25 worst coaching hires in the history of college basketball

22. Tic Price – Memphis (1997-1999)

• 30-27 record (2 seasons)

Historically, Memphis is one of the more solid programs in college basketball history, even if they’ve yet to win their own national championship. In the 1990s, head coach Larry Finch continued the success from those before him and had the Tigers as a perennial contender in the C-USA. If you know anything about Memphis, you know that they’d hire a pretty solid coach a few years later, but the hire in 1997 was a bit more troubling.

Tic Price was by no means a bad coach, but he sort of fell into success. He had been an assistant at a number of schools, including Virginia Tech and Auburn, when he became head coach of New Orleans in 1994 following the death of Tommy Joe Eagles. He led the Privateers to at least 20 wins in each of his three seasons, including an NCAA Tournament bid in 1996. That success led Memphis to bring him in, and he wasn’t a terrible option for the Tigers, but his tenure was overshadowed by scandal.

Price only lasted two seasons, leading the Tigers to a C-USA regular-season title and NIT bid in his first year before a struggling 13-15 mark in year two. What prevented further success was his forced resignation in 1999, just before the season began, as a result of an improper relationship with a student. As you know, Memphis bounced back very soon, hiring John Calipari less than a year later, while Price spent time as head coach at both McNeese State and Lamar. This black eye on his coaching career wasn’t his undoing, but he’s certainly the worst head coach, both on and off-court, that Memphis has had in recent memory.