With BYU hiring Phoenix Suns assistant Kevin Young as its new head coach on Tuesday, the 2024 high-major coaching carousel has likely slowed to a halt.
This was a carousel that began spinning almost a year ago, when Bob Huggins left West Virginia and the Mountaineers temporarily conducted a search before appointing an interim head coach for the season.
DePaul joined West Virginia on the merry-go-round in January, Ohio State shockingly let go of Chris Holtmann with a month left in the regular season and Washington's job also opened before the season ended. It didn't take long for Louisville, Oklahoma State, Vanderbilt and Stanford to make moves after losses in their respective conference tournaments, but Michigan announcing Juwan Howard would not return to Ann Arbor raised the bar for this year's carousel.
In retrospect, there were two pivot points for the 2024 coaching carousel: Dusty May's decision to leave Florida Atlantic, and SMU's decision to fire Rob Lanier after two seasons.
Once Louisville, Ohio State and Michigan opened, everything was expected to remain paused until May picked his next destination. Ohio State took itself out of the running by promoting interim head coach Jake Diebler, then May changed the trajectory of the carousel by choosing Michigan over Louisville.
That left Louisville in a difficult position, and after a couple of whirlwind days conducting a search, the Cardinals landed on Charleston's Pat Kelsey. Meanwhile, Stanford (Kyle Smith), Washington (Danny Sprinkle) and West Virginia (Darian DeVries) made their long-anticipated hires after the first weekend of the NCAA tournament. Mark Byington was tabbed at Vanderbilt, and Oklahoma State eventually landed on Steve Lutz.
When SMU parted ways with Lanier midway through the first day of the NCAA tournament, nobody could have foreseen the far-reaching ramifications that would ensue over the next month. Essentially, the carousel went haywire. The Mustangs went out and poached Andy Enfield from USC, which then hired Arkansas' Eric Musselman. After the Razorbacks pursued Chris Beard and Jerome Tang, they changed course and went after the biggest fish: Kentucky's John Calipari. And to the shock of nearly the entire industry, the Hall of Famer departed Lexington after 15 years to go to the SEC rival.
Kentucky's search, however, did not go as expected. Jay Wright, Dan Hurley and Billy Donovan all distanced themselves from the job early in the process, while Alabama's Nate Oats announced he was staying in Tuscaloosa before the job even opened. Then Baylor's Scott Drew turned down the Wildcats to stay in Waco. A second run at Hurley was predictably unsuccessful.
That left athletic director Mitch Barnhart to turn to a former player: BYU head coach Mark Pope, who had won a national championship with the Wildcats under Rick Pitino in 1996.
And so, the loop was ultimately closed.
As the carousel winds down and we take stock of the state of coaching for 2024-25, we noted 64 jobs opened, which is just about in line with the past few years: 61 in 2023, 60 in 2022, 57 in 2021. See the full list of official changes here.
Last updated: April 19, 2024
The comprehensive 2024 coaching hot seat guide | All the confirmed coaching changes for 2024-25
April 11
11:30 p.m. ET
The first coaching domino of John Calipari's seismic move from Kentucky to Arkansas is falling.
The Wildcats are expected to hire BYU's Mark Pope as their next head coach, sources told ESPN on Thursday night.
Pope played at Kentucky for two seasons, winning a national championship under Rick Pitino in 1996. He has been a head coach for nine seasons, spending four of them at Utah Valley before coaching at BYU for the past five years. He has taken the Cougars to two NCAA tournaments, and led them to a 23-11 record in 2023-24, their first season in the Big 12.
Kentucky pursued several high-profile candidates before landing on Pope, as Jay Wright, Dan Hurley and Billy Donovan all distanced themselves from the job very early in the process. The Wildcats had interest in Alabama's Nate Oats, but he announced he was staying in Tuscaloosa before the job even opened.
And earlier Thursday, Baylor's Scott Drew turned down Kentucky to stay in Waco; a second run at Hurley resulted in him staying in Storrs.
The last power-conference domino?
BYU is unlikely to have a long, drawn-out search with a large candidate pool. Some of the names expected to be linked to this job are Cal's Mark Madsen, UNLV assistant coach Barret Peery, Dallas Mavericks assistant coach Alex Jensen and Utah assistant coach Chris Burgess.