College basketball coaches on the hot seat

UCLA hasn't sniffed the Final Four in Alford's five seasons in Westwood despite having plenty of NBA talent. Last year the Bruins lost in the First Four, and he's been playing in a down Pac-12 of late. They've won just two NCAA tournament games in the last three seasons, and both of those were in 2017. This another talented team that is expected to make a deep tournament run. He may need to deliver if he wants to stick around. 

This is totally FBI related. Right out of the gate, Oregon's program was named prominently during testimony of the U.S. vs. Gatto trial, though the school and Altman have denied any wrongdoing. Still, testimony was given that the school offered an "astronomical" amount of money to recruits to steer them to Eugene. Again, Altman hasn't been named but there's so much about this FBI case that isn't known. Altman's program has been great on the court, so hopefully it'll be fine in the court as well. 

Penn State is coming off one of its best seasons ever, which ended with an NIT championship. That's something for a program that is viewed as nothing more than a bottom feeder among the power conferences. Chambers has been at Happy Valley for seven years and has zero NCAA tournament appearances to show for it. So could a head coach at a power school go eight seasons with no tournament bids? Probably not.

Christian's Eagles finally broke through last year with a 19-16 season and a big upset of Duke. Their backcourt was one of the best in the conference and one of its members — Jerome Robinson — declared for the draft and became a lottery pick. Still, BC finished 12th in the league and is still struggling to be a factor in the ACC as it was when it joined the conference. Christian is 13-59 in conference play and still has some good talent, but to keep a job in this league you've got to finish better than 12th at least once in five years.

The Binghamton job was going to be massive for Dempsey when he left Rider for the gig in 2012. In the six years since he arrived, it has stayed pretty bad. The Bearcats have gone 47-138 under Dempsey and have won just 20 of 106 America East games. Last year's squad went 2-14 in league play, finishing dead last. 

The Trojans haven't been bad under Enfield, but they have underperformed. Last year's team was one of the buzzworthy squads coming into the season, and it ended up missing the NCAA tournament altogether. While Enfield appears clean, he has had players and assistant Tony Bland wrapped up in the FBI scandal which is never a good look, especially at a school that has dealt with a lot of scandals in its athletic programs over the last 15 years. 

Gard was Bo Ryan's longtime assistant and took over the Badgers when Ryan abruptly retired during the 2015-2016 season. In his first two seasons, he reached the Sweet 16 but last year's team cratered with a 15-18 mark. The optics are that Gard had success with Ryan's recruits, and now that most of those kids have moved on the talent isn't there anymore. In reality Gard was one of Ryan's lead recruiters, but the players aren't developing at the rate they were under Ryan. If another bad year happens, the school could look to try to make a change.

The FBI investigation strikes again. Gottfried, who was fired by NC State following the 2016-2017 season, has found his former program featured prominently in the college basketball scandal. It has been stated that Dennis Smith Jr.'s family received $40,000 while at NC State and Bam Adebayo, who ended up at Kentucky, was offered money to head there too. Under Gottfried, the Wolfpack were known for disappointing seasons despite recruiting at a fairly high level. He will be beginning his first season at Northridge, but the school may want to distance itself from him if the heat gets too intense. 

Washington State hasn't made the NCAA Tournament since the Tony Bennett days in 2009. The Cougars won just four of 18 conference games last year and is 18-54 in Pac-12 games since Kent arrived four seasons ago. It doesn't help that there were four transfers and one suspension, and another player left the team this summer. This team could be very, very bad this year, and Kent may not make it all the way through.

Lansing's first four seasons in Terre Haute were pretty good: two 20-win seasons, two NIT berths and an NCAA Tournament appearance. In the four years since then, it has been all downhill. The team hasn't had a winning record since 2014 and hasn't reached the NCAAs since 2011. This spring, the university canceled Lansing's option to extend his contract an extra year, as it had been doing. That's a good sign that all isn't well, and he needs to start winning again. 

Leitao's second stint at DePaul hasn't gone as well as his first. He's just 29-65 in three seasons and finished ninth or 10th each year. Numbers don't tell the whole story, though. The Blue Demons have been awful since leaving Conference USA for the Big East in 2005. Even in the reconstructed Big East, they've been bad and look like they don't belong when they face off against the conference's best teams. What was once a proud program has not only hit hard times but also is currently laying on the mat. Leitao hasn't shown he can resurrect the Demons.

Wake Forest is a small, private school nestled among some of the largest basketball programs in history. Still, Wake has had reasonable successes over the years and expects to contend for ACC titles. Danny Manning has a lot of goodwill going for him — he's well liked and has done a fine job recruiting, but it hasn't resulted into enough wins. The Deacons are 4-17 against those other Tobacco Road schools (and none of those wins has been against Duke or North Carolina). If Wake can stick around the bubble, he probably stays. But if the Deacons continue to stay around the bottom of the league, the heat is on.

Masiello is best known for taking the South Florida coaching job in 2014 only for the school to pull out of the deal once it found out he lied on his resume. He stayed at Manhattan, but the program has struggled. Since going to consecutive NCAA Tournaments, the Jaspers have gone just 37-57 in three seasons and have been finishing in the bottom half of the MAAC. Last year's 14-17 mark featured only two wins against winning teams. 

McCaffery won't get fired. His contract and the fact that his very talented sons are heading to Iowa are big factors why he'll stay beyond this season. The Hawkeyes have failed to win 20 games for two straight seasons, and the fans are a bit restless. Iowa hasn't reached the Sweet 16 since 1999 and after getting to the "Round of 32" twice under McCaffery, it has stalled. Again, he won't be fired (unless a complete meltdown occurs), but he's already seeing vultures circling. 

Miles has done a fine job building programs up but has struggled to do so with the Cornhuskers. He got Nebraska to the 2014 NCAA Tournament, and last year he ended a stretch of three middling seasons with a 22-11 mark and an NIT berth. Are things getting much better? The 'Huskers missed the tournament due to a very light schedule, but much of that team is back and a tournament appearance (and maybe the program's first-ever tournament win) is expected. The same was expected in 2015, and the team tanked. Miles can't let that happen again.

Unlike some mentioned in this list, Miller's name has come out during this investigation into college basketball. One of Miller's assistants has been arrested and another accused of offering money to a player. Then there was the entire situation involving Deandre Ayton last season that nearly cost him his job. He survived that and is still recruiting at a high level, but the cloud still hangs over him and his staff.

The Mullin momentum is waning, and he needs wins. There was some hope when Mullin came in and was gaining interest by bigger-than-usual recruits, but that has since subsided. The Red Storm have finished in the bottom three of the league in the last three seasons and are 12-42 in Big East play. Mullin needs to get to the NCAA Tournament to keep his job.

Pasternack had a fine first season with the Gauchos, going 23-9 and finishing second in the Big West. However, he was named by Brian Bowen Sr. as a coach who would pay $50,000 for his son to go to Arizona when he was an assistant there. Pasternack hasn't been charged with anything yet, and UCSB says it hasn't been contacted by anyone involved with the investigation. Still, he was directly named and a school like UCSB certainly wouldn't want to have any problems surrounding its program if any of this proves true. 

The end of Pastner's time in Memphis saw the Tigers falling off a bit, so when he took the Georgia Tech job, it wasn't met with the kind of enthusiasm as hoped. In two seasons, the Yellow Jackets have finished 11th and 13th, respectively, in the ultra-competitive ACC and they've lost their top three scorers from a season ago. There's a lot to do in Atlanta, so if no one is electing to hang out to watch Tech games this winter due to more losing, Pastner may be shown the door. 

Pearl has been on the list before due to Auburn struggling to get out of the SEC basement. But last year the Tigers were really good, tying for the SEC regular-season title. This year, Pearl is on the list because of his involvement in the FBI investigation. His assistant, Chuck Person, was arrested as part of the scandal and Pearl wouldn't cooperate with the investigation. There were rumblings that his job was in jeopardy until he began to help investigators. He's been in hot water with the NCAA before, so there could be any number of twists that could shake Pearl out of his job. 

Pitino led the Golden Gophers to an NIT Championship in his first season at Minnesota, but there hasn't been much to love since then. After falling to a miserable 8-23 season in 2016, the Gophers bounced back to a tournament berth in 2017 (but were upset in the first round). Last year they followed that tournament appearance with a 4-14 Big Ten mark. There have been off-court issues involving players during Pitino's tenure and wildly erratic play. If Pitino doesn't steer this thing back on course, he could find himself ousted. 

Like Altman, there is no way the university would fire Self unless there is fire in the program from the FBI investigation . Right now, a few of the Jayhawks recruits are in the middle of it (mainly Billy Preston and Silvio De Sousa), and there are some rumblings around the water coolers that more dirt might come out on the program. Self hasn't been named, but in this day it is tough for a coach to be totally separated from something major like this going on in his program. 

Sometimes "hot seat" doesn't mean "close to being fired" but rather that the pressure to win is mounting. That's certainly the case in Austin, as Texas hasn't really taken off, as many would have thought, under Shaka Smart. He's been attracting talent but has suffered some bad breaks, and the results haven't been there. In three seasons he's just 23-31 in Big 12 play and hasn't won a tournament game. His contract is expensive and has several more years on it, so it's unlikely he'd be fired this season. But the fan base may start to lose faith in him if the Longhorns don't start doing some damage in March.

Tinkle's success at Montana hasn't followed him to Corvallis. His third year saw the Beavers go 5-27, and while they greatly improved last year (16-16), they still look a long way from a tournament team. Most of that team is back, though, so Tinkle needs to take that next step and have the Beavers fighting for a tournament spot and mixing it up in a soft Pac-12. Another ho-hum year could get him removed.

Remember back in the Gary Williams days when Maryland was right there with Duke and North Carolina for ACC titles? Since their 2002 national championship, the Terps have won just nine NCAA Tournament games and advanced to the Sweet 16 twice. Turgeon has been around for seven of those seasons and transitioned the Terps to the Big Ten but has struggled to get Maryland deep into the tournament. There's been talent at College Park, but the team hasn't been getting the lofty results it wants. Add in the fact that his name has been thrown around in the FBI investigation, and he could be in some trouble.