By Aidan Joly
The college hoops season might still be almost six months away, but it’s never too early to take a look at the hot seat entering the season.
This spring, 58 programs across the country changed head coaches, so eight potential ones for the 2023-24 season won’t even be the tip of the iceberg, but we’ll get into some high-profile guys who need to have a good season, or potentially walk the plank.
Jerod Haase, Stanford
It was something of a surprise that Haase kept his job this spring following a 14-19 campaign and 7-13 in the Pac-12, the Cardinal’s fifth straight campaign in the league at .500 or worse. In seven years at the helm, Haase is 112-109 overall and 59-72 in the Pac-12 and only has one NIT appearance to his credit.
The past two seasons, the program has had to come out and announce that Haase would return, so he may not get a third announcement.
Fred Hoiberg, Nebraska
It’s easy to infer that the lone reason Hoiberg is still running the show in Lincoln is his substantial buyout, which is still at $10 million if he is fired on or before March 31, 2024, according to BetMGM. On April 1, 2024, it drops to $7 million, still a rather hefty sum.
It might be a bit before he is out, thanks to what is fair to say is the worst coach contract in the sport right now. In four years, Hoiberg is 40-83 overall and 18-61 in the Big Ten.
Wayne Tinkle, Oregon State
Tinkle earned himself a four-year contract extension after leading Oregon State to the Elite Eight in 2021, but followed up with a 3-28 campaign in 2021-22, 1-19 in the Pac-12. Not much improvement happened this past season, 5-15 in league play and 11-21 overall.
Now, a coach who has won all of six league games in two years and has only been over .500 once in league play in nine tries is under contract through 2027, with a buyout that is surely eight figures.
Mike Hopkins, Washington
Hopkins probably should have been gone after going 5-21 in the 2020-21 season, but the buyout reared its head again. Since then, Washington has hovered .500, but went 8-12 in the Pac-12 last season and 16-16 overall, but had losses to Cal Baptist and the aforementioned Oregon State.
He’s under contract through 2025, so it behoove the administration to pull the trigger a year early. NCAA tournament or bust? Hopkins hasn’t gotten the Huskies there since 2019, the only time he’s gotten them there since he took over in 2017.
Bobby Hurley, Arizona State
Hurley in Arizona was a weird geographical pairing from the start, and despite some success (NCAA tournament in 2018, 2019 and 2023), it’s been largely mediocrity for that program since he came to Tempe in 2015. The Sun Devils have gone 141-113 and 71-76 in the Pac-12 in that time.
It’s been a slow rebuild of the program, but those in charge might be getting impatient.
Kenny Payne, Louisville
It’s rare for a guy to be on a list like this after just one year running the show, but here we are. Payne’s first year at Louisville was a total disaster, 2-18 in ACC play and 4-28 overall.
Payne won a national championship at Louisville as a player, spent a decade as an assistant under John Calipari and was regarded as a great recruiter, but his first time as a head coach was a total flop. If there isn’t some major improvement in year two, a program with the resources of Louisville probably won’t hesitate to make a move.
Greg Gard, Wisconsin
Second-year athletic director Chris McIntosh made a surprising move last fall with a mid-season firing of popular and fairly successful football coach Paul Chryst. It’s a type of move that signals a new era of aggressiveness and expectations at the athletics giant. Hockey coach Tony Granato was fired in March, albeit after a 13-23 overall, 6-18 Big Ten season.
Gard hasn’t done a bad job – five NCAA tournaments, two trips to the second weekend, but the program has only won two tournament games since 2017. On top of that, Wisconsin missed the tournament for just the second time since 1999 last March. There will surely be lots of pressure on Gard this year from an aggressive AD who did not hire him.
Bob Huggins, West Virginia
It was an ugly situation for Huggins, who used an anti-gay slur during an appearance on a Cincinnati radio station earlier this month.
Part of his punishment included a salary reduction, his contract going year-to-year and he will be suspended the Mountaineers’ first three games this season. A case can certainly be made that Huggins should have lost his job for the remark.
Huggins will be 70 years old by the time the season starts. West Virginia hasn’t performed up to usual expectations the past few years. Now that his contract isn’t multi-year, it might be getting to be that time for that marriage to end.
AJ Hoops 