NCAA Basketball: Hot Seat Head Coaches in Mid-December of 2023-24 season

Tony Stubblefield – DePaul Blue Demons

When DePaul hired him back in 2021, Stubblefield was a name that sort of came out of nowhere. He had never been a head coach, though he had spent nearly three decades as a collegiate assistant, including a brief interim head coaching stint at New Mexico State in 2005. The last eleven years were spent on Dana Altman’s staff at Oregon, helping shape the Ducks into a great program, but Stubblefield had no connections to DePaul or the city of Chicago.

There was potential in year one, with the Blue Demons winning 15 games, though last season was a step backwards with a 10-23 record. This season looks like it’s going to be far worse than either of those previous two, as the Blue Demons sit at 2-7. They were upended at home by Purdue Fort Wayne, Long Beach State, and Northern Illinois and got blown out by teams like Iowa State and Texas A&M. Their most recent effort was actually a win over a Louisville program we’ve already established is equally underwhelming.

An argument could be easily made that coaches should be given a certain amount of time and that three years isn’t enough. The game has changed with the Transfer Portal and other recruiting tactics making it easier to build a contender for a power conference program. Frankly, DePaul hasn’t felt like a power conference program in recent years and Stubblefield has done little to change that momentum. The Blue Demons could certainly bottom out in the Big East this season and would do well to reexamine the head coaching position again.