Buckle Up - The Coaching Carousel Is Likely To Hit Warp Speed

Last year the pandemic greatly limited coaching movement because most schools couldn’t figure out how to hire a coach in the middle of a pandemic.

Remember how things were then, the level of fear? You had almost no chance to schedule an interview.

We have a much better understanding of Covid-19 now and vaccines are on the way. So people are much more inclined to make some moves.

Boston College is already in the market and so are some other teams. And it looks like at least two Power Five teams aside from Penn State are likely to have vacancies: Arizona and Kansas State.

Dick Vitale came out hard against Sean Miller Monday and while his influence isn’t what it once was it’s still a big deal.

Kansas State’s Bruce Weber is reportedly set to retire which would open up that job. And here’s a thought for a major shakeup: why not Mark Turgeon?

He’s not hugely popular at Maryland and the Terps finished the regular season 15-12 and with losses to Northwestern and Penn State, a lot of people wouldn’t be sorry to see him go.

But he’s well regarded back home and K-State would probably be a good landing spot for him.

Maryland has always struggled to live up to the whole UCLA of the East thing, which by the way they might have been and could be if they found the right guy. And unfortunately they probably can't hire a perfect fit because Eric Musselman has only been at Arkansas since 2019 and probably wouldn’t be willing to move. But he’d be a great fit for Maryland.

Sean’s little brother Archie is at some risk at Indiana and might either be shoved or decide to jump first.

Dave Leitao is definitely on the hot seat at DePaul and that job may be open too. So might Richard Pitino at Minnesota.

Steve Prohm almost has to be in jeopardy at Iowa State. Just 2-21, it’s very hard to make an argument for his staying.

And of course a number of other jobs are already open: the eternally challenging Penn State job, New Mexico, Indiana State, Fordham, Northern Illinois (actually Bobby Hurley assistant Rashon Burno took that job Saturday), IUPUI, Jacksonville, Portland and of course UT-Martin, where Anthony Stewart died unexpectedly.

There are others but there always are. The attention and competition will be for the major jobs and there is going to be a ton of movement, which means that Boston College may have made a wise strategic move to let Jim Christian go early. They’re much farther ahead than, say, Arizona or Kansas State, should those jobs come open.

Among the names to keep an eye on: Porter Moser at Loyola, UNC-G’s Wes Miller, Lane Odom, who is still doing well at UMBC, Pat Kelsy at Winthrop, who has quietly turned in a 23-1 season and Michigan assistant Phil Martelli, who might still want to run his own program.

And while he has not indicated he’s ready to move and might already have the job he wants, NCCU’s LeVelle Moton has won immense respect and could move up whenever he decides to.