Stanford has fired men's basketball coach Jerod Haase, the school announced Thursday night, less than 10 minutes after the Cardinal's season in the Pac-12 tournament ended.
Stanford lost to No. 22 Washington State 79-62 in the quarterfinals, capping a 14-18 (8-12 Pac-12) season.
“I haven't won here at the level I expected,” Haase said after the match in an emotional press conference. “Just as I hold my team accountable, I'm also accountable and I don't have a problem with that.”
Haase failed to reach the NCAA tournament in any of his eight seasons at the helm, finishing above .500 in the Pac-12 only once.
“While the results on the court did not meet our expectations, Coach Haase led our men's basketball program with great integrity and had a profoundly positive impact on many Cardinal student-athletes,” said athletic director Bernard Muir. “As we embark on the search for our next head coach, I wish Jerod and his family all the best in the future.”
Haase led Stanford to a 19-16 (11-7) record as a sophomore and had the Cardinal on the brink of the NCAA tournament in 2020. But they lost their final three games and likely would have missed the field if the tournament It wouldn't have been like that. been cancelled.
Stanford has struggled over the past three seasons, and Muir issued a statement after the 2021-22 campaign that Haase would return as coach but needed to show improvement. The Cardinal then had their worst season since Haase's first year at the helm, finishing 14-19 overall and 7-13 in the league.
This season, despite the addition of two top-50 recruits, they were unable to build momentum. Stanford scored 100 points and beat Arizona on New Year's Eve, but a six-game losing streak in February and early March sealed Haase's fate.
Haase finished his Stanford career with a 126-127 record.
“If the program was perfect now, I would still be the coach,” Haase said. “It's not perfect. There needs to be some progress and improvements… It's a turning point because there are a lot of big changes, big decisions that are happening right now. I think Stanford is a place of great ingenuity, creativity and desire to lead. The truth is, a lot of these are difficult decisions, especially when you value the academic athlete, you value experience, you value player development. They are not easy conversations, and [there are not] “lots of easy solutions.”
Before taking over at Palo Alto in 2016, Haase coached at UAB for four seasons. He led the Blazers to the NCAA Tournament in 2015, where they beat Iowa State in the first round as a 14th seed before losing to UCLA. He also spent 13 seasons as an assistant coach under Roy Williams at Kansas, where he played his college ball, and at North Carolina.
The school said a national search would begin immediately. Washington State's Kyle Smith and Princeton's Mitch Henderson are expected to be the leading candidates, sources told ESPN.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
