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The 2024-25 college basketball season is just now entering the home stretch. But already, the coaching carousel in the ACC is spinning at full speed.
Tony Bennett began the upheaval by retiring less than a month before Virginia’s first game.
Miami’s Jim Larrañaga was next to call it quits. He slipped into retirement just before New Year’s, citing frustration over the changing landscape of college athletics.
Then earlier this month, Florida State’s Leonard Hamilton announced his decision to step down at the end of the season amid a drop-off in his program and a lawsuit filed against him by 6 of his former players over unfulfilled NIL promises.
That’s already a significant turnover for a league struggling to maintain its status among the nation’s best. But the carnage may only have just begun.
ACC coaching hot seat index
There’s a legitimate possibility that several more jobs could come open once the season ends. So with that in mind, it’s time to take a temperature check to see which ACC coaches are staying cool and which might be starting to feel the heat.
Absolutely chilling
Duke’s Jon Scheyer has his team at No. 3 in the national polls with a legitimate shot at the national championship this year, with the nation’s top recruiting class set to arrive for next season.
Louisville’s Pat Kelsey has won nearly twice as many games in his first season with the Cardinals than his predecessor Kenny Payne did in his 2 seasons on the job. And there’s still a month to go.
Brad Brownell has been at Clemson for 15 seasons now and is the league’s longest-tenured coach. With 3 consecutive 20-win seasons, sellout crowds at Littlejohn and an Elite Eight to his credit, he has never been more secure in his position.
Andy Enfield and Kyle Smith are both in the process of making good first impressions in their debuts at SMU and Stanford, respectively. And Cal’s Mark Madsen has a realistic shot at finishing over .500 in his second year – something the Bears haven’t done since 2017 – despite the travel challenges of being a West Coast team in an Atlantic Coast Conference.
Getting warmer, but still no sweat
Georgia Tech’s Damon Stoudamire and Notre Dame’s Micah Shrewsberry are in their second seasons at their schools and have yet to find a winning formula. But both have shown signs of promise.
Stoudamire, in particular, has given hints of promise with wins against Duke and North Carolina last year, and both Louisville and Clemson in consecutive games just last week. It took him 3 seasons to post his first winning record at his previous stop, Pacific. So he has time to turn around the Yellow Jackets.
So does Shrewsberry with the Irish, who are still likely to finish below .500 but are on pace to surpass last season’s total of 13 wins and should make the ACC Tournament.
Meanwhile at Virginia Tech, Mike Young isn’t going anywhere even though his Hokies are about to miss out on the NCAA Tournament or NIT for the first time since 2014-15 (not including the COVID season). Not only does he still have plenty of goodwill from winning the 2022 ACC Tournament, but he’s handicapped by an antiquated arena and an athletic department that is far more focused on football than his basketball program.
Starting to feel the heat
Jeff Capel seemed to have weathered the storm after getting Pitt to the NCAA Tournament in 2023 and winning 21 games with a team that should have gotten into the 68-team field last season. But after getting off to a 12-2 start and gaining a No. 18 ranking with wins against Ohio State, LSU and West Virginia, dark clouds have begun to gather again.
Since a 30-point beatdown at the hands of Capel’s alma mater Duke, his Panthers have lost 8 of their past 10 to fall onto the wrong side of the NCAA bubble. While the 7th-year coach isn’t in any immediate danger, the temperature beneath his seat is increasing rapidly.
Especially with a new athletic director on the job.
The chain of command isn’t the problem for Steve Forbes at Wake Forest. Getting into the NCAA Tournament is. Twice in the past 3 seasons, his teams have won 20-plus games. But all the Deacons have to show for it are a pair of NIT appearances.
This year’s team was on target to break that pattern until a second-half meltdown that saw it squander an 18-point lead in a brutal home loss to Florida State on Wednesday. The Quad 3 setback won’t doom Wake’s NCAA chances. But it made the task of getting into the field significantly more difficult.
Forbes has done an outstanding job cleaning up the mess made over the past decade by past coaches Jeff Bzdelik and Danny Manning. But he was already starting to generate negative chatter among the Deacons’ fan base on social media for his inability to get the program over the hump and back among the ACC’s elite. Wednesday’s debacle has only intensified the dissatisfaction.
The 5th-year coach could potentially be replaced by someone more capable of getting Wake to the next level if his team falls short again this season. But it’s more likely that another near miss will make 2025-26 a win-or-else proposition.
Insulated by a Teflon coating
Under normal circumstances, NC State’s Kevin Keatts would probably be getting his resume in order. His team has lost 9 straight and at 2-11 in the conference is almost certain to be 1 of the 3 teams left out of next month’s 15-team ACC Tournament bracket.
But because he had the good timing to pull off the best month of his career with the Wolfpack last March, he’s insulated himself in coaching bubble wrap for at least the next year or 2.
Keatts received an automatic 1-year extension to his contract by winning 5 games in 5 days for State’s first conference tournament championship in 37 years. He then added a second 1-year extension – with the obligatory pay increase – by winning 4 more times to get to the Final Four.
He’s now on the books until April 2030 with a prohibitive buyout for an athletic program that won’t want to divert resources away from football now that its rival North Carolina has upped the ante with the hiring of Bill Belichick.
Reaching a boiling point
If Earl Grant, Adrian Autry and Hubert Davis haven’t kicked up the AC to high yet, now might be the time. Because they all should be feeling some degree of heat.
Of the 3, Grant figures to be in the most precarious situation.
He managed only 1 winning record in his 3 previous seasons at Boston College. That was a 20-16 mark a year ago that included an NIT bid. But the Eagles have slumped to 10-14 overall this year and are tied for last in the ACC at 2-11. They likely won’t qualify for the ACC Tournament. With a .472 winning percentage (.347 in conference games) and general apathy for his program on BC’s campus, he’s the odds-on favorite to be the next coach out the door.
Autry would figure to have more of a grace period since he’s only in Year 2 as the hand-picked successor to Hall of Famer Jim Boeheim at Syracuse. But there’s a certain standard that is expected at a brand-name program such as the Orange. And if it’s not maintained, the damage can be irreparable.
Just ask Indiana.
So with this year’s team struggling at 11-14 (5-9 ACC) after Tuesday’s ugly loss to downtrodden Miami, If things get worse over the final 6 regular-season games, the folks at Syracuse could follow the lead of Louisville with Kenny Payne and cut their losses sooner rather than later.
And that brings us to Davis, a beloved and loyal Tar Heel.
Under most circumstances, a first-time head coach who has been to a national championship game and a Sweet 16 team in his first 4 seasons on the job would be in the “comfortable” section of this index.
But North Carolina is anything but “most circumstances.” It’s the bluest of blue bloods. And missing the NCAA Tournament twice in a 3-year span is simply unacceptable. Barring a miracle recovery, that’s where Davis’ Tar Heels are headed.
Does that mean Davis is coaching for his job over these next few weeks? Maybe. Maybe not.
Either way, he’ll be sweating it out.
Award-winning columnist Brett Friedlander has covered the ACC and college basketball since the 1980s.
