March Madness is here, but many schools around the country have already had their seasons come to end. For these teams, it’s all about the future, which means figuring out if your program is going in the right direction, or if something a little different needs to be done to get back on track.
The 2016 college basketball coaching tracker: who’s fired, who’s changing jobs and more
With the end of the regular season comes the start of the coaching carousel. Keep track of which teams are changing coaches this offseason.
Jeff Curry-USA TODAY Sports
And that means lots of coaching changes. We’ve already seen a handful of changes made and can surely expect more to come over the next few months. From Greg Gard acing his interim audition to get the head job at Wisconsin to Damon Stoudamire getting his first chance at a head coaching job at Pacific, there are plenty of intriguing lines around the country with the coaching carrousel in full swing.
Here is a running tracker of every coaching move so far. This will be constantly updated throughout the offseason until every program fills its head coaching vacancy.
| 2015-16 COACH | SCHOOL | 2016-17 COACH |
|---|---|---|
| Bo Ryan Retired | Wisconsin | Greg Gard |
| After leading the Badgers to two straight Final Fours (including the championship game last season), Ryan abruptly announced his retirement on Dec. 15. At the time, Wisconsin was 6-5 and in real danger of missing the NCAA Tournament. However, interim coach Greg Gard led a drastic turnaround -- the Badgers went 12-5 in Big Ten play, and made the NCAA Tournament easily. That was, as it turns out, enough to earn the full-time promotion, and now Gard has Wisconsin in the Sweet Sixteen. | ||
| John Brady Resigned | Arkansas State | Grant McCasland |
| Brady announced his resignation in December, effective at the end of the season, so he's essentially been a lame duck for half the year. Brady took over Arkansas State in 2008, following an 11-year tenure at LSU. He led the Red Wolves to four winning years and two Sun Belt regular season titles in eight seasons, but never made the NCAA Tournament or the NIT. McCasland comes to Arkansas State after five years as an assistant under Scott Drew at Baylor. | ||
| Johnny Dawkins Fired | Stanford | Jerod Haase |
| The Cardinal made the NCAA Tournament just once in eight years with Dawkins at the helm. They did make the Sweet 16 that season (2014), and have captured two NIT titles. But a 15-15 2015-'16 campaign turned out to be the last straw for Stanford. The Cardinal have since tapped one of the more intriguing young guns in the sport by grabbing Haase from UAB, where he led the Blazers to a first round upset of Iowa State as a No. 14 seed. | ||
| Trent Johnson Fired | TCU | Jamie Dixon |
| Johnson arrived just as TCU was moving to the Big 12 — and proceeded to go 50-79 over four years. The Horned Frogs won just eight conference games under Johnson and went 12-21 this season. His replacement is a big get for the program: Jamie Dixon. Dixon comes back to his alma mater after 13 years as the head coach at Pitt, where he compiled a 451-328 record and led the Panthers to 11 NCAA Tournament appearances. Pitt wasn't crushed to see him go, but he still injects life in a TCU program that rarely seems very exciting. | ||
| Jamie Dixon Hired by TCU | Pittsburgh | Kevin Stallings |
| Dixon's teams' style of play and his lackluster postseason results had left many Pitt stakeholders without strong feelings for him; some were probably even happy to see him leave town. Hiring Stallings from Vanderbilt — even without considering that he had previously clashed with Vanderbilt transfer Sheldon Jeter — doesn't seem to solve the problems of either pace or performance. In 17 years with the Commodores, Stallings led Vanderbilt to two Sweet Sixteens, and missed the NCAA Tournament 10 times. Attribute as much of those struggles to Vanderbilt's unique place as the most academically rigorous school in the SEC or its fourth-fiddle status behind Kentucky, Florida, and Tennessee in what used to be the SEC East as you'd like: it's still a resume that won't get many Panthers fans excited. | ||
| Ed Conroy Fired | Tulane | TBD |
| One winning season in six years at the helm just wasn't good enough for Tulane. Conroy never led Tulane to the NCAA or NIT Tournament and went just 92-103 as head coach. He only had one winning season as well and Tulane was just 12-22 this season. | ||
| Donnie Jones Fired | UCF | Johnny Dawkins |
| He went 79-88 in six years with UCF and his team had a disastrous 2015-'16 season (12-18). Jones' record in the American Athletic Conference (34-61) was even worse and UCF has failed to make it out if the first round of the conference's tournament for the past two seasons. Nabbing the Stanford-fired Dawkins is an interesting move, but new UCF AD Danny White has ties to the Duke program that made Dawkins: his father, Kevin, is Duke's AD. | ||
Dave Rice Fired | UNLV | TBD |
| RIce's record over his five-year stretch as the UNLV head coach was actually solid (98-54). He also made the NCAA Tournament in his first two years in Vegas. The issue: his teams failed to make the NCAA Tournament the last two seasons. Rice was fired in January after dropping three straight conference games. His assistant Todd Simon took over as interim head coach, but left for Southern Utah during a week in which UNLV publicly courted Cincinnati's Mick Cronin. | ||
Bryce Drew Reportedly hired by Vanderbilt | Valparaiso | TBD |
| Sports Illustrated's Pete Thamel reported Monday that Drew, the Crusaders' head coach for the last five seasons, is likely to leave to become the head coach at Vanderbilt. Drew won four Horizon League regular season championships in five tries with Valpo and made two NCAA Tournaments. He'd be a tough loss. | ||
| Kerry Keating Fired | Santa Clara | TBD |
| Keating was the head coach at Santa Clara since 2007. He went 139-159 over the span, struggled in the West Coast Conference and led Santa Clara to just two postsesason tournaments births, neither of them the NCAA Tournament or NIT. | ||
| Jim Crews Fired | Saint Louis | TBD |
| Crews went 77-56 in four seasons with Saint Louis. The majority of those wins, however, came in his first two years there. He made it to the NCAA Tournament in each of those years but Saint Louis has gone just 12-42 over the last two seasons. | ||
Bill Courtney Fired | Cornell | TBD |
| Courtney was given six years to lead Cornell to an Ivy League title and NCAA Tournament. But Courtney's teams never finished higher than fifth in the conference and went just 60-113 over that span. | ||
| Bruiser Flint Fired | Drexel | TBD |
| Flint was the head coach of Drexel for 15 years. His teams went 245-217 and made it to the NIT five times. They struggled the last two years, though, going 17-44 and just 3-15 in the Colonial Athletic Conference this season. | ||
| Brooks Thompson Fired | UTSA | TBD |
| Thompson remained for 10 years, despite an unimpressive 133-178 record. He did lead UTSA to the NCAA Tournament in 2011 (and a victory in the First Four round), but went just 5-27 this season and 3-14 in Conference USA games. | ||
| Aki Thomas Fired | UMBC | TBD |
| Thomas went 28-95 in four years and 15-51 in America East Conference games. A 3-13 conference record this season was the last straw for UMBC. | ||
| Joe Scott Fired | Denver | Rodney Billups |
| Scott went 146-132 in nine seasons with Denver but his teams never made the NCAA Tournament. He did get Denver to the NIT in 2013, but a 7-9 Summit League Conference record led to his firing and the hiring of Billups, 33, the younger brother of Colorado legend and NBA star Chauncey and a former Colorado assistant coach in hid own right. | ||
| Matt Brady Mutual parting | James Madison | TBD |
| Brady led James Madison into four postseason tournament, including the NCAA Tournament in 2013. He also went 138-125 in eight seasons and 20-9 this year but did poorly in the CAA conference tournament. | ||
| Howie Dickenman Retired | Central Connecticut | TBD |
| Dickenman, 69, has spent 26 seasons at Central Connecticut, first as a player then an assistant coach and finally as a head coach for the last 20 years. His teams made the NCAA Tournament three times but went just 9-51 the last two season. | ||
| Byron Rimm II Resigned | Prairie View A&M | |
| Rimm resigned after eight seasons January, with his team 1-16. He left with a career record of 121-198 and was replaced by Smith, who had the interim tag removed after the season following the team's hot finish to the year (four wins in its last six games). | ||
| Cy Alexander Resigned | North Carolina A&T | TBD |
| Alexander's first year with the Aggies (2012-13) was a success, when his team won the MEAC Tournament and reached the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1995. It's been all downhill from there -- NC A&T went 9-23 the next two seasons, and Alexander resigned with a 5-17 record this season. | ||
| Ron Verlin Fired | Pacific | Damon Stoudamire |
| Verlin's fate was sealed after an NCAA investigation of academic misconduct led to a self-imposed postseason ban and a suspension of Verlin. But even without the off-court scandal, it's doubtful Verlin would've lasted much longer in Stockton -- the Tigers went just 30-65 in his three seasons. Verlin proved to be a poor successor to Bob Thomason, who coached Pacific for 25 years and made the NCAA Tournament four times. Former NBA star Stoudamire is a splashy hire, but he's actually spent several years as an assistant coach, both at Memphis and alma mater Arizona. | ||
| Billy Donlon Fired | Wright State | TBD |
| Donlon's Raiders made the Horizon League Tournament final in 2016, but while that likely kept Valparaiso out of the NCAA Tournament, it couldn't keep Donlon employed. In his six seasons at Dayton's lower-profile Division I school, Donlon led the Raiders to three 20-win marks and two postseason appearances, one in the CBI and the other in CollegeInsider.com's tournament. And Donlon's teams never finished in the top 100 of KenPom, though Brad Brownell led the Raiders to three such seasons in the previous years in Dayton. | ||
| Travis Ford Fired | Oklahoma State | Brad Underwood |
| Ford was fired after his Cowboys went 12-20 in his eighth season in Stillwater, finishing the 2015-16 campaign by losing 16 of their last 19 games after the beginning of non-conference play (and somehow beating Kansas for one of the three wins in that span). In his eight seasons with the Cowboys, Ford's teams notched one NCAA Tournament win, doing so against Tennessee in 2009. After that, their only postseason win under Ford came against Harvard in the 2011 Postseason NIT. In Underwood, who comes to Stillwater from Stephen F. Austin, the Cowboys now have a coach who led the Lumberjacks to two NCAA Tournament wins as a double-digit seed. | ||
| Brad Underwood Hired by Oklahoma State | Stephen F. Austin | TBD |
| Underwood built on the success Danny Kaspar had in Nacogdoches, leading the Lumberjacks to three straight NCAA Tournament appearances and two unlikely wins, and compiling an absurd 89-14 record over his three years. It will be interesting to see if the Jacks try to find a coach who can replicate Underwood's unorthodox system of pressing on both offense and defense. | ||
| Brian Gregory Fired | Georgia Tech | TBD |
| The writing was on the wall for Gregory, who succeeded the underwhelming Paul Hewitt and managed to be even more underwhelming in his own right with the Yellow Jackets: it was a minor surprise back in 2015 that he was even retained for the 2015-16 season. Gregory never got GT to a record better than the 21-15 mark it posted in 2015-16 in his five years in Atlanta, but that record came with just an 8-10 ACC record, and didn't get the Yellow Jackets all that close to the 2016 NCAA Tournament field. | ||
| Kevin Stallings Hired by Pittsburgh | Vanderbilt | Bryce Drew (reportedly) |
| Stallings had spent the better part of two decades in Nashville, and there was a growing sense that his time was coming to a close. Vandy has one NCAA Tournament appearance in the last four years, and no-showed it: the Commodores' blowout loss to Wichita State in Dayton was one of the worst performances of this year's tournament. If Pete Thamel's Monday report is true, however, Valparaiso's Bryce Drew is an excellent replacement. | ||
| Rex Walters Fired | San Francisco | Kyle Smith |
| The Dons haven't been to the NCAA Tournament since 1998, and are about as far removed from their Bill Russell-led heyday as can be, but Walters appeared to have things pointed in the right direction, making three postseason appearances from 2011 to 2014. But a 2014 NIT appearance and a 21-12 record will be Walters's high-water mark: he was fired in early March after a 15-15 year, and replaced in late March by Smith, who has had some success at Columbia, another private school with demanding academic requirements. | ||
| James Green "Mutually Agreed" To Part | Jacksonville State | TBD |
| Green took over from Mike LaPlante and made the Gamecocks into an occasionally feisty member of the Ohio Valley Conference, finishing in the top 200 of KenPom for the first time in the history of the efficiency-based website's rankings in 2011-12 and going 17-11 in 2012-13. But his teams hadn't come close to .500 over the last three seasons, and his departure — after being the first black head coach at Jacksonville State — opens the door for new blood. | ||
| Kyle Smith Hired by San Francisco | Columbia | Jim Engles |
| Smith's depature left the Lions in a bit of a bind: though they haven't been to the NCAA Tournament since 1968, Smith didn't get them particularly close, topping out at third place in the increasingly competitive Ivy League in 2016. Yet his successes dwarf those of most Columbia coaches, and his teams were 6-1 in postseason play, including a CIT championship this year. Losing that coach is a big blow — but hiring Engles, whose improvement of NJIT from a national punchline to a 20-win team was just short of a miracle, is an inspired move. | ||
| Jim Engles Hired by Columbia | NJIT | TBD |
| Engles led the Highlanders to the sort of success rarely seen in Newark, taking over for James Paul Casciano in their third year of Division I play and with the team on a 33-game losing streak. That streak would extend to 51 games under Engles, but everything since that first year in 2008-09 has been a credit to his coaching and program-building. NJIT has just two losing seasons since back-to-back seasons as the worst team in Division I, and has as many 20-win years, with back-to-back trips to the CIT semifinals over the last two. | ||
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