Pac-12 Basketball: Early efforts by coaches viewed on the hot seat

Coaching college basketball can be a fickle career choice, as only a select few have absolute job security. It even can be argued that the coaches with the most job security – Tom Izzo, John Calipari, and Mark Few – also have the most resources, and expectations therefore a number of seasons not meeting those expectations results in the most criticism.

Most college coaches do not have unlimited resources and the type of name recognition that will draw recruits and transfers to their team and create a snowball effect of winning that will allow the coach to retire on their own terms such as Mike Krzyzewski, Roy Williams, and Jay Wright.

Seldom do athletic directors change course on the captain leading the ship mid-season and fire a coach, the offseason is when the coaching carousel begins. A pattern that is all too familiar to Tom Crean who was fired from Georgia on Mar. 10, 2022, and to Cuonzo Martin who was fired from his position at Missouri a day later. The 2022-23 NCAA Men’s Basketball season will be no different as a number of coaches will begin the season under scrutiny with their posteriors firmly in the proverbial ‘ hot seat’.

The time for them to turn their fortunes around began with their recruiting for the upcoming season and continues with the transfer portal. But, just as the transfer portal giveth, it taketh away as well. The 2022-23 season could very well be the deciding factor between a firing or getting an extension for some of these coaches and the first month of the off-season is arguably more important than the first month of the actual season.

Here’s a look at Pac-12 Basketball specifically and the coaches who need a big offseason to potentially help save their jobs.