousel should be less dramatic — especially given that it already began with a stunner: Virginia‘s Tony Bennett retiring three weeks before the start of the season. But could Indiana cause dominoes that opens up a half-dozen jobs? Could another coaching legend opt to call it a career? When it comes to the coaching carousel, there are no guarantees.
Here’s the state of the coaching ranks before 2024-25 play begins.
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Other notables | Who’s up next?
POWER CONFERENCES
The ACC only saw two changes — Louisville in the spring, and Virginia in mid-October — but is similarly unlikely to be busy in 2025. In fact, we technically don’t have a single coach on the proverbial hot seat.
Virginia is also technically the first power-conference opening of the 2024-25 coaching carousel. Ron Sanchez was given the interim tag, but athletic director Carla Williams already said the school will begin a national search for Bennett’s permanent successor. Sanchez could earn the full-time job, as Texas’ Rodney Terry and Ohio State’s Jake Diebler did, but for now the Cavaliers are expected to have an opening in a few months.
Meanwhile, we do have two names on retirement watch. Florida State‘s Leonard Hamilton (76) and Miami‘s Jim Larrañaga (75) have consistently maintained they have no plans to retire, but that stance could eventually change.
Hamilton hasn’t been to the NCAA tournament since 2021, going 43-53 over the past three seasons and finishing 27-33 in ACC play during that span. The Seminoles lost four starters from last season, meaning Hamilton will be relying heavily on newcomers to turn things around. Larrañaga and the Hurricanes followed up their 2023 Final Four run by missing the postseason entirely in 2024, losing their final 10 games of the season and finishing 15-17 overall. Larrañaga retooled the roster, landing five transfers who averaged double figures in scoring last season along with top-10 recruit Jalil Bethea.
With just one change a year ago (DePaul), the main man on the Big East hot seat is Villanova‘s Kyle Neptune.
Neptune was given the unenviable task of replacing Jay Wright in 2022, but in his two seasons at the helm, Villanova has missed back-to-back NCAA tournaments for the first time since Wright’s first three seasons (2002-2004). Another missed tournament appearance could force the program to make a move with Neptune.
The biggest program facing a potential change next spring is Indiana, which is entering Year 4 under Mike Woodson. The Hoosiers missed the 2024 NCAA tournament despite winning five in a row down the stretch, and the external speculation surrounding Woodson’s future was loud enough the school had to confirm he would return for the 2024-25 season. Had he been fired then, the school would have owed him $12.6 million. That number will still be north of $9 million come March 2025.
Indiana did go dancing in Woodson’s first two seasons, but the program hasn’t advanced past the first weekend since 2016. On the plus side, Woodson has a preseason top-25 team that includes three returning starters and three top-25 transfers.
Minnesota‘s Ben Johnson also enters a critical campaign, with two years remaining on his deal after this season. While last season showed clear improvement over his first two years in Minneapolis, the Gophers need to continue the upward trajectory. They went a combined 22-39 (6-33 in the Big Ten) in 2022 and 2023, but finished 19-15 (9-11) last season.
There was some speculation regarding Wisconsin‘s Greg Gard toward the end of last season, but the Badgers made a run to the Big Ten title game and earned a 5-seed in the NCAA tournament; Gard has now guided Wisconsin to six of the past eight NCAA tournaments. A first-round upset loss to James Madison — which means the Badgers have now failed to reach the second weekend since 2017 — and the transfers of starters AJ Storr and Chucky Hepburn don’t help, but Gard would need a disastrous campaign to force a change in Madison.
There has been some retirement buzz regarding Iowa‘s Fran McCaffery (65) and Oregon‘s Dana Altman (66), but neither seem overly eager to leave the business. McCaffery has taken the Hawkeyes to four of the past five NCAA tournaments and returns a team that should once again compete for a bid. Altman has had retirement rumors swirling around him for a few years. But he’s still considered one of the most underrated coaches in the country and has an NCAA tournament-worthy roster for the Ducks’ first season in the Big Ten.
The hottest seat in the best conference in college basketball belongs to a Big 12 newcomer: Arizona State‘s Bobby Hurley. The Sun Devils have missed the NCAA tournament in three of the past four seasons and have yet to win an NCAA tournament game since Hurley arrived in Tempe in 2015.
He signed a two-year contract extension at the end of the 2022-23 season that runs through 2026, leaving him just one year on his deal after this campaign. He’ll hope top-25 recruits Jayden Quaintance and Joson Sanon can push ASU to the dance.
UCF‘s Johnny Dawkins had just one year left on his deal after March but agreed to a contract extension in June through the 2026-27 season. The Knights have only been to one NCAA tournament since he took over the program in 2016, finishing .500 or worse in conference play in each of the past five seasons. But they moved from the AAC to the Big 12 two summers ago and have upgraded their talent for this season.
Craig Smith has shown incremental improvement in each of his three seasons at Utah, going from 11-20 to 17-15 to 22-15. Remember, though: after starting 11-2 last season, the Utes fell apart in Pac-12 play and missed the NCAA tournament. They also lost much of their firepower in the offseason, and are now in the Big 12. Smith signed a six-year deal when he took the job and will have two years left after the 2024-25 campaign.
A trio of coaches in this league appear to be a year away from truly being in danger. Another subpar campaign, and we could be talking about them as the headliners at this time next year. But if things do go awry in the next six months …
It’s only year three for Georgia‘s Mike White and LSU‘s Matt McMahon. The Bulldogs won 20 games and went to the NIT semifinals last season and now bring in five-star recruit Asa Newell, along with expectations of an NCAA tournament bid. White will have three years left on his deal after this season. Meanwhile, McMahon guided LSU to a 9-9 SEC campaign — a dramatic improvement on the Tigers’ 2-16 SEC performance the year before. He’s recruiting at a high level and is upgrading the roster after taking over a program in disarray. He signed a seven-year deal when he took over in 2022.
Porter Moser is entering Year 4 at Oklahoma but has yet to reach an NCAA tournament — despite winning 20 games last season. Joining the SEC won’t make his job any easier. Neither will losing three key starters to the portal, though Moser did reload with a slew of intriguing transfers and top-30 recruit Jeremiah Fears.
There have been retirement rumors surrounding Tennessee‘s Rick Barnes (70) for a few seasons, but he has things rolling in Knoxville: Four straight NCAA tournament appearances, a Sweet 16 in 2023, an SEC championship and Elite Eight appearance last season — and the Vols are once again ranked in the top 15 to start the season.
OTHER NOTABLES
Eyes around college basketball will be on Penny Hardaway and Memphis as the negativity continues to mount around his future. The Tigers absolutely collapsed last season, going from being ranked within the top 10 in mid-January to missing the postseason entirely two months later. Hardaway’s recruiting prowess — one of his big selling points when he took over the job and proceeded to land a top-ranked class — has faded.
There have also been a steady stream of off-court issues, ranging from NCAA problems to staff shakeups to academic suspensions. And, he brought back just one player from last season. There’s talent on the roster, but it will have to come together quickly.
One factor to consider is the school just hired a new athletic director; things had to get really, really bad before Michigan and Georgetown moved on from program legends. Will a new AD want to make a move less than 12 months into the job?
Another name to watch is Oregon State‘s Wayne Tinkle, who is entering his 11th season in charge of the Beavers. The school is making a temporary move to the WCC, but Tinkle needs to show dramatic improvement. Oregon State was 11-49 in Pac-12 play over the past three seasons, and he’s been to two NCAA tournaments in 10 years.
WHO’S UP NEXT?
At this time last year, the two names we earmarked to make moves to the high-major level were… Dusty May and Pat Kelsey.
This year, the name that will undoubtedly be linked with power conference jobs is Will Wade. The McNeese coach’s NCAA past is well-documented but he’s a proven winner at multiple spots. In his first year in the Southland, he guided McNeese to a dominant 30-4 campaign and the NCAA tournament. The Cowboys could be even better this season.
The the next tier of guys who might make the jump includes:
— Colorado State‘s Niko Medved, who was linked to a couple of jobs last spring after taking the Rams to their second NCAA tournament in three years.
— Loyola Chicago‘s Drew Valentine, who is 58-38 in three seasons as a head coach and is clearly on an upward trajectory.
— Princeton‘s Mitch Henderson, who took the Tigers on a surprising Sweet 16 run in 2023 and has won three straight Ivy League regular-season championships.
— Samford‘s Bucky McMillan, who simply plays an exciting brand of basketball (“Bucky Ball”) that got the Bulldogs to the NCAA tournament last season.
A pair of former high-major coaches are working themselves back into the equation, too, in UAB‘s Andy Kennedy and Grand Canyon‘s Bryce Drew. Don’t forget about Randy Bennett, who has led Saint Mary’s to a tremendous amount of success but has never shown an inclination to jump to another job.
Two other veteran coaches who should find themselves on lists next spring are VCU‘s Ryan Odom and Boise State‘s Leon Rice. Odom has led two programs to the dance – including 16-seed UMBC when it upset 1-seed Virginia — and has the Rams as the favorite in the Atlantic 10 this season. Rice has been to three straight NCAA tournaments and is projected to get back there again.
The “how have they not gotten a bigger job yet?” list includes Colgate‘s Matt Langel and Vermont‘s John Becker. Langel has won at least a share of five of the past six Patriot League regular-season titles, and gone to five NCAA tournaments over that span. Becker has won at least a share of eight straight America East titles, and been to the past three NCAA tournaments.
Six more coaches under the age of 50 who will continue to find themselves in the carousel conversation:
— High Point‘s Alan Huss, who led the Panthers to a regular-season title last season and could be better this year
— App State‘s Dustin Kerns, who actually led the Mountaineers to the Sun Belt title while all the focus was on James Madison
— UNC Wilmington‘s Takayo Siddle, who has won 73 games the last three seasons
— South Dakota State‘s Eric Henderson, who has gone to the NCAA tournament in two of the past three seasons
— UC Santa Barbara‘s Joe Pasternack, who is recruiting at a high level and has guided the Gauchos to a pair of tournament appearances
— Hofstra‘s Speedy Claxton, who has the name recognition and has won 66 games in three seasons at the helm.
Further down the potential dominoes is another handful of names: Norfolk State‘s Robert Jones, Yale‘s James Jones, Furman‘s Bob Richey, UNC Asheville‘s Mike Morrell, Toledo‘s Tod Kowalczyk, Bradley‘s Brian Wardle, Kent State‘s Rob Senderoff, Northern Kentucky‘s Darrin Horn and Montana State‘s Matt Logie.