The Coaches on the Hottest Seats in College Basketball with March Approaching

The 2015-16 college basketball season is about to reach the madness of March, which might be the last time some coaches flip the calendar in their current jobs.

Seats that were already hot get even more scorching this coming month, particularly for coaches who either miss the NCAA tournament or can't do much when they get into the field. Last year, Texas parted ways with Rick Barnes after a second-round exit, as did St. John's with Steve Lavin. And Herb Sendek's failure to get Arizona State into the tourney led to his dismissal.

Who is feeling the most heat as we head into March? Check out our list of coaches who are better off pacing the sidelines than sitting in a sizzling chair in the coming weeks.

Steve Alford, UCLA

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Year at school: Third

Record at school: 65-33

2015-16 record: 15-13, 6-9 Pac-12

Steve Alford took UCLA to the Sweet 16 in each of his first two seasons, but just getting into the NCAA tournament this year is going to be tough enough. And for a program that has won more national titles than any other school, that's unacceptable.

The Bruins quickly forget about past accomplishments, as they let go Ben Howland only a few years after reaching three consecutive Final Fours, and Steve Lavin made three straight Sweet 16s before the school canned him a season later.

UCLA has some big wins this season, knocking off Arizona and Kentucky at home and winning at Gonzaga, but it's also lost four times at home and is the only in-conference team to lose to Pac-12 doormat Washington State.

"UCLA will finish without a winning record in conference for just the fifth time since John Wooden took over in 1948-49," Zach Helfand of the Los Angeles Times tweeted Thursday after the Bruins lost at California, ensuring no better than a .500 mark in the Pac-12.

Johnny Dawkins, Stanford

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Year at school: Eighth

Record at school: 155-112

2015-16 record: 14-12, 7-8 Pac-12

Thursday's blowout win over USC was Stanford's fifth this season against a top-50 RPI opponent. It was also the Cardinal's 15th such contest, making the achievement far less impressive.

That typifies Johnny Dawkins' time in Palo Alto, where he has more NIT titles (two) than NCAA tournament appearances (one, making the Sweet 16 in 2014). He's also 64-76 in conference play, never finishing better than 10-8 in the league.

Most projected NCAA tourney brackets don't have the Cardinal even close to the field, though Bleacher Report's Kerry Miller had them among his "on the horizon" teams prior to beating USC.

Mark Fox, Georgia

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Year at school: Seventh

Record at school: 120-101

2015-16 record: 14-12, 7-8 SEC

Georgia isn't exactly a college basketball powerhouse, but it would like to make the NCAA tournament more than once every few years. The Bulldogs' last consecutive appearances were in 2001 and 2002, and Mark Fox has only gotten there twice in his first six seasons, including last year.

Fox is 58-59 in the SEC during his tenure, and this season, his team is 2-11 against top-100 RPI schools. However, every remaining regular-season game falls into that category, starting with Saturday's visit from Ole Miss and then next week's clashes at South Carolina and against Alabama.

With those potential resume-boosters, Georgia can win its way into NCAA tourney consideration. Otherwise, Fox might have to pull off a miracle like predecessor Dennis Felton did in 2008, when he won the SEC tournament as the No. 11 seed.

Johnny Jones, LSU

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Year at school: Fourth

Record at school: 77-49

2015-16 record: 16-12, 9-6 SEC

Johnny Jones' coaching career will forever be linked to his recruitment of Ben Simmons, the No. 1 prospect in 2015 (per 247Sports) and the likely No. 1 pick in the 2016 NBA draft. As it stands, unless LSU goes on a tear and wins the SEC tournament, Jones is in line to be the first coach to fail to guide such a talent into the NCAA tourney.

If Simmons is taken first overall in June, he'd be just the fourth No. 1 pick not to make the Big Dance, the other three times happening in the 1970s, when the tournament field was much smaller. Pacific's Michael Olowokandi didn't go dancing in 1998, the year he was drafted first, but he had played in the NCAA tourney the season before.

According to Sports On Earth's Matt Brown, since 2006, the only top-three prospect to play in college and not make the NCAA tourney was Kentucky's Nerlens Noel, who blew out his knee midway through his only season before turning pro.

"Simmons could have been the golden ticket for Jones, but instead his presence has had the opposite effect, raising further doubts about Jones' ability to succeed as a major college basketball head coach," Brown wrote.

Josh Pastner, Memphis

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Year at school: Seventh

Record at school: 161-65

2015-16 record: 15-13, 6-9 American

A master recruiter for Lute Olson at Arizona and John Calipari at Memphis, Josh Pastner's run coaching the players he acquires has been on a downward spiral for several seasons. It's bottoming out this year, and combined with some sparring with the local newspaper, his time in charge is running out.

The Tigers are on pace to finish with fewer wins than the season before for the third straight year, going from 31 wins in 2012-13 to 24 to 18 and now 15. This has coincided with player defections—four members of last year's team were either dismissed or transferred—as well as foolish antics by his current roster, such as when Shaq Goodwin got a technical two weeks ago for a showboat slam dunk while trailing on the road during a loss to Tulane, which is in last place in the American Athletic Conference.

Pastner hasn't helped his cause by publicly taking on the Commercial Appeal, particularly columnist Geoff Calkins, for columns he's written about the coach that include calling for his termination.

Lorenzo Romar, Washington

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Year at school: 14th

Record at school: 286-171

2015-16 record: 16-12, 8-8 Pac-12

Lorenzo Romar is one of the longest-tenured coaches at the power-conference level, and at his peak, he had Washington regularly challenging for the Pac-12 title. The Huskies have finished in the top three in the league seven times under Romar, and in 2005, he piloted them to a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament.

But Romar hasn't taken Washington dancing since 2011, despite winning the regular-season conference title a year later. His current squad is in the running but just barely, having lost five of six and seven of 10.

Washington is one of the youngest teams in the country, regularly starting as many as four freshmen, but included in that group are a pair of talented prospects (guard Dejounte Murray and forward Marquese Chriss) who might be one-and-done players. Youth can no longer be used as an excuse, not among the power leagues.

Todd Simon, UNLV

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Year at school: First

Record at school: 7-6

2015-16 record: 16-13, 7-9 Mountain West

Todd Simon's seat isn't so much hot as it is being pulled out from under him. He's coaching UNLV on an interim basis, after the school fired Dave Rice in January following an 0-3 start to Mountain West play, and the odds of him landing the permanent job were slim to begin with. It hasn't helped that the Runnin' Rebels haven't played much better with him in charge and that injuries have decimated the frontcourt.

The only things Simon has working in his favor are his connections to Findlay Prep, the Las Vegas-area basketball factory where he previously coached, and the fact the Mountain West conference tournament is on UNLV's home court. Then again, the Rebels have hosted the tourney since 2007 but haven't won the automatic bid since 2008.

Follow Brian J. Pedersen on Twitter at @realBJP.