College Basketball’s Coaching Carousel: Tracking the Hirings, Firings and Rumored Moves

The first weekend of March Madness is in the books, meaning that we’ve gone from 68 men’s basketball teams vying for the national championship to just 16. It also means that we now have 52 more teams facing the offseason, and with it, whatever coaching and roster changes might be to come.

That’s right folks—the coaching carousel is in full swing.

On one end of the spectrum, there are coaches at smaller programs who have proven themselves ready to potentially make the leap to a power school. On the other end, there are those leading power programs currently that haven’t produced the results expected of them. The result is a lot of movement, and we’re tracking it all here.

Who’s been hired?

Arizona State snags former Saint Mary’s coach Randy Bennett on five-year deal

In what may end up being the best pound-for-pound hire of the cycle, Arizona State finally coaxed the Mesa, Ariz., native back home after an incredible run of consistent success at Saint Mary’s. ASU had long been circled as a potential destination if Bennett ever left Moraga, Calif., but many considered him a lifer there; after all, he just completed his 25th year on the job. Pulling him at a job most considered to be near the bottom of the Big 12 is a massive win. Even if he’s only able to land the same caliber of player he has in the latter part of his Saint Mary’s tenure, he’ll have the Sun Devils consistently in the NCAA tournament.

The big question: How much did conference realignment play into Bennett’s decision? With Gonzaga leaving the WCC for the new Pac-12, Saint Mary’s would have had a tougher time consistently getting at-large bids. That had to have made a move to the Big 12 more attractive.

Saint Mary’s promotes associate head coach Mickey McConnell to top job

Saint Mary’s didn’t wait long to fill the void left by Bennett’s jump to Arizona State, promoting associate head coach Mickey McConnell to the top of the program. McConnell played for the Gaels under Bennett from 2007 to ’11 and his 1,234 points are the 12th most in program history. After playing professionally internationally for eight years, McConnell returned to Saint Mary’s as an assistant in 2019 and ascended to associate head coach in ’22.

Gerry McNamara returns home to Syracuse

Two years after leaving Adrian Autry’s staff to take over the program at Siena, McNamara is set to return to his alma mater, replacing Autry as the second consecutive former Jim Boeheim assistant to take over the program since the Hall of Famer’s retirement.

McNamara impressed, elevating the Saints from four wins to 14 in his first year, and winning the MAAC despite a depleted roster and taking No. 1 overall seed Duke to the brink in the first round of the NCAA tournament in Year 2. Even so, is he the new voice that Syracuse needs, after being on staff for a large portion of the program’s slide to mediocrity under Boeheim and Autry? Will the NIL draw of an Orange legend helming the program help Syracuse catch up in the college basketball arms race? These are the significant questions that McNamara will need to answer quickly.

Gerry McNamara will be Syracuse’s next head coach after taking Siena to the NCAA men’s tournament. | Alex Martin/Greenville News / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Providence hires Bryan Hodgson

Hodgson’s profile has been surging over the past few years. The former Nate Oats assistant turned Arkansas State into one of the Sun Belt’s best programs in just two years, and made South Florida the class of the American, leading them to a conference title and the NCAA tournament this year. Just under a year from the day that he took the Bulls job, he announced his departure for Providence, a job in his native Northeast and a step up in play to the Big East.

Cincinnati preparing to land Utah State coach Jerrod Calhoun

Cincinnati fired Wes Miller after five largely unsuccessful seasons, and the program has now gone seven years without reaching the NCAA tournament. The Bearcats are rumored to have a deal with someone who has done just that two years in a row.

Jerrod Calhoun has led Utah State to the tournament in each of the last two seasons, and advanced to the second round this year with an 86–76 win over Villanova. While in charge of the Aggies, the 44-year-old Calhoun has a record of 55–15 (.786), and this season his squad won the Mountain West regular-season and conference tournament titles.

Calhoun previously coached at Youngstown State and Division II Fairmont State, compiling a 297–159 (.651) record in 15 seasons as a head coach. Plus, he’s a Cincinnati alum with tons of ties to the region, making this one a slam dunk.

Wes Miller lands at Charlotte

Speaking of Miller, he found a bounce back quickly. With the Bearcats, he went 100–74 (.575) and never reached the NCAA tournament. That followed 10 largely successful seasons at UNC Greensboro where he won three Southern Conference regular-season titles and reached the NCAA tournament twice.

The former national title-winning North Carolina point guard is now back in the state after agreeing to a five-year deal at Charlotte. Miller is 43 and moving back down a level to the American Conference might be what he needs to turn his career around.

Georgia Tech hires Scott Cross

Two straight tournament appearances landed Troy’s Scott Cross a big step up. Georgia Tech hired him late last week after the Trojans bowed out in the first round of the tournament the second year in a row. Cross led his program to back-to-back Sun Belt regular-season and tournament titles, and that was enough for the Yellow Jackets to tab him as Damon Stoudamire’s replacement. Georgia Tech associate athletic director Brent Jones was Troy’s athletic director when Cross was hired in 2019.

The 51-year-old Cross went 9–22 in his first season at Troy, then improved to 11–17 during the 2020–21 campaign before ripping off five consecutive 20-plus win seasons. Cross went 125–99 (.558) in seven seasons at Troy, which followed 12 seasons at his alma mater UT Arlington. He’ll take over a Georgia Tech program that hasn’t made the NCAA tournament since 2021.

Bluebloods we’re monitoring

Hubert Davis is on the hot seat in North Carolina after early March Madness exit

Speculation about Davis’s future as the head coach in Chapel Hill has intensified rapidly since North Carolina’s collapse in the NCAA tournament to VCU. The current belief among many around the sports is that Dacvis has coached his final game in Chapel Hill, N.C. How that’s labeled (firing, mutual parting, even retirement) remains to be seen, but North Carolina seems poised to enter the coaching carousel and could well hire from outside the Carolina family for the first time in more than a half-century. Assuming it opens, the candidate pool should be elite, from Bulls head coach Billy Donovan to top college names like Tommy Lloyd and T.J. Otzelberger.

North Carolina Tar Heels head coach Hubert Davis. — Hubert Davis’s seat is getting hotter at North Carolina. | Bob Donnan-Imagn Images

Bill Self dishes on retirement rumors

Retirement rumors with the 63-year-old Self have swirled, especially since Kansas brought back former Jayhawk player Jacque Vaughn as an assistant from the NBA ranks. Self was noncommittal about his future Sunday in the aftermath of Kansas’s loss to St. John’s, citing health concerns.

If Self retires, Vaughn seems well-positioned to be his successor. He has NBA head coaching experience, strong ties to the Kansas program, and has gotten a year under his belt learning the college game from Self. A second year as Self’s protégé could help seal the deal.

What else we’ve been hearing

The next high-major job to wrap up its search seems likely to be Boston College, a search that has been ongoing for a little over two weeks and has included at least 10 different candidates. The issue with Boston College is it has presented to candidates what is believed to be the lowest overall roster budget pool (NIL plus revenue sharing) of any power conference job. Names Sports Illustrated has heard here throughout the process include UConn assistant Luke Murray, New Mexico’s Eric Olen and a slew of regional mid-major head coaches.

The other currently open high-major job is Butler, which got a slightly late start after Thad Matta’s retirement. Atlanta Hawks assistant Ronald Nored, a former Butler guard, has a strong reputation in NBA circles and is believed to be a strong contender. Other names worth monitoring are a pair of sitting MAC head coaches in Akron’s John Groce and Miami (Ohio)’s Travis Steele. Groce is an Indiana native who spent a year working under Matta at Butler, while Steele is a Butler alum. Athletic director Grant Leiendecker is expected to explore options outside the usual Butler coaching tree as well.

Chatter can’t seem to dissipate about Matt McMahon’s future at LSU, who missed the NCAA tournament for the fourth time in a row to start his tenure. Tethered to those rumors is the potential return of Will Wade, once fired in disgrace by the Tigers before revitalizing his career at McNeese and NC State. Wade tried to shut down those rumors during the ACC tournament, but they’ll linger until something more definitive is said about McMahon’s future … and even then will just get pushed on to next year’s cycle.

Other jobs to watch

Utah State has become something of a coaching factory of late, sending four coaches to high-majors since 2020. The first of that wave, Craig Smith, is out of work after getting fired at Utah last year and could stabilize things. Or, Utah State could stick with the mold that has worked of late and target successful mid-major coaches like Utah Valley’s Todd Phillips and Seattle’s Chris Victor.
Similarly enticing is South Florida, one of the best-resourced non-power jobs and a place with a ton of momentum after the job Hodgson did in his one season there. They seem to be casting a wide net with sitting head coaches, including many of the top mid-major coaches who struck out this cycle on bigger jobs.
The leader at St. Bonaventure is still believed to be Daemen coach Mike MacDonald, a Bonaventure alum. Daemen is 33–1 and plays in the D-II Elite Eight on Wednesday.

More March Madness From Sports Illustrated

Listen to SI’s college sports podcast, Others Receiving Votes, below or on Apple and Spotify. Watch the show on the SI College YouTube channel.