COACHES HOT SEAT BASKETBALL BLOG

Welcome to Coaches Hot Seat for College Basketball.  We have had so much fun following the football coaches that we have decided to dip our toes in college basketball for 2008.  We have been watching a good deal of college basketball this season, but we have been reluctant to take on the college basketball coaches because of the number of teams in Division I-A.  We started putting together a list of basketball coaches earlier this year, but after a couple of weeks of following a hundred or so coaches it was just a little to unwieldy to handle.  Last week we narrowed the coaches that we believe are either on the Hot Seat or on the Edge of the Hot Seat and that has left us with 25 basketball coaches as of today.   Here you can find our first basketball Coaches Hot Seat Basketball Rankings.  We also have the Hot Seat/Edge of Hot Seat coaches ranked according to Winning Percentage and their Salaries.

Before we detail our first Top 5 Hot Seat Coaches, we are assuming that Kevin Sampson will be sent packing from Indiana.  Why in the world Indiana ever hired this guy from Oklahoma in the first place, when everyone paying attention could see that Sampson didn’t have much respect for the rules of the NCAA is beyond us.  Indiana is a place that prides itself on not breaking NCAA rules and then they go out and hire Sampson just after he has been punished by the NCAA?  That makes no sense, and with all the great basketball coaches out there why would Indiana put its focus on someone that was just so recently in trouble with the NCAA?  It just makes no sense, and if the people running IU have any sense they will send everyone packing that any hand in bring Sampson to Bloomington.

Top 5 Hot Seat Coaches:

1.  Mark Gottfried – Alabama - In our opinion Mark Gottfried is the worst coach in the SEC and we cannot understand why Alabama would tolerate such mediocrity in its basketball program, but alas when we think about it. the same people that employ Gottfried hired Mike Dubose, Dennis Franchione, Mike Price, and Mike Shula for the football program at Bama.  In other words these are not the brightest bulbs running Alabama athletics and in fact we wonder if Alabama doesn’t mind their basketball program being such an underachiever.  Football drives the bus at Alabama and if the basketball program is being coached by someone that would be lucky to be coaching a high school team, then it is easy to understand how Alabama basketball got into its current predicament.  Gottfried is 14-12 this season and has 5 games left.  The way Alabama is playing right now they might just lose all 5 of those games, and if Alabama retains Gottfried after that, the real question will be: Does anyone at Alabama really care about basketball?  The answer to that question would be:  No.

2.  Matt Doherty – SMU – Matt Doherty is 22 – 32 (.407) in two seasons at SMU and we are starting to wonder if this train is headed for some serious trouble.  With a 2 -8 conference record this season and several tough games left on the schedule, a second straight losing record for Doherty at SMU is a certainty.  Steve Orsini, the AD at SMU, has staked his career on hiring experienced “name” coaches and Doherty certainly fits that bill, but can he build a winning program at SMU?  We have some real doubts about that and we cannot imagine that another losing season by Doherty in 2008-09 will do anything but bring an end to the Doherty reign at SMU. 

3.  Ed DeChellis – Penn State – Ed DeChellis is 54-88 (.380) in 5 seasons at Penn State and that puts him squarely on the Hot Seat.  So far this season DeChellis is 12-12 and we are starting to wonder if he can survive another losing season in State College.  There is no reason that Penn State should not have a very good college basketball team, but much like Alabama we really wonder if anyone cares if their basketball coach is putting up such mediocre numbers.  DeChellis and Penn State have 5 games left and 3 wins are needed for a +.500 season and it will be interesting to see how the people running athletics at State College will react if indeed another losing season is in the offing. 

4.  Norm Roberts – St. John’s – With a career record of 47-62 (.431) at St. John’s, Norm Roberts has been on the Hot Seat for most of his career in Queens.  For those of us in our 4os we remember those great St. John’s teams of the 1980s and wonder why Georgetown can be so good today, but the Red Storm (didn’t that used to be Redmen?) struggle so much.  There is some great basketball being played in the New York metro area and there is no reason for St. John’s to be anyplace but at the very top of the Big East every year.  With a 10-14 record right now and trips to Duke, Georgetown, and Notre Dame on the horizon this may be the last roundup for Norm Roberts with St. John’s.  With so many very good or great up-and-coming coaches in the game today, the people running St. John’s athletics must be asking themselves:  Can we do better?  Answer:  Yes, you can.

5.  Bill Carmody – Northwestern – Anyone that has walked around the Northwestern campus that is hard up against Lake Michigan just north of Chicago knows that it is a very special place.  The academics are great, the setting is ideal, the students are motivated, and the basketball team is terrible.  Bill Carmody is 102 – 130 (.440) in 8 seasons at Northwestern, and even at a place that expects very little of its basketball program, that record is probably not going to be good enough for Carmody to keep his job.  With a 0 – 13 Big Ten conference record this season and several tough games left on the schedule, it isn’t going to get any better anytime soon.  What can Carmody do to save job?  Probably nothing.

Well, there you have the Top 5 Coaches in our first ever Coaches Hot Seat Basketball Rankings.  We are going to see how this goes for the rest of 2008 and then work towards having every coach in Division I-A college basketball ranked for the 2008-09 season, just the way we do it for college football. 

The one great thing about college basketball is that we actually get to crown a legitimate National Champion and what great fun it is to watch a legitimate post-season tournament to decide that champion.  Coaches and teams may argue that they should be in the NCAA Tournament, but no one can argue that the National Champion in college basketball did not earn that title, and sadly that cannot be said for college football.  Of course, that is going to change in the coming years, and we will eventually get to watch a college football team (not a college football coach) hoist a NCAA National Championship trophy.  Of that, there is no doubt.

Let’s watch the rest of this great college basketball season unfold!

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