15 college basketball coaches on the hot seat in 2017

NEW YORK, NY - MARCH 07: Head coach Brad Brownell of the Clemson Tigers reacts during their game against the North Carolina State Wolfpack during the first round of the ACC Basketball Tournament at Barclays Center on March 7, 2017 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. (Photo by Lance King/Getty Images) /

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LEXINGTON, KY – JANUARY 14: Head coach Bruce Pearl of the Auburn Tigers reacts during the game against the Kentucky Wildcats at Rupp Arena on January 14, 2017 in Lexington, Kentucky. Kentucky defeated Auburn 92-72. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images) /

13. Bruce Pearl, Auburn

Pearl has enjoyed terrific success at previous stops and is slowly turning things around at Auburn, but the combination of his scandal-ridden past, the current FBI investigation, and a relative lack of on-court success puts him on the hot seat.

Following prolific tenures at Southern Indiana and Milwaukee, Pearl led Tennessee to its best stretch in history with six straight NCAA Tournament appearances, including three trips to the second weekend. Tennessee dismissed Pearl in 2011 after various recruiting violations plus other NCAA infractions were uncovered, and he sat out coaching until being hired by Auburn in 2014.

The Tigers haven’t been to the NCAA Tournament since 2003 and had very little talent on the roster at the end of the Tony Barbee era, so some early struggles were expected. Pearl led Auburn to a combined 26-40 record over his first two years, but predictably recruited at a high level and made the 2015 SEC Semifinals as a 13 seed.

Auburn went above .500 for the first time in nearly a decade last year with an 18-14 record, although it lost six of its last eight including the conference tournament opener to a terrible Missouri team. The Tigers will be expected to make the postseason in Pearl’s fourth year, and the current FBI scandal that led to associate head coach Chuck Person’s arrest isn’t helping his standing.

With the investigation ongoing, Auburn is holding out one of its top players in Danjel Purifoy along with five-star sophomore Austin Wiley indefinitely. That could lead to an ugly season for the Tigers, and Pearl could be in trouble with a sub-.500 season piled on top of another scandal.