The NCAA Tournament is understandably earning most of the headlines, but the college basketball coaching carousel has already started.
On Thursday, SMU fired head coach Rob Lanier after two seasons, despite the fact he improved from 10-22 in year one to 20-12 and an NIT berth this season.
“I know they are going into the ACC next season, but this is ridiculous. Told the decision came from above AD Rick Hart,” said Field of 68’s Jeff Goodman.
Goodman is not the only person raising an eyebrow at SMU’s decision.
“They must think they can get a bigger name heading to the ACC but seems wrong to get rid of someone who had the program going in a positive direction,” one person added.
“This makes very, very little sense Unless you have a superstar lined up, but I don’t think that’s the case here,” said Heat Check’s Brian Rauf.
“Uh, SMU better be ready to drop a bag and make a major hire because otherwise this is incomprehensible,” chimed in CBS Sports’ Shehan Jeyarajah.
“School fires their 20 game winner coach right before joining a league where the champion just had to beat five teams with national championships this century in five days. Let’s make sure our expectations are properly calibrated,” another commenter said.
To be fair, there are other fans in the responses saying the move makes sense if you look under the hood of the program.
One thing is certain though. If you’re going to do this, you had better have someone legit lined up.
We’ll see if SMU does.