10 coaches on the hot seat ahead of the NCAA tournament

March is the time of year when many teams look forward to making deep runs in the NCAA tournament. For other programs, the season has been a massive disappointment, leaving the head coaches on the hot seat.

Louisville is in the second year of the Kenny Payne era and, after a grace year last season, it might be time to move on from the former Knicks assistant and longtime associate head coach at Kentucky.

Ohio State pulled the plug early and fired head coach Chris Holtmann last month after a mediocre season. The Buckeyes are now 4-1 under interim head coach Jake Diebler, including a win over No. 2 Purdue.

DePaul fired Tony Stubblefield in late January after an abysmal start to the season. The Blue Demons are 3-26 and have yet to win a game under interim head coach Matt Bradley. That job will be one of the hottest seats to fill once the season is over.

[Free bracket contests for men’s & women’s tourneys for shot at $25K]

There’s a lot of pressure that comes with winning during this time of year and a few coaches’ jobs are depending on if they can make a deep run in the NCAA tournament.

“If you’re one of those coaches and you kind of know you’re on the hot seat, you have to try to separate your team from that,” former Villanova head coach Jay Wright told Yahoo Sports. “Players hear it too and they care about their coaches. The coach doesn’t want that extra pressure on their players to have to worry about careers too. Most coaches would probably say to their guys, ‘This is not about me. You have one chance in your life to get to the NCAA tournament. Let’s concentrate on playing our best and don’t let this noise get to you.’”

This might be one of the craziest years for the coaching carousel with all the movement that could take place after the season. Yahoo Sports takes a look at coaches from high-major programs on the hot seat heading into the postseason.

Kenny Payne, Louisville

Current 2023-24 record: 8-21

The Louisville program has been a disaster the last two seasons and Payne will get a pass his first season after inheriting the team. But after hitting the transfer portal hard and landing a couple of highly rated players, this year hasn’t been much better. In his first season, Payne finished last in the ACC with a 4-28 record. The Cardinals had high hopes coming into this year with key transfers Skyy Clark (Illinois) and Tre White (USC). They also landed top-30 recruit Trentyn Flowers and returned Brandon Huntley-Hatfield and Michael James.

Things fell apart before the season even started. Flowers opted to leave Louisville in August and played one season in Australia’s National Basketball League for the Adelaide 36ers. The chemistry on the court never got off to a good start and the low morale and attendance with the fan base might…