The transfer portal in college basketball has become as much of a frenzy as the free agency period in professional American sports. Over the past few seasons, it feels as though the offseason coaching carousel is becoming equally chaotic in what may look like a giant game of musical chairs. Once the music starts and one coach gets up to fill an empty seat, it can lead to a mad dash of schools trying to fill their empty seats before the music stops. One big difference in this game is that chairs can be added as coaches, not in the game when it first started, may find themselves amid all the chaos.
As fun as the offseason carousel can be for fans, it is more than just some coaches filling open spots. Those coaches have responsibilities in their current position, whether as a head coach somewhere else, as an assistant, or in some other capacity. With running a program now a year-round endeavor, juggling those responsibilities while adding the possibility of changing jobs to an already full plate seems daunting. It’s not only coaches involved in the carousel; athletic directors must keep an ear to the ground because the carousel can add some unexpected (at least to outsiders) open seats as it spins around, as they may find themselves needing to make a new hire.
What may seem chaotic on the outside to us fans is not only the opposite for coaches and athletic directors, but it almost has to be that way. Coaches have become very good at compartmentalizing some of the outside noise that comes with their position, including potentially being sought out for a new position.
New Fordham head coach Mike Magpayo, who returns to the East Coast after a very successful stint as the head coach at UC Riverside, said, “I don’t look; the most successful coaches are able to stay in the moment as best we can.”
It’s the same mentality when it comes to the other responsibilities coaches have surrounding their program, especially in the offseason. They have to focus on what’s in front of them, which means roster building. No matter who might be interested in a coach, that coach would be doing himself and his school a disservice to not focus on his team. Magpayo agrees, saying, ”We have to stay in the moment.”
Obviously there are many factors coaches take into account when looking at a potential new landing spot. One of the factors that may not necessarily be new, but now comes in a new form, is a school’s NIL resources. Much like athletic directors at different levels of the game may have different ranking priorities when looking for a new coach, coaches also have different priorities when looking at the fit at a new school. Magpayo says,” A big part of the pitch is, we’re going to develop you as a human. Off the court stuff is just as important, always talk about human development.”
For athletic directors, it’s kind of the same. While they hear about potential openings that could impact their school, they don’t necessarily listen to the outside noise. The biggest factor for the ADs I spoke with is an open communication line with their coaches. Both Dan Hauser of High Point and Wes Mallette of UC Riverside say the best way to have a pulse on where things are and where they may be headed is to talk to the coaches.
Hauser says, “ I monitor from afar, but when there are changes at the power-4 or group of 5 level, you wonder if it is going to have domino effects down the line. Usually, I have an open dialogue and conversation with my current head coach and have a sense of whether they’re successful, where they might want to land.” Mallette took it a step further, saying, “I take a step back and I watch the game within the game. I watch assistant coaches, I watch them during games, during practices throughout the year. The first thing I do is watch our coaches, I watch their trajectory so I know how they’re climbing. So I know when they’re getting close, ok, this may be the year we lose this coach.”
Another aspect of the role of athletics directors involved in the coaching carousel is how they go about looking at potential candidates. A lot, if not all, of that is dependent on where the school sits in the hierarchy of college athletics. If you're a high-major school, then the world is your oyster as they say, meaning you're candidate pool is unlimited and nobody is off limits when filling your vacancy. But if you're not, then schools must be more selective in finding the right fit.
At the lower levels, winning is still important, but doing so within a culture you have built is more important than it might be elsewhere. Knowing what has made your coaches successful in the past and what kind of candidate pool that may attract becomes extra important. For a school like High Point, they have tried the route of former high-major coach when they hired Tubby Smith in 2018.
Then in 2023, the Panthers went in another direction, hiring then Creighton assistant coach Alan Huss. Huss spent two successful seasons at High Point with a 56-15 record. After the season, Huss decided to return to Omaha as a part of Greg McDermott’s staff, this time as an associate head coach with the promise of being Creighton’s next head coach.
When Huss left, Hauser knew the kind of coach he wanted, saying,” A lot of factors go into that, but I think we’re in the game at High Point University to hire assistant coaches. We probably don’t have a chance to hire proven head coaches; we’re trying to find the next up-and-coming assistant coach. I like assistant coaches who have created success at multiple stops; success kind of follows them. I’m also gravitated to assistant coaches that have had success where it might seem difficult.” Hauser also says that right now, a coach’s resume is the biggest factor, “To me, it’s finding a winner and finding a champion that can create championship culture and championship success. I put that over NIL, currently.”
Part of that is because of the type of candidate High Point can attract with its resources. But, at the same time, hiring an assistant led to their most successful seasons in decades, so why not go back to that well? That’s what Hauser did, promoting associate head coach Flynn Clayman as High Point’s new head man.
Mallette's search at UC Riverside was a bit different. Thanks to that open line of communication, he knew that Magpayo was prepared for the next step in his career. Magpayo took the job at Fordham, and that was a good thing for UC Riverside. Mallette says coaches moving on is beneficial for the Highlanders’ search, “As an AD, if you do your job and you do it well, you should be excited for people to make the jump to the proverbial next level. What we have found at UC Riverside in the last five years, people don’t leave because they’re mad, people don’t leave because they’re frustrated. People leave because they have done an unbelievable job, it has been recognized, and the next opportunity that comes to them is the opportunity they need to take because it’s going to further them on their career path. That’s one of the reasons we had 212 people text, email, and/or inquire about this job when Mike Magpayo left.”
Mallette reiterated that Magpayo’s success and the school’s ability to nurture young coaches led to him having over 200 inquiries about the opening,”When Mike (Magpayo) made the jump we had no shortage over 200-plus candidates at every level, NBA, high-major assistants, group of 5, D2, JuCo, even high school individuals come after this job because they knew what we were able to do here.”
Chaotic may not be the right word, but one of the biggest complaints about the portal has been the lack of guardrails to guide teams. To help with that, certain windows were established as to when players can enter the portal. With the dominoes of the coaching carousel impacting head coaches, assistant coaches, and now programs creating general manager positions, I wondered if those involved felt there might be a need for similar guidelines when it comes to coaches.
Magpayo said,”There are guardrails, for instance, when Fordham took me from UC-Riverside, they had to pay a buyout. There are guardrails, we’re under contract, and those are the things we’re missing, but I’m not opposed to that, windows for coaches.”
His former AD, Mallette, says, “I think this is going to level out. I think you’re going to see donor fatigue, from donors who are paying into collectives and coaches who are buying rosters, when they’re not having success. At the end of the day, this is still college athletics, and players want to play.”
As fun as it may be for fans to watch the game of coaching musical chairs that takes place when the season is over, it is increasingly becoming both coaches and administration have to monitor to prepare for what may or may not come their way. Much like any other line of business, in the world of college basketball, where the unpredictability off the court is reaching the levels of it on the court, it's always best to have a plan and be prepared. Those of us on the outside may not be privy to it, but those involved are constantly adapting and preparing to keep the carousel from spinning out of control.