The math is simple. Georgia Tech hasn't made the NCAA Tournament since 2010. Cincinnati hasn't made it since 2019. Providence hasn't made it since 2023. Combined, that is 20 years of March irrelevance from three programs that once defined their conferences.
All three fired their coaches within five days of each other in March 2026. All three hired replacements from smaller programs. The playbook is identical: fire the underperformer, poach a mid-major winner, and hope that the coach who built something from nothing can do it again with more resources.
Three programs with 20 combined years of tournament drought all raided mid-majors for fixes
Georgia Tech: The NBA Name That Couldn't Recruit
Damon Stoudamire — the 1996 NBA Rookie of the Year — went 42-55 in three seasons. His final year was a disaster: 11-20 overall, 2-16 in the ACC (dead last), with a 12-game losing streak to close the season. The buyout: $2.6 million.
GT hired Scott Cross from Troy, where he had won back-to-back Sun Belt championships and 125 games in seven seasons. The connection was direct: GT associate AD Brent Jones was the Troy AD who originally hired Cross. The old-boy network delivered.
Cincinnati: Seven Years in the Wilderness
Wes Miller went 100-74 in five seasons — respectable numbers everywhere except the place that matters. Cincinnati has not made the NCAA Tournament in seven years, its longest drought since the 1970s. For a program that made 31 appearances under Bob Huggins and Mick Cronin, seven years is an eternity.
The final straw: a blown 8-point lead in the final two minutes of a 66-65 overtime loss to UCF in the Big 12 Tournament. Miller's buyout was negotiated from a contractual $9.9 million down to a $3.1 million lump sum.
Jerrod Calhoun — a Cincinnati alum who started his career as a student assistant under Huggins — was hired from Utah State, where he went 55-15 in two seasons with back-to-back NCAA Tournament runs. His deal: six years, starting at $3.7 million. The homecoming narrative writes itself.
Miller, meanwhile, landed at Charlotte — his hometown — on a five-year deal. Sometimes getting fired is just a lateral move with better traffic.
Providence: Poaching a Winner Mid-Ascent
Kim English went 48-52 in three seasons and never made the tournament. Providence replaced him by doing something that has become depressingly common: poaching a coach who had just built something special somewhere else.
Bryan Hodgson left South Florida after one season in which he went 25-9, won the AAC regular season and tournament championships, and returned USF to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2012. His USF salary: $1.25 million. Providence's NIL commitment: north of $10 million. The gap between mid-major resources and Big East money made Hodgson's decision inevitable, if not admirable.
USF's AD said they "did everything within reason" to retain Hodgson. Reason, in this context, means a budget that can't compete with Power Four money.
USF moved fast, hiring Chris Mack — the former Xavier and Louisville coach with 323 career wins and a national coach of the year award — from College of Charleston within three days. Mack brings credibility and experience. Whether he brings the magic Hodgson had is the question.