The college basketball regular season is winding down and the coaching cycle is already underway. Kansas State made the first move of hot seat season on Sunday night by firing head coach Jerome Tang, who recently made headlines by ripping into his players for their poor effort level, for cause in an effort to avoid paying his nearly $19 million buyout.
Tang had won just one Big 12 game this season but has had success in Manhattan, reaching the Elite Eight in his first season as head coach. The state of the sport, however, means most programs don't want to sit through down seasons when a strong portal class can lead to an immediate turnaround. Not coming close to a soft bubble is also raising the heat on other head coaches around the nation, some of whom need strong finishes to avoid getting fired in March.
Adrian Autry, Syracuse Orange
Autry was the hand-picked successor for Jim Boeheim when the Hall of Famer retired following the 2023 season but hasn't maintained the solid level of his predecessor since. Syracuse won 20 games in Autry's first year but finished below .500 last season and is off to a 15-11 start this season that has the Orange nowhere near the bubble in mid-February.
There is also some heat on Autry from Carmelo Anthony, who publicly criticized the program on Instagram after a loss to North Carolina, and the coach recently benched Anthony's son Kiyan in a move that he said was purely a basketball decision. One name to watch here if Syracuse moves on and wants to stay in the family is Anthony's former teammate Gerry McNamara, who has been the head coach at Siena for the past two years.
Bobby Hurley, Arizona State Sun Devils
While brother Dan has made himself a legend at UCONN, things aren't going so well for Bobby Hurley at Arizona State. The Sun Devils have made the NCAA Tournament just three times in Hurley's 11 years at the helm and have just one March Madness win in that span, a First Four victory over St. John's in 2019.
The move to the Big 12 hasn't gone well for Arizona State, which is 13-12 this season and 4-8 in league play after posting a 13-20 record a year ago. Unless Hurley can inspire his group to march through a loaded Big 12 Tournament bracket to steal the league's auto-bid it feels like the time has come for a new voice to lead the program.
Kim English, Providence Friars
The heat around English's job with Providence is rising rapidly as the Friars are on pace for their second straight losing season, entering this week with an 11-15 record and 4-11 mark in a down Big East. There is also some embarrassment around the program following a brawl in Saturday's loss to No. 17 St. John's which was triggered by a Flagrant 2 foul from Duncan Powell against Bryce Hopkins, a former Friar who transferred to the Red Storm in the offseason.
Providence had been a semi-regular NCAA Tournament presence under former head coach Ed Cooley, who infamously bolted for Big East rival Georgetown prior to English taking the job. The incident on Saturday could end up being the final straw for English, who has underwhelmed after moving up from the Atlantic 10 with only an NIT berth in his first season as Providence's head coach.
Matt McMahon, LSU Tigers
McMahon undoubtedly took the LSU job under difficult circumstances after succeeding Will Wade, a coach with strong results who was fired for NCAA recruiting violations while at LSU. A strong track record at Murray State, who McMahon took to three NCAA Tournaments while coaching Ja Morant as a collegian and earned two March Madness wins, should have portended success but the jump to the SEC appeared to be a bit steep for him.
The Tigers haven't won more than 17 games in a season under McMahon yet and have just one postseason appearance, a 2023 NIT trip, under his leadership and were one of only two SEC teams to miss the NCAA Tournament last year when the conference set a record with 14 bids. Leadership at LSU isn't afraid to pay hefty buyouts after burning over $50 million to fire football coach Brian Kelly in the fall so McMahon could get the axe if he can't get the Tigers into the bubble conversation by the end of the year.
Porter Moser, Oklahoma Sooners
Despite having a strong track record at Loyola-Chicago that included the incredible 2018 Final Four run, Porter Moser never felt like a natural fit at Oklahoma. Moser has made the NCAA Tournament just once in four years with the Sooners, losing in the Round of 64 last year, and it doesn't appear likely to be in the at-large mix this year entering the week with a 13-12 record that includes a 3-9 mark in SEC play.
The track record Moser has at Oklahoma is far worse than that of former coach Lon Kruger, who took the Sooners to the NCAA Tournament seven times in 10 years, including a Final Four run in 2016. Don't be surprised if Oklahoma moves on from Moser after the season for a coach who can hold his own against SEC competition while Moser could be more of a fit at the Big East level, which could have a few openings this season.