playJeff BorzelloOct 15, 2026, 09:00 AM ETClose Basketball recruiting insider. Joined ESPN in 2014. Graduate of University of Delaware.Multiple AuthorsOpen Extended ReactionsIt’s time for our annual preseason coaching hot seat primer. And one trend continues to stand out: Coaches have a shorter runway.Revenue sharing and NIL have dramatically increased the amount of talent in college basketball, but they have also dramatically decreased the level of patience with coaches.
The emphasis on the transfer portal further means an expectation of quicker success, with donors wanting a return on bigger investments in the form of wins and NCAA tournament appearances.Just look at last year’s cycle. Providence ousted Kim English after three years at the helm, while Syracuse did the same with alum Adrian Autry. Damon Stoudamire lasted the same amount of time at Georgia Tech. North Carolina and Hubert Davis parted ways just two years after Davis guided the Tar Heels to a 1-seed and ACC championship.
Jerome Tang led Kansas State to the Elite Eight in his first season in 2023, but was let go in February of last season.In today’s climate, a coach is only one bad year away from feeling the heat.The growing transactional nature of roster construction has also nudged more coaches toward the exit. Dana Altman is the latest to do so, announcing his decision less than a month before this season is set to tip. Bruce Pearl retired less than two months before the start of last season. Tony Bennett stepped down weeks ahead of the 2024-25 campaign.
Greg McDermott, Jim Larrañaga, Leonard Hamilton, Thad Matta and Mark Schmidt also retired in the past two seasons.There’s another category of potential coaching changes: the NBA route. The path from college to NBA sideline was dormant for several years, but Dusty May might have restarted the trend this offseason, when he went from Michigan to the Dallas Mavericks.He’s part of a generation of coaches perceived to have the demeanor and tactical acumen to make the jump, a group that also includes Duke’s Jon Scheyer, Alabama’s Nate Oats, Florida’s Todd Golden and Arizona’s Tommy Lloyd, among others. The Mavericks pursued Scheyer before hiring May, and UConn’s Dan Hurley was offered the Los Angeles Lakers job back in 2024. Could someone else make the move next spring?It’s impossible to predict, six months out, whether a coaching carousel is going to be busy or slow — last year’s led to 54 coaching changes.
But between the hot seat, potential retirements and opportunities to jump to the next level, there undoubtedly will be movement.This primer is broken down by major conference, followed by names to watch around Division I.Jump to: ACC | Big 12 | Big East | Big Ten | SEC | Other notables | Who’s up next?ACCHot seat watchThere were varying levels of speculation regarding the job status of Pitt’s Jeff Capel, Notre Dame’s Micah Shrewsberry and Wake Forest’s Steve Forbes last season. In reality, Shrewsberry and Forbes weren’t in real danger of losing their jobs, despite down seasons, while Pitt’s poor season necessitated an announcement from athletic director Allen Greene that Capel would return for a ninth season — which generally isn’t a great sign moving forward.Entering this season, all three need a strong campaign.Capel has reached the NCAA tournament just once in the course of eight up-and-down seasons with the Panthers. After four struggle-filled campaigns to open his tenure, Pitt won 24 games in 2022-23 and 22 games the following season, gaining some momentum. But the Panthers took a step back in 2024-25 and then finished 13-20 overall last season, going 5-13 in ACC play.
Capel signed a contract extension in 2024 through the 2029-30 season, and the school would still owe him around $10 million if it moved on after this season.The Irish have shown promise during Shrewsberry’s tenure in South Bend but bottomed out last season, failing to qualify for the ACC tournament after finishing 4-14 in the league and 13-18 overall. Shrewsberry is now just 41-56 overall in three seasons, with a 20-39 ACC record. His top three scorers transferred out in the spring, so a pivotal year will feature plenty of new faces. Shrewsberry’s contract runs through the 2029-30 season.Forbes is 110-82 overall in his six seasons in Winston-Salem, with no NCAA tournament appearances in that time, hovering around the bubble pretty much every year from 2022-25.
Wake Forest struggled during the middle third of last season, dropping 9 of 11 games en route to an 18-17 overall finish. The Demon Deacons lost nearly every player in the spring, and didn’t have the resources to go into the portal and upgrade on the departures.Retirement watchVirginia Tech’s Mike Young, 63, signed a one-year contract extension over the summer, or he would have been entering the final year of his deal. The Hokies haven’t gone dancing since 2022, the second of back-to-back NCAA tournament appearances under Young. They’ve won exactly 19 games in three of the past four seasons, but haven’t finished above .500 in the ACC since that 2022 tournament trip.
The Hokies do bring back their top two scorers, however, which could prompt a bounce-back season.BIG EASTWorth monitoringFollowing three coaching changes this offseason, there shouldn’t be much drama in the Big East next spring. The only coach facing any real pressure is Georgetown’s Ed Cooley, who is entering Year 4 with the Hoyas without an NCAA tournament appearance or a Big East finish above .500. When Georgetown hired Cooley away from Providence, he was coming off back-to-back NCAA tournament appearances and a Sweet 16 run in 2022.Needless to say, the expectations were much higher. If Vince Iwuchukwu and NJ Benson are eligible to play, Cooley does have the players to make a tournament push.
It’s also worth remembering he originally signed a long-term contract that reportedly pays him nearly $6 million a year, meaning there’s likely a sizable chunk of money left on his deal after this season.BIG TENAlready spinningThe carousel started spinning in the Big Ten last week, when longtime Oregon coach Dana Altman announced his retirement after 16 years at the helm. Assistant coach Tony Stubblefield will be the interim coach for the upcoming season, and the school says it will conduct a search for Altman’s permanent replacement in the spring. Where the Ducks look will depend on which hot coaching candidates have good seasons, or which sitting high-major coaches are possibly looking to make a jump.Potential candidates: Saint Louis’ Josh Schertz and New Mexico’s Eric Olen will likely be at the top of the list, although a big season from Pacific Northwest-adjacent mid-major coaches such as Seattle’s Chris Victor, Montana State’s Matt Logie or Boise State’s Leon Rice could make them intriguing. Could a proven power-conference head coach — more in line with Altman, like TCU’s Jamie Dixon, look to move?Hot seat watchThings have warmed up pretty quickly for Penn State’s Mike Rhoades and Washington’s Danny Sprinkle.Rhoades signed a huge seven-year contract when the Nittany Lions hired him in 2023, after a five-year stretch that saw him lead VCU to three NCAA tournaments.
But Penn State hasn’t sniffed the tournament since he arrived in State College, finishing last in the Big Ten a year ago with a 12-20 overall, 3-17 conference record. Athletic director Pat Kraft has made it clear that spending big bucks on a basketball roster is not a priority, saying “it’s not a good investment,” and Penn State faces an uphill battle to move up in the league. Rhoades still has around $11 million remaining on his deal after this season.Sprinkle didn’t have the same funding issues for his second season at Washington, putting together a talented, high-priced roster. But it never quite came together, and the Huskies ultimately finished 16-17 overall, 7-13 in the Big Ten.
After going to three straight NCAA tournaments with Montana State and Utah State before taking over in S
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