NCAA Coaching Carousel
As the college basketball season winds down, schools across the country are making necessary coaching changes to better themselves for next year. This season more than any other includes some marquee moves, most notably Jim Boeheim leaving the Syracuse Orange after 47 years at the helm.
One of the earlier moves included a lateral move in the Big East, as former Providence Head Coach Ed Cooley takes over for Pat Ewing at Georgetown. Georgetown University is a blue blood of college basketball, but a tumultuous two years under Ewing led to a quick change.
The Hoyas posted a 29-game conference losing streak along with a combined 13-50 record the past two seasons. Cooley brings the tenacity that the program needs, and his Friars started off 2022 as hot as ever, going 14-3 overall and 6-0 in the Big East.
Replacing Cooley at Providence is young but experienced coach Kim English, who led Geroge Mason to a winning record in the Atlantic-10 conference the past two years.
English, who was a second-round pick in the NBA draft back in 2012, has already compiled a decorated playing and coaching career. The 34-year-old completed three assistant coaching stints at power-5 programs, including the likes of Tennessee and Colorado, before he became the head coach at George Mason.
Staying in the Big East, the St. John’s Red Storm have hired Rick Pitino as their new head coach. Pitino begins his third stint in the Big East conference, after coaching at both Providence and Louisville and winning one of his two national championships with the Cardinals.
The age-70 head coach is the oldest notable hire out there but brings great leadership to a volatile St. John’s team. Pitino was out of basketball overseas before coaching at Iona last season, where he brought the Gaels to the NCAA tournament in his first year at the helm.
Replacing Pitino at Iona is one of the best stories in sports, former Fairleigh Dickinson head coach Tobin Anderson. Anderson led the Knights to a 16-seed tournament appearance this past season, where they miraculously knocked off 1-seed Purdue and Wooden Award frontrunner Zach Edey.
Anderson was a decorated head coach at the Division II level for quite some time, winning ECC Coach of the Year four separate times with St. Thomas Aquinas University. The 51-year-old knows how to motivate a squad, and could be poised to pull off future March Madness upsets with Iona.
Moving to the Big Ten, the speculation of a Micah Shrewsberry and the state of Indiana reunion has come to fruition, as he has agreed to become Notre Dame’s new head coach. The former Penn State head coach led the Nittany Lions to a miraculous end-of-season run, landing them a 10-seed tournament appearance and a first-round victory over Texas A&M.
Shrewsberry, who has roots at Purdue and Butler as an assistant coach and grew up in Indiana, moves back home to help Notre Dame revive their historic program. Shrewsberry’s connection to former and current NBA players was a big appeal to the Fighting Irish as well.
Replacing Shrewsberry at Penn State is former VCU head coach Mike Rhoades. Rhoades had a successful run at VCU, leading the school to a conference championship and tournament appearance, along with a 27-8 overall record (15-3 in conference).
Rhoades is a proven winner at the Division II and III levels, something that Penn State has been looking for for a long time. Before 2022, the Nittany Lions’ last tournament appearance came in 2011, and they have not made the Sweet 16 since 2001.
The most notable vacancy of 2023 wasn’t necessarily the flashiest of positions but made headlines because the position has been filled for so long. Jim Boeheim, who had been the head coach of the Syracuse Orange for the past 47 seasons, has announced his retirement.
Autry was an internal hire for the Orange, coaching as an assistant under Boeheim for the past 12 seasons. Autry also played for Syracuse from 1990-1994, where he appeared in three NCAA tournaments. Syracuse finds him to be the “perfect heir” for Orange basketball.
Other notable hires: Rodney Terry to Texas, Chris Beard to Ole Miss, Damon Stoudamire to Georgia Tech and Grant McCasland to Texas Tech.
Parker Silverman is a freshman majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, please email pws5405@psu.edu.
