College Basketball Coaches Who Will Face the Most Pressure in 2016-17

The players are on the court trying to produce results, but win or lose it's the coaches who either get the credit or are saddled with the blame. With that comes plenty of pressure to succeed, and being able to deal with that makes for the best college basketball coaches.

As we slowly make our way toward the 2016-17 season, which is still almost six months away, we're taking a look at the coaches who will be under the most pressure. The reasons vary for each, but in every case at least part of it is associated with being expected to win...and do so now instead of later.

This isn't a list of coaches who will go into this fall on the hot seat, though some might not survive the season if they can't produce results.

Steve Alford, UCLA

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Year at school: 4th

Record at school: 64-37

Steve Alford was a surprise choice for UCLA's next coach when it fired the successful but sliding Ben Howland after the 2012-13 season. Alford made the move look good at first with consecutive Sweet 16 appearances, albeit mostly with Howland's players, before last year's team dipped to 15-17.

The Bruins finished 10th in the Pac-12 last season with a 6-12 record, their worst in the league since Steve Lavin's final go-around in 2002-03. It was the kind of performance that made the previous two years irrelevant, and had many question if Alford was the right man for college basketball's most storied program.

"A dismal season from Steve Alford’s UCLA basketball program ended not with a whimper, but with banners," NBC Sports' Travis Hines wrote, referring to planes flying over the campus demanding Alford's termination.

There was no real chance UCLA would meet this request, not just because Alford's contract carries a sizable buyout—it will still be more than $5 million after the 2016-17 season—but because he landed a big-time recruiting class. According to 247Sports, it ranked fifth-best in the country and features a pair of 5-star prospects including point guard Lonzo Ball.

Because of this, UCLA is listed in most super-early Top 25s, including Bleacher Report's. If the Bruins don't live up to that high early ranking it will all be on Alford.

Tony Bennett, Virginia

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Year at school: 8th

Record at school: 165-72

One of two programs that has achieved great recent success during the regular season only to come up short in the NCAA tournament, Virginia made its first Elite Eight in 21 years this past season. But the Cavaliers' effort still feels like a disappointment since they squandered a big lead against Syracuse with a Final Four bid on the line.

Adding to the Cavs' woes was that its partner in postseason shortcomings, Villanova, won the national title.

Now Virginia is all alone in the "disrespected titans" club, as Bleacher Report's Kerry Miller called it in December. And coach Tony Bennett will be under pressure in 2016-17 to make that club obsolete, though he'll be doing it with a revamped team.

The Cavs said goodbye to one of its best senior classes ever, led by Malcolm Brogdon and Anthony Gill. They won 89 games over the past three seasons with two ACC regular-season titles, and only guard London Perrantes returns from that nucleus.

Bennett's build-up of Virginia has led to its best recruiting class yet, ranked sixth in the country per 247Sports and featuring players specifically picked to operate Bennett's system. With that kind of talent available, there won't be any slack given to allow for a rebuilding season. He's not in jeopardy of being fired, but a down year could indicate Virginia missed its window.

Mark Gottfried, North Carolina State

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Year at school: 6th

Record at school: 108-69

After four consecutive 20-win seasons and a pair of Sweet 16s to start his tenure at North Carolina State, Mark Gottfried was given a pass for 2015-16. The Wolfpack were hit with a perfect storm of graduations, transfers and NBA early entry...and that was even before the season started.

Losing guard Terry Henderson after just seven minutes with a season-ending ankle injury compounded the problems, as did not having a capable scorer to go along with Cat Barber. That resulted in a 16-17 record and 13th-place finish in the ACC.

Barber is gone, taking his 23.5 points per game to the NBA draft, along with twins Caleb and Cody Martin. But big men Abdul-Malik Abu and BeeJay Anya opted to back out of the draft, and they're set to be joined by newly signed frontcourt recruits Darius Hicks and Omer Yurtseven. That's on top of point guard Dennis Smith, the No. 7 player in the 2016 class who enrolled in school in the winter in order to rehab a knee injury with the program.

"The Wolfpack men's basketball team is set up to be fairly impressive next season," CBS Sports' Matt Norlander wrote.

There won't be any more free passes, though, not with that talent for Gottfried to work with. Though he's made some runs in the NCAA tournament, the Wolf Pack often underachieved during the regular season, going 44-44 in ACC play in five seasons.

Bruce Pearl, Auburn

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Year at school: 3rd

Record at school: 26-40

At the very least, Bruce Pearl has made Auburn a much more interesting basketball program. But that's pretty much where the differences end between how the Tigers were before he arrived and under his guidance.

Pearl succeeded Tony Barbee, who was 49-75 overall and 18-50 in the SEC in four seasons. Pearl hasn't done much better, in fact dipping from 15 wins in year one to 11 in year two with a pair of 13th-place finishes in the 14-team league. This is despite some impressive recruiting, not just from the high school ranks but also junior colleges and the transfer market, making Auburn a destination for the type of player who never before would have considered the school. Barbee's last recruiting class ranked 70th, while Pearl's two groups have rated, 32nd, 15th and 25th, respectively.

The 2016-17 team has also added three transfers, including Houston's Ronnie Johnson and Bethune-Cookman's LaRon Smith, who can play right away.

Pearl isn't one to deflect blame, telling radio station WANI (h/t Wesley Sinor of AL.com) "I need to do a better job of coaching," though he also couched that declaration with the understanding his roster will feature a lot of new faces again. This has been partly by design but also because players have left the program in Pearl's short stay, thus creating constant turnover.

Lorenzo Romar, Washington

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Year at school: 15th

Record at school: 288-171

Lorenzo Romar is beloved at Washington, the second-winningest coach in program history and one who built up the program through local talent and has managed to keep a lot of the Seattle area's best players home. That's produced two Pac-12 titles and six NCAA tournament bids, though no tourney appearances since 2010-11.

This past season's team went 19-15 and made the second round of the NIT, despite having a pair of potential first-round NBA picks in Marquese Chriss and Dejounte Murray. They were part of an ultra-young team that was near the top of the Pac-12 standings early on but finished eighth.

Chriss and Murray turned pro after their freshman seasons, while leading scorer Andrew Andrews was a senior. The Huskies don't have a returning player who averaged more than 7.5 points per game but they do have another incoming superstar in 5-star combo guard Markelle Fultz.

Fultz is projected as the No. 2 pick in the 2017 NBA draft by DraftExpress, so Washington probably won't have him for long. If Romar is content on taking on one-and-done players, he'll need to do more with them than just finish above .500 unless the school is OK with just being a mid-level power program.

Kevin Stallings, Pittsburgh

Keith Srakocic/Associated Press

Year at school: 1st

Record at school: 0-0 (332-220 in 17 seasons at Vanderbilt)

Pittsburgh fans, growing tired of the Panthers just making the NCAA tournament most years but not going very far, probably weren't too upset when Jamie Dixon left for TCU in March. “This is our chance to bring in a better coach, one that will take us to the next level!” is likely what many thought.

We doubt Kevin Stallings was what they had in mind.

Stallings took Vanderbilt to six NCAA tournaments in 17 years, but his last time getting the Commodores out of the first weekend was 2006-07. He finished with a below-.500 record in the SEC, which isn't considered nearly as tough a league as the ACC that Pitt's been a part of since 2013-14.

Having done pretty much all he could at Vanderbilt, Stallings needed a change of scenery as much as his predecessor at Pitt.

"Stallings’ hire at Pitt wasn’t exactly celebrated when it was announced, but the reality is that the more he settles in and the more people get to know him, the more he has been embraced by the university community," Paul Zeise of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette wrote.

That means Stallings is saying and doing all the right things in the offseason. None of that will matter, though, if the 2016-17 season gets underway and the Panthers are again no better than middle-of-the-pack in the ACC and firmly on the NCAA tourney bubble.

Jay Wright, Villanova

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Year at school: 16th

Record at school: 354-157

Okay, now what?

Jay Wright shook off any criticism sent his way about postseason underachievement by leading Villanova to the national title in April. This came after a third consecutive dominant run through the Big East but instead of falling early in the NCAA tourney the Wildcats seemed to get better with every game.

Now Wright is part of an exclusive club of coaches who have won championships, but his new brethren can all attest to the kind of pressure that comes the year after winning it all.

The Wildcats could be returning three starters if Josh Hart ends up backing out of the NBA draft, joining Kris Jenkins and Jalen Brunson along with key reserves Phil Booth, Mikal Bridges and Darryl Reynolds. Villanova will also have the services of 6'7”, 240-pound wing Eric Paschall, who sat out 2015-16 after transferring from Fordham.

But the more 'Nova brings back the more it will be expected to replicate this past season's success, and the pressure will be on the players as much as it is on Wright. No team has repeated as national champions since Florida went back-to-back in 2006 and 2007, and since then the defending champ has never made it past the Sweet 16.

All statistics courtesy of Sports-Reference.com, unless otherwise noted. All recruiting information from 247Sports, unless otherwise noted.

Follow Brian J. Pedersen on Twitter at @realBJP.