News broke on Sunday that legendary Bellarmine Head Coach Scott Davenport will retire at the end of the 2024-25 season, marking the second Division-I head coaching job in Kentucky to open this season.

Previously, Murray State Head Coach Steve Prohm announced he would step down after the Racers’ season was ended by a loss to Bradley in the Missouri Valley Tournament.

With the two coaches leaving their respective positions, six of the eight Division-I head coaching jobs in Kentucky have opened in the past two seasons.

Last season, Kentucky, Louisville, Morehead State and Western Kentucky were all forced to find new heads for their basketball programs, making Northern Kentucky’s Darrin Horn (six seasons) and Eastern Kentucky’s A.W. Hamilton (seven seasons) the longest tenured Division-I coaches in the state.

Davenport’s announcement came after the Knights ended a disappointing 5-26 season in the Atlantic Sun (ASUN). Bellarmine suffered a 19-point loss to Florida Gulf Coast to end its season missing the ASUN Tournament with a 2-16 conference record, putting it last place.

Despite the disappointing season, Davenport is a legend at Bellarmine, leading the Knights for a staggering 20 years and helping the team to complete its transition to NCAA Division-I from Division-II.

Davenport accumulated 423 wins at the helm of Bellarmine, finishing with an all-time win percentage of .688.

From 2009-2019, Davenport led Bellarmine to 11 consecutive NCAA Division-II Tournaments, winning the Division-II National Championship in 2011 and making it to the Final Four three more times (2012, 2015, 2016).

With the Knights moving to NCAA Division-I in 2020 following a 20-8 season that ended Bellarmine’s tournament streak, Davenport made headlines early in that process with success in year two.

The 2021-22 season was the best for Bellarmine at the Division-I level, finishing with a 20-13 record and an ASUN Tournament championship, despite the Knights being ineligible for the NCAA Tournament.

In that ASUN final, Bellarmine bested Jacksonville 77-72, granting Jacksonville State the league’s bid to the NCAA Tournament as the regular season champion.

Since then, however, a 15-18 season was followed by 8-23 and 5-26 seasons, ending Davenport’s legendary coaching career.

Looking closer at Murray State, Prohm also ended his second stint with the Racers in disappointing fashion.

During his first tenure in Murray, Prohm finished with a 104-29 record, leading the Racers to a NCAA Tournament second round and only missing postseason basketball once.

Leaving to take over the head coaching position at Iowa State, Prohm was replaced by current LSU Head Coach Matt McMahon, who found similar success in Murray, leading the Racers to three NCAA Tournaments and the 2022 second round, which earned him the job in Baton Rouge.

With his trip to Iowa State not proving fruitful, Prohm was relieved of his duties and was given a second chance with the Racers.

His two-year stint was much less fruitful than his first go-around as Prohm finished 29-35, never finishing better than seventh in the Missouri Valley or sniffing postseason basketball.

Both instances — while both programs were, admittedly, floundering — furthered a chaotic two years in the Commonwealth with coaching carousel buzz as 75% of the Division-I programs in Kentucky have been forced to find a new leader.

Most notably, Kentucky Athletic Director Mitch Barnhart hired Mark Pope in the offseason after 15-year Wildcat coach John Calipari resigned from the program in favor of Arkansas after a second NCAA Tournament first-round upset in three years.

In year one, Pope finished 21-10 in a stacked SEC with a plethora of ranked wins and Kentucky firmly in the NCAA Tournament ahead of the SEC Tournament.

The second major job in the state, Louisville, also opened that same cycle after the Cardinals parted ways with Kenny Payne following a dreadful 12-52 two-year stretch.

The Cardinals hired former Charleston Head Coach Pat Kelsey, who turned around Louisville in just one season, finishing 25-6 and being just one of three ACC teams to be locked into the NCAA Tournament ahead of the ACC Tournament. Payne joined Calipari’s staff in Fayetteville.

Outside of the big two, Western Kentucky and Morehead State both had their head coaches poached by larger programs following NCAA Tournament appearances in 2024.

First, in Bowling Green, WKU’s Steve Lutz was stolen after just one season after he led the Hilltoppers to a 22-12 record and a Conference USA championship. Lutz’s squad was awarded a No. 15 seed and was beaten by Marquette in the NCAA Tournament.

WKU hired Hank Plona, a former assistant on the team, who led the Tops to a 17-14 record this season as the NCAA Tournament seems wholly out of reach as a No. 7 seed in the Conference USA Tournament. Lutz went 15-16 year one in Stillwater.

As for Morehead, Preston Spradlin led the Eagles for seven years seven complete seasons after finishing the 2016-17 season following Sean Woods’ resignation. Spradlin led Morehead to two NCAA Tournaments, including in 2024 when the Eagles won the Ohio Valley (OVC) and lost to Illinois in the NCAA Tournament.

Spradlin was poached by James Madison after the Dukes’ Mark Byington was also poached by Vanderbilt. In year one in Harrisonburg, Spradlin finished 20-12 before falling to Troy in the Sun Belt Tournament.

Morehead State, in Spradlin’s absence, chose to hire Jonathan Mattox, a former Murray State assistant. In year one, Mattox started hot, beginning OVC play 9-2 before losing nine of his last 10 to finish 15-17 on the year. Lindenwood bested the Eagles in the OVC Tournament.

With all the chaos in the state, Hamilton and Horn — father of Kentucky walk-on Walker Horn — became the longest tenured coaches in the state, though only Horn has ever appeared in the NCAA Tournament.

Horn’s Norse won the Horizon League in 2020 before Covid-19 cancelled the NCAA Tournament, but NKU did it again in 2023. Horn is a combined 97-60 in Highland Heights after previously leading WKU and South Carolina.

As for Hamilton, EKU has never won the OVC or the ASUN tournaments under his leadership despite the Colonels going into three conference tournaments as a No. 3 seed or better, including as the No. 1 seed and regular season champion in 2024.