Adrian Autry, Earl Grant, Mike Young and Hubert Davis were mentioned by national media, ESPN, Sports Illustrated, Yahoo Sports, this fall as ACC coaches on the hot seat for the new season. They need to win more games and/or make the NCAA Tournament to keep their fans, bosses happy, the stories said.
Autry followed a legend at Syracuse and begins year 3. The Orange were 14-19 overall last year.
Grant enters year 5 at Boston College where he was 4-16 in ACC last season. The school hasn’t seen much basketball glory or the NCAAs since 2009.
Young missed the last three NCAAs after success in 21-22. Va.Tech was 13-19 last year. His school is looking for a new football coach while expanding NIL funding for all sports.
Davis won 8 of the last 10 games last year to slip into the NCAA Tournament. He’s 101-45 since 2021 (.692 winning percentage) and 54-23 in the ACC, but Tar Heel fans have higher expectations. Davis signed a two-year contract extension last December. Even the student newspaper is skeptical and had pro and anti-Davis opinion pieces in the Basketball Preview.
Coaches at Wake Forest (Steve Forbes) and Pitt (Jeff Capel) win games but don’t make the tournament either: Capel once in 7 years, Forbes none in 5 years.
J.B.