2023 NCAA Basketball Coaching Carousel

We have all your college basketball coaching changes and analysis of the coaching carousel.

3-1-23 original article posted.

Of the firings so far obviously the Chris Beard and Greg Heiar situations stand out off the court. Beard is a coach that might need a couple of years for the dust to settle but will find another head job now that the charges were dropped. It just becomes who will go there first seemingly and how soon. I would have said something similar about Gregg Marshall but he’s still out of coaching currently with no one really kicking the tires last year. Perhaps this is the year someone takes a look. I’m looking at you New Mexico State with your new opening.

Heiar seems to have things outside the actual basketball following him around, so that might have been his last chance in D1. Mike Brey is about to turn 64 years old this month. He received a bit of early retirement in the wording. It’s possible that was more lip service, and he might find another mid-major or lower job if he doesn’t want to actually retire at this point.

G.G Smith‘s firing after only one year is interesting. The way Tubby Smith stepped down last season leaving his son in charge as the interim doesn’t seem to have sat well with the AD. This has happened in the past, most notably with Bob Knight stepping away in season and letting his son take over. That didn’t last long either, but this was even more short-lived. The athletic director must have not appreciated being put in that situation and has treated G.G. Smith as an extension of the Tubby Smith era as it seems. In that context, the firing seems pretty justified coming off of 4 straight losing seasons at High Point.

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Jim Boeheim

Well this is sad to see. We first started to worry about this possibility in early December when we placed Boeheim on the hot seat. Even back then just reading the signs it felt like they were going to have to make him stop similar to how Florida State did in football with Bobby Bowden. You hate to see a legend not be able to go out on a high note or even on his own terms. The problem is Boeheim has set his terms of exit for the last half-decade it seems even with declining success.

I think most Syracuse fans and observers thought he would retire after his sons left and the powers that be had given that space. He had even stated he would retire in 2018 but continued on when his sons started playing. He probably should have retired after a 16-17 (9-11) last year when his NET rankings weren’t even as strong as his age (78 years old) Boeheim is a legend and no doubt he wants to go out on a high note, not a losing season last year so this is a hard situation.

The bigger problem I see is that he signed more freshmen than almost anyone while other coaches were out heavy in the portal and college basketball is older than ever with covid super seniors. I still don’t understand the logic in that one and the lack of success this year was predictable considering these weren’t blue-chip freshmen. If anyone needed to hit the portal hard it was for grad transfers and ready players it was Boheim. He didn’t and now all indications point to him being fired. 57 years at Syracuse, 47 as the coach. That is a legendary run that I wish hadn’t come to an end this way.

As for his replacement, I can’t say I really understand hiring the 51-year-old riding shotgun if you don’t like the state of the program. Autry has been there since 2011, and it’s not been the greatest period of Syracuse basketball. If that was the alternative I think I would just have Boheim back. I really think they needed a fresh start outside the Syracuse family. Certainly not on staff.

Mark Adams

There is some fall out here that isn’t worth getting into the specifics in my opinion. I think Texas Tech was glad to move on from Adams anyway for basketball reasons regardless. Yes, he had a nice season last year taking over for Chris Beard and much of the team he left, but he’s also 67 years old in May and is 87-116 in his career. What were they really giving up moving on now? Chris Beard is in talks with Ole Miss, wonder if they could use this to call him. Ole Miss seems to have already paved the road for schools to make the call at least about a possible return. I’m sure that’s something they will consider.

Rick Pitino

With Pitino taking the job at St John’s there really isn’t much precedent for 70-year-olds taking on new jobs at this age. Pitino signed a 6 year deal and it’s pretty clear he wants to finish his career on a high note in a major conference. After how it ended at Louisville and the long road it has taken to get back I think he will have more motivation than typical 70+ year olds have. This is a good hire for St. John’s but you have to wonder if Pitino might have wanted to finish at Providence if the job had opened sooner having pretty much started his stardom there. It would have been a better ending to go back, probably.

Mike Brey

I never bought the excuse Brey was resigning on his own and going to retire. Clearly that was not the case as he’s taken the South Florida job. USF was paying top 80 pay to Brian Gregory. It will be interesting to see what they had to pay to get Brey. The last 6 years haven’t been that great for Brey and you really have to wonder how much he has in the tank at 64. Most people going to Florida are on the retirement path even if he rejected that. I’m not convinced this is a great move for USF.

Ed Cooley

Jumping from one Big East school you have in the NCAA’s and some good returning player to another is a bit of a head-scratcher on the surface. Patrick Ewing was making 4 million dollars compared to Cooley’s 3.45 million at Providence. I haven’t seen the details yet but there has to be a lot of financial incentive. I would expect Cooley will have Georgetown on the turnaround very soon, possibly as soon as next year. It should be easier to recruit from and to Washington DC as well. I do belive Georgetown is the better job in a vacuum.