College Basketball Hot Seat Report

Welcome to the Hot Seat Report, an updating list of college basketball head coaches with low job security. With each update, coaches will be added, removed and shuffled around based on their performance (note: coaches are listed alphabetically).

To see the list of coaching changes that have already happened, head over to the Coaching Carousel page.

** UPDATED DEC 29, 2025 **

YOUR CHAIR IS ON FIRE, SIR

Coaches at the end of the line at their current school. You should be seeing them here soon enough.

• Earl Grant (Boston College)
  • Grant is year five at Boston College and coming off a regression in 2024-25 which saw his Eagles go just 12-19 (4-16) after finally reaching the 20-win mark the year prior. This is not a powerhouse program by any means, but one NIT being the highlight of your tenure is still pretty bleak, especially in a conference that is relatively wide open outside of the couple teams at the very top. Earl was hired in 2021 without any real connections to the city and fans (rightfully) questioned how well he could do at BC despite his success at Charleston. His predecessor Jim Christian was given seven years and only finished above .500 once, and Earl’s deal currently runs through 2028-29 (which would be year seven). UPDATE: BC has started ACC play 0-3, and when you add that to a 7-6 non-conf record that included losses to Central Connecticut and Davidson, the situation continues to be bleak for Grant.
• Bobby Hurley (Arizona State)
  • Hurley has been on the hot seat for several years now and this season is no different: three NCAA Tournament appearances (zero wins) in ten seasons, a brutal 4-16 mark in ASU’s first season in the Big 12 and a noticeable drop in recruiting success has his seat as hot as it gets. A major roster turnover hit the program this offseason, with twelve guys transferring out, including prized recruit Jayden Quaintance (a former UK commit who will now actually play for the Wildcats) and literally all other players who averaged 5 or more points last season. They were replaced by mid-major transfers and three-star recruits who will have a lot to prove. This is the last year of Hurley’s deal and it’s hard to imagine anything other than a surprise trip to the NCAAs is going to get him an extension. UPDATE: The Sun Devils have wins over Texas and Oklahoma but have started league play 1-2 and already have six total losses.
• Wes Miller (Cincinnati)
  • This is year five for Miller, who took over the Bearcats’ program in 2021 after a successful ten-year run at UNC Greensboro that included two NCAA bids (2018, 2021). He has yet to get Cincy to the Big Dance, though, with just two NITs and a trip to the Vegas in 2025 for the College Basketball Crown. The team won just 7 conference games in each of their first two seasons in the Big 12, finishing near the bottom each year. Miller is coming off his worst season at UC and while he has a very coach-friendly deal, his ~$10M buyout will drop to just under $5M on 4/1/26. UPDATE: The 8-8 Bearcats have had a lot of opportunities for good wins but only managed to beat Dayton. They have lost all three Big 12 games, so far, though all three were close including a near-upset of UCF on the road. Some Cincy fans went viral this past weekend by suggesting students attend the next home game wearing bags on their heads, apparently in protest of Miller and the current direction of the program.

THIS SEAT IS RATHER WARM

These coaches need to start winning right now, but that may not even be enough…

• Johnny Dawkins (UCF)
  • Dawkins has jumped around this list for the past several years, as the Knights have been OK but certainly not great (or even good). The team hit 20 wins last year thanks to a run to the College Basketball Crown title in Vegas (where they lost to Nebraska) and Dawkins has managed to stay above .500 in all but the COVID-impacted 2020-21 season. But they can’t get over the hump and have lived at the bottom of the Big 12 since joining the league in 2023. Dawkins can buy more time with a good season, but his ability to do so is questionable at best. UPDATE: Dawkins’ team is off to a 13-2 start, scoring a home upset over Kansas that got them briefly ranked in the Top 25. A loss to OK State and a near loss to Cincy got them out of the rankings, though. The real judgement of Dawkins’ job will come in March.
• Steve Forbes (Wake Forest)
  • Five years, zero NCAA bids, and Wake Forest fans are beyond frustrated with the program (despite winning 21 games in each of the last two years). Forbes has not been particularly successful on the recruiting front, either, and while this year’s transfer class has some intriguing names, only one ranks in 247Sports’ Top 100 (Purdue’s Myles Colvin at 93).  The school announced a “long-term extension” for Forbes in 2022, and while details don’t appear to be publicly available he is likely under contract for at least several more years. UPDATE: The Deacs closed out non-conference play by getting blown out at home by Vanderbilt and have now already lost seven times this season, with a 1-3 start to ACC play.
• Matt McMahon (LSU)
  • McMahon was great at Murray State before he was hired at LSU in 2022, stepping into a program that had just fired successful head coach Will Wade due to NCAA violations. He essentially had to start over via freshmen and transfers and was able to get the Tigers to the NIT in year two. But the overall picture is not great – 45-53 through three seasons, including 14th- and 15th-place finishes in the SEC. Recruiting has not been bad but the roster turnovers continue to happen, which is making it hard to maintain consistency in Baton Rouge. McMahon is still on his original seven-year deal which outlines a pretty minimal buyout if LSU were to make a change during or after this season. UPDATE: The Tigers are 12-4 overall but alone at the bottom of the SEC with a 0-3 start. They host a struggling Kentucky team next, but still have plenty of tough opponents ahead.
• Porter Moser (Oklahoma)
  • Through four seasons, Moser has one NCAA Tournament and one NIT appearance but has yet to finish higher than 7th in conference. The Sooners were decent last year in the historically strong SEC, getting into the Big Dance despite a 6-12 league record. But overall this is not the level of success OU fans were hoping for when Moser was hired in 2021. One thing he has done well so far is recruit the transfer portal, with another strong group arriving in Norman this offseason – headlined by Xzavier Brown (St. Joe’s), Derrion Reid (Alabama) and Nijel Pack (Miami FL). This is a team that can make noise in the SEC, but if the Sooners falter again that could very well be it for Moser. UPDATE: The Sooners are 11-5 with a couple nice wins and no truly bad losses, but their 1-2 start to SEC play is not instilling much confidence in Moser. Six of OU’s next ten games are against ranked opponents.
• Micah Shrewsberry (Notre Dame)
  • Shrewsberry was a no-brainer hire for ND in 2023, as the Indianapolis-native had just taken lowly Penn State to the NCAA Tournament in just his second year on the job. He had his first head coaching job at IU South Bend and was a member of the Brad Stevens coaching tree after working under him at both Butler and with the Celtics. He also had two successful stints with Matt Painter at Purdue. However, he went just 13-20 (T-12 ACC) and 15-18 (T-9th ACC) in his first two years, showing very little improvement from the final stretch of the Mike Brey era. UPDATE: The Irish are 10-6 overall, 1-2 ACC and making headlines for the wrong reasons, with Shrewsberry needing to be physically held back from referees following his team’s loss at Cal. The incident resulted in a public reprimand from the ACC but no suspensions (yet) for Shrewsberry.
• Mike Young (Virginia Tech)
  • Mike Young’s program continues to slide in the wrong direction, peaking with a ACC Tournament title in 2022 for a second-straight NCAA appearance. The Hokies then went a combined 51-49 (26-34 ACC) with two NITs over the last three seasons, missing the postseason altogether in 2025. The overall job that Young has done is still decent, but the negative momentum could continue this year, as Tech ranks near the bottom of the league in both HS and transfer classes. UPDATE: The Hokies are 13-4 (2-2 ACC) and scored an upset over rival Virginia, who were ranked #21 at the time.

WE’VE GOT OUR EYE ON YOU, COACH

Here are those guys that are having a rough year (or two… or three…) but aren’t in total danger. Yet. 

• Adrian Autry (Syracuse)
  • Adrian “Red” Autry is only his third year at the helm at his alma mater, stepping into the enormous shoes of his former coach and mentor Jim Boeheim after twelve years on the staff. Autry missed the NCAA Tournament in each of his first two seasons and last year finished a dismal 14-19 (7-13 ACC). This year’s squad is headline by Donnie Freeman (one of two returning contributors from last year) and Kiyan Anthony (Melo’s son), alongside a group of transfers that came in to replace this offseason’s mass exodus. The 53-year old coach isn’t on a very hot seat yet, given his history with the program, but he is going to have to get back to winning basketball games. The Orange haven’t been to the NCAA Tournament since reaching the Sweet 16 as an 11-seed in 2021. UPDATE: The Orange are 11-5 with one bad loss (Hofstra) and a couple good wins (#13 Tennessee and @ Pitt).
• Jeff Capel III (Pittsburgh)
  • Capel’s seat was on fire heading into the 2022-23 season, as he had yet to even break .500 in his first four seasons at Pitt. That year, however, his Panthers won 24 games, finishing tied for 3rd in the ACC and reaching the NCAAT for the first time since 2016. Now we have him right back on the hot seat as the Panthers have missed the last two postseasons, going 37-26 overall and getting picked 14th in the preseason ACC media poll. Going 8-12 last year in a historically weak league will do that to a head coach, especially one entering his eighth year at a proud program like Pittsburgh. He signed a new deal through the 2029-30 season last year, though, so that is why he isn’t higher on this list (yet). UPDATE: The Panthers have started ACC play at 0-3 and currently sit at 7-9 overall, with home losses to Hofstra and Quinnipiac. His buyout doesn’t appear to public, but odds are it’s not cheap.
• Hubert Davis (North Carolina)
  • UNC kept it in the family in 2021 when long-time assistant and former star player Hubert Davis was tapped to take over for Roy Williams despite having no previous head coaching experience. He came out of the gate hot, going 15-5 in ACC play, beating Duke at Cameron Indoor and making a magical run all the way to the National Championship game. The Heels ran out of gas in the second half of that game and coughed up a 15-point halftime lead to ultimately lose to Kansas, and then embarked on an incredibly disappointing sophomore season for Davis, becoming the first preseason #1 team to completely miss the NCAA Tournament since the field expanded in 1985. They have been back in each of the last two years, including a Sweet 16 appearance in 2024, but the magic is gone and the Carolina faithful are restless. Rival Duke is the class of the conference with their “in the family” hire, landing top recruiting classes and running the table in the ACC, while North Carolina has yet to be a serious threat under Davis. His buyout after this year will be ~$6.25M, a very doable amount for a program like UNC should things not improve enough. UPDATE: UNC is ranked #14 at 14-2 overall, with wins over Kansas, Kentucky, Ohio State and Georgetown already.
• Jake Diebler (Ohio State)
  • We generally shy away from putting coaches on the hot seat this early, but Diebler missing the NCAA Tournament last year confirmed a lot of the fears that Ohio State fans when he was given the job in 2024. He went 8-3 and reached the NIT Quarterfinals in interim duty following Chris Holtmann’s firing, but it was still quite a surprise when the then 37-year-old coach was officially handed the reins. The Ohio-native had spent a number of years on staff in Columbus but had never been a head coach before his interim stint. (Note: Jake played at Valpo but is the older brother of former Buckeye Jon Diebler). It wasn’t much of a continuity-saver either, as five contributing players transferred out of the program in the offseason and three of the transfers he brought in ended up leaving this past spring (including Meechie Johnson, who has now transferred between Ohio State and South Carolina three different times). If the Buckeyes make the Tournament, the heat will die down, but if they don’t, we wouldn’t be surprised to see another change at the helm. Firing Diebler after this season would cost OSU ~$4.8M in buyouts (65% of his remaining salary). UPDATE: The Buckeyes are 11-5 (3-3 Big Ten) with near upsets of UNC and Nebraska. Fans are still not happy, though, as the team continues to live in the middle of the pack.
• Jerome Tang (Kansas State)
  • What a difference a few years make, as Tang was not long ago considered one of the hottest coaches in America. The long-time Baylor staffer took over at K-State in 2022 and immediately led the Wildcats to 26 wins (+12 from the previous year) and a trip to the Elite Eight. But the videos of Tang and his team dancing in March Madness locker rooms seem like distant memories now, as the Wildcats went just 35-32 over the last two seasons and have yet to return to the Big Dance. This year’s team will be led by Memphis transfer PJ Haggerty, with the media picking K-State to finish 8th in the league (note: only the top seven teams went dancing last year). UPDATE: It’s been a difficult road for K-State so far, with wins over Creighton, Mississippi State and California and losses to Indiana, Creighton, Seton Hall and Bowling Green (their only “bad” L). The Wildcats are winless in Big 12 play (0-3) and 9-7 overall, continuing their surprising fall to the bottom of college basketball.
• Wayne Tinkle (Oregon State)
  • Has anyone gotten more leeway at a job from one NCAA Tournament run than Tinkle has at Oregon State? Apologies to Coach Tinkle on the bluntness here, but if you remove the 2020-21 season, his resume is bleak. One NCAA Tournament appearance in his ten other seasons and two years finishing with five or less total wins. The Beavers broke a streak of three-straight losing seasons last year, finishing with 20 wins as a temporary member of the WCC. The school’s conference affiliation situation has also helped Tinkle, as they and Washington State are in the second and final year of their limbo before a re-imagined Pac-12 begins play for 2026-27. We predict that OSU brass will keep Tinkle around for at least another year. UPDATE: The Beavers are 9-10 overall and already have four WCC losses, including 30+ point blowouts from Santa Clara and Pacific and a 14-point loss to Washington State. OSU is the third-lowest WCC team in KenPom as of this writing.

MAYBE IT’S TIME TO RETIRE?

Here are some head coaches who could see retire at the end of this season.

• Dana Altman (Oregon)
  • Altman turned 67 this summer and has been with the Ducks since 2010. Oregon went to the NCAA Tournament each of the last two years, reaching the Round of 32 in both, and joined UCLA last year as the only two new Big Ten members to finish in the top half of the conference.
• Tad Boyle (Colorado)
  • Boyle is in his 16th year with the Buffaloes, leading a solid and consistent program to six NCAA Tournaments and five NITs. Last year’s team went to the CBC in Vegas despite finishing the regular season 12-19 overall and just 3-17 in the Big 12. There was speculation that Boyle (who turns 63 in January) would retire this past offseason, and with the Buffs projected to finish second-to-last this year it is likely that speculation will continue.
• Mark Few (Gonzaga)
  • On the one hand, Few doesn’t have anything left to prove at Gonzaga. He turned a little WCC school into a legitimate powerhouse. The Zags have been to the NCAA Tournament every single year of Few’s tenure (he was elevated to head coach in 1999) and are consistent winners when they get there, reaching the Sweet Sixteen 13 times and twice finishing as National Runner-up (2017 and 2021). On the other hand, Few hasn’t won the big one yet and maybe that is something that will keep the fire burning (he turns 63 in December). This is Gonzaga’s final year in the WCC, a league in which they have won or shared 22 times under Few, and they will join the new version of the Pac-12 in 2026. The reason they are in this position is because of the success that Few has, so the question is whether or not he wants to lead the program into this new era or if this offers a clean break to turn things over to heir apparent Brian Michaelson.
• Tom Izzo (Michigan State)
  • Izzo led the Spartans to an outright Big Ten title (his 11th) and a trip to the Elite Eight (also his 11th) last year at age 70, and still didn’t retire, so all bets are off as to how long he will continue to run the show in East Lansing. MSU fans will take as many more seasons as he’s willing to give.
• Kelvin Sampson (Houston)
  • While his Cougars fell short last year of their goal of winning the National Championship, Sampson personally has accomplished everything else there is to accomplish in this sport. His son, Kellen, has already been tabbed as his eventual successor in Houston, but Kelvin, 70, has another fantastic team with a real shot at getting back to the Final Four in 2026.
• Bill Self (Kansas)
  • Self has long cemented himself as one of the all time greats and he continues to excel in this modern era of college basketball. Self turns 63 in December and is only a few years removed from his second National Championship, but various health issues have plagued him in recent years, so retirement may be closer than he had originally intended.

COACHES THAT ARE SAFE (FOR NOW)

This section is comprised of coaches who were previously in one of the above categories this season or are just starting to feel heat but are not yet in any real danger of being fired.

• Greg Gard (Wisconsin)
  • After starting his tenure with back-to-back Sweet Sixteens, Gard’s Badgers have been very up and down for the last eight seasons. During that time, Wisconsin has won two Big Ten titles but also missed two NCAA Tournaments, the latter being something that has become very unfamiliar in Madison. There lies the predicament for AD Chris McIntosh, as Gard had kept the team competitive in the Big Ten but just hasn’t been able to get over the hump. The Badgers consistently win 20+ games each year, but have just three total NCAA Tournament victories since 2017. The school extended Gard’s contract through the 2029-30 season earlier this year, so he’s not going anywhere at the moment, but how long will admin let this go on for? And what does Gard need to show he can be the guy for this program for the long haul?
• Fred Hoiberg (Nebraska)
  • Hoiberg was supposed to be a slam dunk hire for Nebraska, but it took him five seasons to finally reach the NCAA Tournament. Then last year’s team regressed to a tie for 12th in the Big Ten (7-13), though a run to the CBC title in Vegas eventually got them over the 20-win mark. Nebraska would owe Hoiberg $13.5M as a buyout if they fired him this year, as the contract is fully guaranteed through 2029. For that reason, we think Hoiberg will be safe regardless of how this season goes. UPDATE: The season is going great, with the Huskers currently 16-0 overall and 5-0 in league play. Seems like the Hoiberg Era is finally in full swing in Lincoln.
• Steve Pikiell (Rutgers)
  • Pikiell struck recruiting gold last year, landing top-5 prospects and eventual top-3 NBA Draft Picks Ace Bailey and Dylan Harper. But the star power was mostly wasted on a second-straight 15-17 campaign, representative of a significant fall from the Knights teams that went to back-to-back NCAA Tournaments in 2021 and 2022. Pikiell has a big buyout, however, so Rutgers would seem unlikely to make a change at this point. UPDATE: It’s been tough sledding for Rutgers, who have faced a number of quality opponents but couldn’t beat any of them. The Knights are 9-8 overall and just 2-4 in the Big Ten, with both wins being one-possession games at home against bad opponents.