Head Coaches On the Hot Seat This College Basketball Season<\/strong>
\nKey Honorable Mention: Hubert Davis, North Carolina<\/b><\/p>\nHubert Davis should be facing immense pressure at UNC after missing the NCAA tournament in 2023 and making it as part of the First Four in 2025. However, the school rewarded him with a contract extension in December 2024 that will keep him as coach through the 2029-30 season.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Given the school\u2019s faith in the former Tar Heel, he doesn\u2019t qualify for this list, but it should be mentioned that if he underwhelms again, the seat will get mighty hot for Hubert Davis in Chapel Hill.\u00a0<\/p>\n
More Honorable Mentions: Matt McMahon (LSU), Mike Young (Virginia Tech), Penny Hardaway (Memphis), Earl Grant (Boston College), Porter Moser (Oklahoma)\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n
Jeff Capel, Pittsburgh\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n
From 2002 to 2016, Pitt missed the NCAA tournament just twice under Ben Howland and, most notably, Jamie Dixon. However, the program has made the dance just once since.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Jeff Capel has been the head man at Pitt since 2018, and he has failed to make the NCAA tournament in six of his seven years on the job. The one year he did make it, 2023, saw the Panthers as an 11-seed and a second-round exit.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It\u2019s hard to see a world where Pitt misses the NCAA tournament for the third consecutive season, and seventh time in eight years, and the former Duke Blue Devil keeps his job. He must lead Pitt to the dance, or his job is in serious danger.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Steve Forbes, Wake Forest\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n
Through the 90s and early 2000s, Wake Forest was a force to be reckoned with. They made the NCAA tournament every season from 1991 to 1997 and 2001 to 2005. Producing players into the NBA, such as Tim Duncan and Chris Paul.<\/p>\n
Now, the program has fallen into dark times. They\u2019ve made the tournament just once since 2010, and current coach Steve Forbes has failed to do so at all in his five years on the job.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In 2022, after a 25-10 season, Forbes signed a contract extension that would keep him at Wake Forest for the foreseeable future.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, things haven\u2019t worked out for Forbes, and he is entering his sixth year on the job without a single tournament appearance.\u00a0<\/p>\n
While it will be tough to do with the departure of Hunter Sallis, Forbes must overachieve and make a run to the tournament if he is to be on safe ground. If not, he could be in danger of losing his job.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Wes Miller, Cincinnati\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n
The Cincinnati Bearcats were once a proud basketball program. They made the NCAA tournament in 23 seasons from 1992 to 2019. Even making the second weekend in \u201992 and \u201993, with a Final Four appearance in \u201992 under Bob Huggins.\u00a0<\/p>\n
However, Wes Miller is entering year five as the Bearcats\u2019 head coach and has yet to lead the team to the NCAA tournament while being a part of two different conferences.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Miller spent the first two seasons at UC in the AAC and the previous two seasons in the Big 12. Failing to amount to much success in either league.\u00a0That isn\u2019t to say there haven\u2019t been expectations, either. The Bearcats opened last season ranked No. 20 in the AP poll and reached as high as No. 14.\u00a0<\/p>\n
After a 19-16 season, UC missed the tournament yet again.\u00a0The fanbase is restless, and it\u2019s time for Millerto fix the issues within the program, or 2025 may be his final season as a Cincinnati Bearcat.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0Bobby Hurley, Arizona State<\/b><\/p>\n
Bobby Hurley has been the head man at Arizona State for a full decade now, and it has been a roller coaster with more downs than ups.\u00a0<\/p>\n
After a slow start, there was serious hope that the program had found its footing after making the NCAA tournament in both 2018 and 2019. However, the Sun Devils have only made the dance once since, and the program is in a bad spot entering 2025-26.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The 2024-25 Arizona State team had some hype surrounding it as they featured a top ten recruiting class in the country. Including two top 25 recruits in big man Jayden Quaintance and guard Joson Sanon.\u00a0<\/p>\n
They finished 13-20 and missed the tournament. Now, Quaintance is a Kentucky Wildcat while Sanon is playing for Rick Pitino at St. John\u2019s.\u00a0<\/p>\n
This was a bad look for Hurley and the state of the Arizona State basketball program. Hurley feels like a dead man walking at this point, but nothing is certain in college basketball.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Adrian Autry, Syracuse<\/b><\/p>\n
Adrian Autry is in a similar situation to former Villanova coach Kyle Neptune. Both coaches were following up legends. Jim Boeheim, in Autry\u2019s case, has been unable to successfully carry that torch.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Neptune went 54-47 without an NCAA tournament appearance in his three years at Villanova and was ultimately fired. Autry is 34-31 entering year three and is yet to make the big dance.\u00a0<\/p>\n
They have the talent to make some noise in the ACC with J.J. Starling and Donnie Freeman returning alongside a top 20 recruiting class in the nation that features two top 35 recruits in Sadiq White Jr. and Kiyan Anthony.\u00a0<\/p>\n
This is likely Autry\u2019s last chance at Syracuse, and he needs to make the NCAA tournament to keep his job.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Every single college basketball season features several significant storylines. In college basketball, perhaps the most important storyline each…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":215117,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[1339,1317,1337,1338,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-215116","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-basketball","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-ncaa","10":"tag-ncaa-basketball","11":"tag-ncaabasketball","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115179230762043233","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215116","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=215116"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215116\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/215117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=215116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=215116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=215116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/bobby-hurley-090925-1024x576.png\")
Every single college basketball season features several significant storylines. In college basketball, perhaps the most important storyline each season is the coaches under the most pressure to perform.<\/p>\n