The opening weekend of the NCAA Tournament was not going to stop the carousel from moving. On Monday, a surprising hire closed a power-conference vacancy: Minnesota announced alumnus Ben Johnson was the choice to succeed Richard Pitino.
The school and Johnson agreed to a five-year contract. He graduated from Minnesota in 2005 and was previously an assistant at the school from 2013-18. Johnson spent the past three years as an assistant at Xavier. With Johnson going to Minneapolis, four power-conference jobs are open: Indiana, Marquette, Utah and DePaul. Analysis on all four openings can be found below.
High-profile jobs that have closed in recent days: Minnesota, Iowa State, UNLV and New Mexico.
As for the other big jobs that are open, let’s do a boom-boom-boom with what to know. You’re going to see some names repeated below, and it’s with good reason. Plenty of these coaches will be, and should be, up for interviews. The coaches named are a combination of my recommendations, in addition to some intel from industry sources.
Indiana: The best job on the market this carousel cycle, of course. Seems no one has a true pulse on the state of this search at this point, which is impressive considering how aggressively this is trying to be tracked both locally and nationally. Whoever the three or four candidates that truly have a line in and a chance at the job as of now are, they’re keeping communication tight and their circles tighter. Indiana will shoot for the stars, and in the end, it’s highly likely to land a big-name coach. The question is how long that takes to get done. If you’d like a deeper examination into the Indiana opening, our David Cobb has a look at some names, with some further intel from my end included in that story.
Marquette: Marquette announced Friday it was firing Steve Wojciechowski after seven seasons. Wojciechowski made two NCAA Tournaments in his time there (though it would have been three if there was a tournament in 2020) and finished with a 128-95 record. Marquette was 13-14 this season with an 8-11 Big East record. A splashy hire is possible, just a matter of who Marquette can lure. The NCAA Tournament is likely going to impact the timeline here. Would John Beilein return to the Big East and take this job? Loyola Chicago’s Porter Moser would seem to be a top priority, but that will have to wait as his Ramblers are into the Sweet 16. Marquette’s fan base holds its coaches to a high standard, and this will be a fervently tracked process.
Utah: With Krystkowiak out, Utah becomes the second-best job to Indiana available. Historically it’s one of the 20 best in college basketball history. It’s in a great city, and those familiar with the college basketball scene Rockies-west will tell you that should be a top-four Pac-12 team two out of every three years. The two in-state coaches will obviously be linked — BYU’s Mark Pope and Utah State’s Craig Smith — but this job will truly have a national search behind it, and if it ultimately brings in an outside-the-box hire, I would not be surprised. Utah Jazz assistant Alex Jensen has been named as a target as well.
DePaul: Dave Leitao is out, and athletic director DeWayne Peevy gets his first chance to make a hire that can transform a dormant program. Sources say the school will cast a decently wide net, but it feels like New York Knicks assistant Kenny Payne, along with Gates and Moser, are the top three options to consider here. You’ll get a yes from at least one of those, and I’d lean that the next coach will come from this group, but the truth a few more name than that have already conducted interviews.
We’ll continue to update news here as it comes in. Here are the 34 jobs that have changed to this point.