For the past two days, the news has been loud off the court in college basketball.
The biggest headline on Thursday was george town Patrick Ewing sacked after six seasons. The Hoyas must figure out who will be the person who will take on this broken job and restore the shine. I have a list of candidates, the link to which can be found in the Georgetown capsule below.
Thursday’s other big shooting occurred in the west. cal did the long-awaited and fired Mark Fox on the heels of what was by far the program’s worst season in history: 3-29.
Elsewhere in the Pac-12: Stanford AD Bernard Muir told CBS Sports that Jerod Haase will return for an eighth season. Haase is 112-109 and didn’t make the NCAA tournament. Stanford was eliminated 95-84 to finish 14-19 in the quarterfinals of Arizona’s Pac-12 tournament Thursday night.
We’re now in the next big phase of the carousel, which was spurred on Wednesday by this week’s biggest headline: Jim BoeheimHis time at Syracuse has come to an end after 47 years as head coach and six decades of official attachment to the school. The university simultaneously announced the end of Boeheim’s run and the discontinuation of Adrian Autry — Syracuse’s first new coach since 1976. Strikingly, Syracuse’s statement did not refer to Boeheim’s demise as a retirement, and Boeheim himself provided no quote or statement on the school’s announcement.
Autry was the rumored successor in recent weeks, now it’s official. It also means three Hall of Famer coaches have left the ACC in three consecutive years: Roy Williams, Mike Krzyzewski and Boeheim. Times are changing in college basketball.
Also on Wednesday: Mark Adams resigned from Texas Tech. The news came shortly after TTU lost to West Virginia in the Big 12 tournament. Adams had previously been banned for racially insensitive remarks he made to a player earlier this season when he said he had quoted passages from the Bible. Adams went 43-25 in two years. Grant McCasland (North Texas) and Paul Mills (Oral Roberts) are two obvious names to watch for this job.
Also on Wednesday, I confirmed several reports of Chris Beard’s candidacy to become the next coach Mississippi. As of Wednesday night, Beard was considered a favorite for the job, but a source stressed there were still significant hurdles to be cleared before there was a practical likelihood that Beard would actually be offered the job. He’s one of the few candidates to be tested by Ole Miss as of the last time this story was published.
There are now seven power conference jobs with fluctuation. The number is likely to reach 10 in the next three days.
Other jobs I’m eyeing: Georgia Tech, St. John’s, UCF, Washington, and Western Kentucky.
In total we are at 23 jobs that have changed. That number is likely to rise to 30 by selection Sunday. Here is the list.