Five years. That’s how long you get.
Obviously, each situation is different, but when a college basketball team hires a new coach, the clock starts ticking. In general, the new guy gets five years to prove his worth.
Look at last offseason’s coaching carousel. Arkansas’s Eric Musselman, Bryant’s Jared Grasso, Cal Poly’s John Smith and Central Arkansas’ Anthony Boone were all let go after their fifth season with their respective school. And that’s just the top of the alphabetical list of schools.
The good news for the coaches at North Carolina’s 19 division I basketball programs is that only two are entering year five. Twelve are still too new to rate, with less than five years at their current school, and five have already passed that danger zone.
Here’s a look at where each of the state’s DI coaches sit heading into the 2024-25 season, in descending order of tenure.
LaVelle Moton, NC Central:
The state’s coaching dean, with 14 years with the Eagles, Moton is relatively safe. However, his last 20-win season was in 2017. His last NCAA bid was 2019. His last first-place finish was 2020. That means he’s entering the longest drought of each in his NCCU tenure, and—yes—the drought is entering year five.
Seat: Slightly warmer than usual.
Kevin McGeehan, Campbell:
Did anyone not affiliated with the Camels know he’d been coaching there for 12 seasons? He only has one NIT bid to show for it, but Campbell moved to the CAA last season, so he likely still has some slack in year two of the new conference affiliation.
Seat: Barring a disaster, cool.
Kevin Keatts, NC State:
In his eighth season with the Wolfpack, everyone thought he was seven-and-done heading into last March. State’s run to the ACC title and Final Four got him a contract extension and plenty of grace with the fanbase. It won’t take much for everyone to remember why they were ready to cut ties, however, so he needs to build on last year’s magical season.
Seat: Cool for now, but the switch can be flipped quickly.
Mike Morrell, UNC Asheville:
He’s in his seventh year with the school and reached the NCAA Tournament two years ago. He’s 95-88 and coming off a 22-12 year.
Seat: Ice cold.
Dustin Kerns, App State:
Entering his sixth season, Kerns is 97-65 at App and coming off a 27-7 season. He’s more likely to get poached by a big-budget school whose coach has hit his five-year limit than to run into trouble in Boone.
Seat: Ice cold.
Takayo Siddle, UNC Wilmington:
That brings us to the pair of Year Five coaches, and Siddle is probably the more comfortable of the two. He hasn’t taken UNCW to the NCAAs yet, but he’s 79-39, won a conference regular season title in 2022 and went 21-10 last year.
Seat: Ice cold.
Steve Forbes, Wake Forest:
Anyone unhappy with the fifth-year Deacs coach doesn’t remember the Jeff Bzdelik and Danny Manning years. However, even though he’s rebuilt the program, ,with 65 wins in the last three years, he has yet to make an NCAA Tournament. A slight slip in the win-loss record, and the fanbase could begin to grumble.
Seat: Still cool, for now.
Mike Jones, UNC Greensboro:
Entering year four, Jones is 58-38 and coming off a 21-win season. Unfortunately, he’s not Wes Miller, who won 23-25 and made the NCAA twice in a four-year span before leaving.
Seat: Starting to warm a bit
Hubert Davis, North Carolina:
Roy Williams’ hand-picked successor has reached an NCAA Final and won an ACC regular season title in his three seasons. In between, the fanbase has called for his head. Nothing against Davis and his 78-31 record. That’s just life at one of the blue bloods.
Seat: Cool, until it’s not
Jon Scheyer, Duke:
One of the nation’s best recruiters and winner of an ACC Tournament and 54 games in two seasons. Like Davis, however, the fanbase is almost always one bad night from calling for his head.
Seat: Cool, until it’s not
Matt McKillop, Davidson:
Went 16-16 in year one following his father, Bob, 15-17 last year. He’ll need to turn in one of those 20-win seasons that his dad seemed to string together.
Seat: Warming
Billy Taylor, Elon:
Improved from 8-24 in year one to 13-19 last year, but still has to make a big jump.
Seat: Warming
Mike Schwartz, ECU:
Fell from 18-12 to 13-23 last year. Will need a bounce-back season in year three.
Seat: Warm
Grant Leonard, Queens:
Went from 19-15 to 13-19. Year three will need a turnaround.
Seat: Warming
Alan Huss, High Point:
Had a 27-9 debut season and was on the short list for coach of the year awards. The biggest concern for High Point is that someone else comes calling for him.
Seat: Ice cold
Alan Fearne, Charlotte:
Went 19-12 as interim coach and got the permanent job. Charlotte is in its second year in the AAC, so a dropoff in the record could probably be forgiven.
Seat: Cold
Monte Ross, NC A&T:
Was 132-184 at Delaware and went 7-25 in his first year with A&T.
Seat: Warming
Tim Craft, Western Carolina:
Went 188-166 at Gardner-Webb but got poached when Western lost Justin Gray to Coastal Carolina.
Seat: Ice cold
Jeremy Luther, Gardner-Webb:
Has been an assistant at G-W under Craft for more than a decade but has never been a head coach above the D-II level.
Seat: Cold
