March Madness marks a special time of the year where several teams around the country will try to make their NCAA Tournament dreams come to reality. But for a handful of programs, they will come to the sobering reality of hitting the rest button by parting ways with their head coach
Here, we’ll keep track of every Division I men’s basketball program that has fired their head coach. We’ll also keep tabs on who the school has earmarked as their successor.
Power Six Conferences
DePaul
Fired: Tony Stubblefield
Hired: Chris Holtmann
Stubblefield was fired in late January following an abysmal 3-15 start to the season, finishing his three-year tenure with a 28-54 record. DePaul has had just two winning seasons since joining the Big East in 2005 and it will once again be searching for a coach that can inject life into the program.
Update: DePaul announced on March 15 that it had hired Chris Holtmann to replace Tony Stubblefield. Holtmann was at Ohio State for seven seasons before being let go in February.
Louisville
Fired: Kenny Payne
Hired:
Louisville is fired head men’s basketball coach Kenny Payne following the team’s first-round exit from the ACC Tournament. Hired to take over for his alma mater in March of 2022, Payne’s short run ended up being the worst coaching tenure in the modern history of the program. He posted an abysmal 12-52 record that included only five wins in the ACC and one road victory total.
Michigan
Fired: Juwan Howard
Hired: Dusty May
Another former NBA veteran is out as Michigan announced on on March 15 that it had parted ways with Howard after five seasons. The tenure of the “Fab 5” member at his alma mater started off well as he led the Wolverines to an Elite Eight appearance in 2021 and a Sweet 16 appearance in 2022. Things would fall off however as an NIT appearance would be followed up with a poor season this year where Michigan finished last in the Big Ten.
Update: Michigan officially announced on March 23 that Florida Atlantic’s Dusty May. May spent six seasons in Boca Raton, leading the Owls to the Final Four in 2023 and a return trip to the NCAA Tournament in 2024.
Ohio State
Fired: Chris Holtmann
Hired: Jake Diebler
Holtmann was fired by Ohio State in mid-February, bringing his seven-year tenure with the school to an end. He led the Buckeyes to four NCAA Tournament appearances, but posted middling results the last two years that had OSU in the bottom half of the Big Ten standings.
Update: Ohio State pulled the interim tag off Diebler and named him the full-time head coach on March 17. The Buckeyes began playing significantly better when he took over for Holtmann and managed to get the team into the NIT.
Oklahoma State
Fired: Mike Boynton
Hired:
The Cowboys head coach has been able to get some top recruits but that hasn’t translated to wins in Stillwater. Boynton managed just 12 wins in 2023-24 after getting to 20 wins in 2022-23. With just one NCAA tournament appearance in seven seasons, it was time for Oklahoma State to go in a different direction.
SMU
Fired: Rob Lanier
Hired:
SMU parted ways with Lanier on March 21 after just two seasons on the job. He posted a 30-34 record during his tenure and led the Mustangs to an NIT appearance this season. This move is kind of a head scratcher, but the Mustang brass must feel like they can upgrade heading into the ACC next season.
Stanford
Fired: Jerod Haase
Hired:
Haase was let go a mere eight minutes after 17-point loss to Washington State in the Pac-12 quarterfinals. In eight seasons in Palo Alto Haase failed to make an NCAA Tournament, and hadn’t been over .500 since 2020-21.
Vanderbilt
Fired: Jerry Stackhouse
Hired:
Vanderbilt is parting ways with Stackhouse after five seasons at the helm. The former NBA All-Star’s tenure in Nashville never really got off the ground as he posted a 70-92 record with just two NIT appearances.
Washington
Fired: Mike Hopkins
Hired:
Getting fired the day after your biggest win of the season, but the Huskies are 17-14 in a soft Pac-12 this season, and Hop has only been to the NCAA Tournament once in Seattle (2019). This will be his first season over .500 since that year, and with a new athletic director in Tulane transfer Troy Dannen, this move isn’t much of a surprise.
Mid-Major Conferences
Canisius
Fired: Reggie Witherspoon
Hired:
Canisius parted ways with Witherspoon on March 16 following their quarterfinal exit from the MAAC Tournament. He posted a 108-130 record through eight seasons with just one CIT and one CBI appearance.
Cal Poly
Fired: John Smith
Hired:
Cal Poly announced that it would part ways with Smith following the conclusion of the regular season. Smith has posted a very poor 30-115 record through his five seasons at the helm.
Detroit Mercy
Fired: Mike Davis
Hired:
Perhaps the most predictable job change in all of D-1, Mike Davis was 1-31 at Detroit Mercy this season. He was 60-119 in six seasons following stops at Indiana, UAB, and Texas Southern.
IUPUI Jaguars
Fired: Matt Crenshaw
Hired:
IUPUI announced the firing of Crenshaw on March 6 following its first-round exit from the Horizon League Tournament. Crenshaw posted an abysmal 14-79 record through three seasons at his alma mater.
Loyola Maryland
Fired: Tavares Hardy
Hired:
The Patriot League claims its first victim, as after six seasons Hardy went 7-25 in 2023-24. The Greyhounds were 5-13 in the conference this season, and Hardy never finished a season over .500 in Baltimore in the league or overall.
Old Dominion
Retiring: Jeff Jones
Hired: Mike Jones
Jones announced his retirement in late February. The veteran coach suffered a heart attack in December and took a medical leave as assistant coach Kieran Donahue took over as the interim.
Pacific Tigers
Fired: Leonard Perry
Hired:
Pacific announced on March 4 that Perry would be relieved of his duties as head coach and reassigned to another role with the university. He posted a 29-65 record through his three seasons at the helm, including a 6-25 mark this season where the Tigers were winless in West Coast Conference action.
Pepperdine Waves
Fired: Lorenzo Romar
Hired:
Pepperdine announced on March 5 that it would part ways with Romar at the end of the year, ending his second tenure as the head coach of the program. He posted a 117-156 record through six years of this run with the Waves.
Southern Illinois
Fired: Bryan Mullins
Hired:
A bit of a surprise here as Mullins is an SIU alum, and he finished third in MVC Coach of the Year award voting with a 19-13 record in 2024, his fifth season as head coach. This feels like AD Tim Leonard knows who he wants to take the job already.
UTSA
Fired: Steve Henson
Hired:
The Roadrunners finish 11-21, 5-13 in the AAC after Henson’s eighth season. He never reached an NCAA Tournament after seven years in Conference USA and one in the American.