February is always a tough month in college basketball. There is not much time left to impress the committee, and you are only seeing conference opponents, so every game feels like a fight. For some coaches, this month will likely decide whether they spend March looking at recruits or moving companies.
The coaches on this list have been struggling for several seasons, and their fan bases are just about out of patience. Without a strong February, they may find themselves in the unemployment line at the end of the season.
Bobby Hurley, Arizona State
Arizona State has shown plenty of patience over the years. Rob Evans got eight seasons in Tempe with just one NCAA appearance. Herb Sendek lasted nine with two tournament trips. Bobby Hurley is now in his 11th season at ASU and has three appearances in the First Four.
The Sun Devils have not qualified for the main NCAA bracket since 2009, and patience might finally be running out.
The move to the Big 12 has not helped Hurley. It is the strongest basketball league in the country, and coaches either adapt quickly or get left behind. Hurley has yet to show he can elevate this program in its new conference, and there is a growing sense that ASU might have finally seen enough.
It also does not help that rival Arizona is building a potential national title contender under Tommy Lloyd. ASU does not need to be Arizona, but the talent gap between the Wildcats and the Sun Devils should not feel as wide as the Grand Canyon. Hurley is a survivor, but without a big February, he might be out of time.
Steve Forbes, Wake Forest
Wake Forest fans made the wrong kind of statement when the Demon Deacons hosted SMU. Once it became clear around the eight-minute mark that Wake had no chance, the student section began chanting “Fire Forbes” before staging a mass walkout that left Joel Coliseum lifeless.
Things only got worse on the road, with blowout losses at Duke and a tough overtime defeat at Pittsburgh.
Ever since Skip Prosser’s death in 2007, there has been a pall hanging over Wake Forest basketball. Forbes is now in his sixth season in Winston-Salem and still has no NCAA tournament appearances to show for it.
Wake has improved under Forbes, and firing him after three 20-win seasons might feel harsh, especially when Danny Manning lasted six years with just one winning season. But Demon Deacon fans see a program that has become irrelevant in the ACC, and that is unacceptable for a school that produced Tim Duncan and Chris Paul. Forbes needs to turn it around quickly.
Penny Hardaway, Memphis
Memphis basketball has lofty expectations. Penny Hardaway is not meeting them, and the frustrating part is that the talent is clearly there.
The Tigers took Vanderbilt to overtime and played Purdue to a nine-point loss. Those are results you expect from a solid NCAA tournament team, not a team struggling to separate itself in the American Conference.
Memphis is coming off double-digit losses at Tulsa and Wichita State. That is the profile of a team not living up to its potential, and that falls on Hardaway. He can recruit, but he is just 1-3 in NCAA tournament games and has lost at least five league games in every season but one.
The problem is there is no easy way to fire a coach whose jersey hangs in the rafters. Hardaway might do everyone a favor if he wins enough games in February to give the administration a reason to keep running this back.
Adrian Autry, Syracuse
Things are going wrong quickly in central New York. There was always concern about how Syracuse would look after Jim Boeheim, and so far Autry has done little to quiet those fears.
The Orange have a loss to Hofstra on the resume and have dropped four straight games in what appears to be a much stronger ACC. The remaining schedule is brutal, with road trips to Duke, North Carolina, Virginia, and Louisville, plus a desperate Wake Forest team.
There is a very real chance Syracuse finishes under .500. That might lead to a conversation nobody in the program wants to have. Autry is a Syracuse lifer, but this might be a situation where fresh eyes are needed.
Jeff Capel, Pittsburgh
Jeff Capel has an expensive buyout thanks to former athletic director Heather Lyke’s habit of handing out quick extensions after any sign of success. In Capel’s case, that decision has backfired.
Pitt made the NCAA tournament in 2023 but has gone backwards since and is now flirting with its first losing season since 2022.
In eight seasons, Capel has just one tournament appearance. That is not good enough for a program with Pitt’s resources and history. If the Panthers cannot stack some wins together in February, this feels like the end of the line.
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