Pressure Index: Hot seat coaches, others in need of program-changing results

Over recent weeks, the coaching carousel has started to get an early spin, with multiple high-major coaches announcing a mutual decision with their school to step down after the season. This quick start ramps up the pressure for many others across college basketball.

Every year, there are new storylines which pop up surrounding various teams, coaches and players which will determine how fans view the outcome of the season. Some will overachieve, others will find themselves firmly in the crosshairs of the fanbase.

This article focuses on those who have either underperformed to this point or look dangerously close to joining that category with just one month left to turn things around. Some might be on the hot seat, others just have a reputation to uphold.

Check out which teams and coaches are currently under the most pressure to have a big month leading up to March Madness.

Bobby Hurley

Bobby Hurley entered the season on the prototypical hot seat, with pressure to make the NCAA Tournament or risk a change in leadership. After a good start to the plan, it has quickly gone wrong with no signs of turning back around soon.

Hurley made his best effort to build a roster which could withstand the challenges of the season, combining veteran transfers, returning players and talented freshman. However, through injuries, suspensions and various other setbacks in a challenging Big 12 schedule, the losses have piled up.

It will be difficult for Arizona State to get back in the mix on the NCAA Tournament bubble, making the conference tournament vitally important to make a final pitch why the school should retain his services.

Porter Moser

Once the darling story of college basketball this season, Oklahoma has slowly and painfully slipped to the bottom of the SEC standings and wiped out much of the value they created in the non-conference portion of the schedule.

This freefall has put head coach Porter Moser as close to the hot seat as ever. Despite seeing good results early, fans are now left scratching their heads as they come out on the wrong side of important conference matchups.

The Sooners have now dropped from the Top 25 team with an undefeated record to a bubble team searching desperately for some footing in the final month of games before it all crashes down.

Matt McMahon

LSU continues to fall just on the wrong side of things in the SEC. While it is a gauntlet of games from January to March, the Tigers have not found a winning formula over extended periods so far under Matt McMahon.

A win against Oklahoma will ease the pressure, but the overall body of work remains disappointing enough to take a long look.

The challenge when evaluating his tenure remains the strength of opponents. However, at the end of the day that argument can be made for all 16 coaches in the conference as they battle on a nightly basis to build an NCAA Tournament resume.

Red Autry

Red Autry was selected to replace Jim Boeheim when he retired from Syracuse, making official the succession plan which was planned for years. However, given the lack of results over an extended period of time leading up to the change, there were questions.

Those questions remain, as the results have not picked up for the Orange. A sub .500 record is simply not good enough for a historic basketball program, and it is difficult to fully diagnose the fix given the current roster and staff.

Micah Shrewsberry

Micah Shrewsberry should be under no pressure for his job at this point, particularly given the underlying growth and future players scheduled to join the fold at Notre Dame. However, the pressure in recent weeks has become clear.

As the Fighting Irish continue to see the wrong side of results, Shrewsberry has taken all the blame on himself, and at least one fan publicly agreed. The coach revealed a text he received midway through a recent win questioning why he is paid for such frustrating results. More recently, he went on a fiery rant calling out the fanbase for abandoning his team.

The future still looks bright at Notre Dame, but they desperately need to calm the storms of the present before the fanbase runs off their coach and players.

Indiana

Indiana is now under a different kind of pressure than it was a few weeks ago. Mike Woodson no longer has any weight on his shoulders as an outgoing coach, and many of the players can breathe a sigh of relief over the external pressure they faced too.

However, the pressure now builds on the athletic department to fix the mistakes made. By bringing back Woodson for another year, they missed out on a fan favorite and spent big NIL money on a team which looks out of the NCAA Tournament picture already.

The next hire must be right, especially at a blue-blood program which has been away from the glory years for far too long.

Seton Hall

Seton Hall is under about as much pressure as a team nowhere near the NCAA Tournament bubble with a solid head coach can be at this time of year. That is all Rick Pitino’s fault, or, more accurately the program’s own fault.

Amid the terrible result of the season, a rivalry coach — who landed your star player from the transfer portal — openly calling for you to step up and provide resources is a bad look. Even worse is him confirming that the player would still play for Seton Hall if the NIL package was available.

Fundraising should already be underway for the 2025-26 season after the debacle, and if it is not, the problem could be even worse next year.

Florida State

Florida State now fits into a similar category to Indiana — along with Miami and Virginia before them — with a pending coaching vacancy to fill. The head start must produce the right candidate for the historic job, allowing the program to hit the ground running as results remain absent over recent years.

Recently a team expected to make second-weekend NCAA Tournament runs, there is now legal issues involving both the athletic department’s conference exit plan and the basketball program’s NIL history. How those impact the pursuit of top coaches remains to be seen.

Check out the On3 hot board for the Florida State basketball job

Seeing Leonard Hamilton out the door in his final season should also take a backseat to nothing else, with his career deserving of a proper send-off from home and away fans alike in the coming month.