As March Madness draws near, the coaching carousel is in full effect. In one of the most shocking coach firings of the season, the Iona Gaels announced they are moving on from former head coach Tobin Anderson.
Anderson replaced Rick Pitino when Pitino left for St. John’s. This season, Anderson brought the Gaels to a MAAC Championship game, which they lost to Mount St. Mary’s. While it remains to be seen where the Gaels go from here, here are five potential replacements for Anderson.
Top 5 Potential Replacements for Tobin Anderson
Starting things off with the most obvious replacement for Anderson, we’ll have to go look at the NBA’s New Orleans Pelicans team. Iona already has eyes on a potential replacement, looking at the Pelicans assistant head coach, Dan Geirot.
Geirot is a former assistant coach for Cleveland, as well as a former head coach for Cleveland’s G-League affiliate team. Geirot would bring the NBA experience down to Iona and could be a very suitable replacement for Anderson.
Another potential replacement for Anderson could be Kevin Keatts. The NC State Wolfpack moved on from Keatts after a rough season by their standards, and Iona could very well be Keatts’ next destination. Similar to Anderson, Keatts has shown potential as a March Madness underdog, especially after last year.
Last season, the No. 11 ranked NC State made a Cinderella-like run all the way to the Final Four. The Wolfpack were certainly not a team who people could see make it that far, but they proved a lot of doubters wrong. Keatts is a decent head coach with a good eye for young talent, and he could be finding his next spot at Iona.
Kyle Neptune is another name who could have a potential spot with the Gaels. Neptune was fired from Villanova after failing to take them to an NCAA tournament in his three years there. This is the first time in over 20 years that Villanova will miss the tournament for three straight years.
Despite this, Neptune still did a decent job with Villanova. They finished their season at 19-14 but fell to UConn in the Big East Tournament quarterfinals. Neptune could find his right fit with Iona next season should the Gaels end up taking him as their new head coach.
Jim Engles could very well find himself as a potential candidate for the Iona head coaching vacancy. Columbia announced it was parting ways with Engles after a rough season, finishing at the bottom of the Ivy League Conference. Columbia finished with a 12-15 record and only won one out of its 14 conference games.
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While Engles may not be the right fit at Columbia anymore, it doesn’t mean Iona wouldn’t work out for him. While he may not have a great record with Columbia his resume still speaks for itself and he could find his way to Iona and get his path to redemption underway.
If Iona wanted to go with a dark horse, they could look at someone like Craig Smith from the Utah Utes. In his four years at Utah, Smith has taken them to zero NCAA Tournaments, and it was time for a change. Utah went on to hire Alex Jensen as their successor to Smith’s job.
Smith could very well find his legs under him again with a change to Iona. Similar to Engles, Smith’s resume speaks for itself, and despite his lackluster finish with Utah, a change of scenery could be all it takes to get him back on track.
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