Ohio State got things started by siding with Jake Diebler. Unlike the Rodney Terry situation, this was a team that looked *appalling* that instantly improved the second Diebler took over. They've jumped over twenty spots in KenPom in a little over a month-- hard to do this time of year. Very good low-risk in-house hire. I like it.

DePaul then hires Chris Holtmann. Look, the Ohio State tenure ended disastrously, there's no question... but DePaul hasn't hired a coach with this much prior success in a quarter century. It's DePaul, after all. It's also the lowest risk scenario imaginable, because if Holtmann can consistently make them, like, a 5 or 6 win team in conference? It'd be seen as a huge success, lol. So I'm more than fine with this hire.

Michigan hilariously steals Dusty May from Louisville. Apparently May's agent had told Louisville early that afternoon he was coming... and then Michigan signed him later that day, lmao. On one hand, May's had four mediocre seasons, one terrific season, and one underwhelming-but-still-good season, and that's not exactly a *dynamite* resume given what he's getting paid... but on the other hand, FAU has, like, zero resources. It's been called one of the hardest jobs at its conference level... and he built them up and took them to the Final Four. It's hard answering the question "is he good without this particular crew?"... but then again, you could've said the same for Otz before he left South Dakota State, and at Iowa State, he's proven to be one of the best coaches in the country. Some risk here, but tremendous upside.

Stanford hires Kyle Smith from Washington State. Tremendous hire. Maybe the best of the cycle so far. He'd have made my short list for coach of the year this year-- it's *impossible* to win at Washington State unless you're a savant. He won at Columbia, he won at San Francisco, he won at Washington State. Stanford can be a tricky place to win consistently to some extent, but Haase had no trouble attracting talent-- he just couldn't coach. Smith can coach. A+ move.

Washington brings in Danny Sprinkle from Utah State. Another savant-- won at Montana State, immediately won at Utah State. Major upgrade over Hopkins. Will be tough moving to the Big Ten, but if you're going to enter a new conference, do so with a guy who's won at multiple places. Not quite the slam dunk that Smith is imo-- but if this ends up working out even better than Smith, I wouldn't be surprised.

Vanderbilt just hired Mark Byington on the heels of James Madison getting smoked yesterday. Still, another guy who won at two different spots in very real ways. Vanderbilt is a tough gig-- always feels like they just can't get talent to go there-- but if anyone can do the most with the least, Byington's gotta be on that list. Maybe not the "sexiest" hire of the cycle, but feels like a good one all the same.

Finally, West Virginia hires Darian DeVries from Drake. Look, getting Drake to hire than a 12 seed twice is pretty wild, so the guy can clearly coach. I find the fit interesting given that he's an Iowa-area guy through and through. It's also still a program with Bob Huggins's shadow looming over it. Less immediately optimistic about this hire solely due to fit... but hey, hard to deny what he did at Drake. It could definitely still work out.

Big jobs still open: Louisville is the big domino, then Oklahoma State. SMU also could be a really big one, given that they're apparently looking to spend major money entering the ACC and have been approaching some surprisingly big names to try to take this job. Other jobs that could still open up: places like UCF, Arizona State, USC. Rumors have swirled around Iowa. Maybe even somewhere like Villanova could choose to move on? Maybe a couple big retirements could happen? We'll see!

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