NCAA Basketball: Coaching Carousel Update and Firings from early March

Central Arkansas

A new era will begin in Central Arkansas next season, with Anthony Boone fired after ten years with the program. He was an assistant under Russ Pennell for five and a half years before becoming interim head coach in January 2020. Boone would be promoted to the top job and last four full seasons, but went just 43-96, winning only nine games in each of the last two seasons.

This was Boone’s first head coaching gig at any level and ends after less than five years. He played college ball at Ole Miss and got his coaching start as a graduate assistant there. He bounced around as a collegiate assistant for nearly two decades and even worked on Pennell’s bench with the Phoenix Mercury of the WNBA.

Central Arkansas has been a D1 program for less than two decades and hasn’t had their breakthrough success quite yet. The Bears have yet to reach the NCAA Tournament and have had only one finish above .500, coming back in 2018 with Pennell as head coach and Boone as an assistant. They’re coming off year three in the A-Sun and have won just 29 total games, with some rough finishes in league play.

It’s a bit of a fresh start for Central Arkansas, who hasn’t had a proper coaching search in a decade. There’s any number of directions the Bears could look for their next leader. It’s extremely unlikely that the next coach is on this current staff, unlike when Boone was promoted, though that situation was different with Pennell’s resignation. Perhaps some high major assistant is looking for his shot to run a program.