Back in the spring of 1999, the three hottest young coaches in the NCAA basketball world were Steve Alford, Quin Snyder, and Tommy Amaker. All three had been standout guards during their playing careers and seemed to be the perfect candidate to run your big-time program. Alford and Snyder were hired at the time to run Iowa and Missouri, while Amaker was finishing his first season at Seton Hall, where he would soon move up the ladder to Michigan. So what's happened since then? Not a pretty picture.

Amaker and Snyder both were point guards at Duke who stand second and third, respectively, on the school's all-time assists leaders list. Both had healthy assistant coaching apprenticeships next to Coach K. It seemed like the perfect pedigree. Well, both programs they lead are in bad shape. Amaker has only coached in one NCAA tournament field (at Seton Hall) and despite a great talent pool to recruit from in Michigan, has failed to bring a consistent winner back to Ann Arbor. Sure he has been plagued by a prior NCAA probation and injuries to key players, but the bottom line is that Michigan should not be finishing with 12 conference losses in a season, like the current squad has ended up with.

Snyder does seem to have excellent coaching and recruiting ability, as his past NCAA tourney records demonstrate, but his lack of institutional control over his program has led to a big stain surrounding his school. Like Michigan, Missouri looks to be a team without even a NIT invitation at the end of the 2004-05 season.

Alford was hired at Iowa, because the school was frustrated with former coach Tom Davis not being able to win a conference championship during his tenure. Well, since Alford's arrival, Iowa has a conference record of 41-55 versus Davis' 55-49. Alford has had only one NCAA tournament appearance in Iowa City, while Davis went to the big dance 9 out of 13 years, despite coaching against a much stronger Big 10 conference overall. Alford has had transfer problems and continued arrest incidents with his players, unlike the days under Dr. Tom, who ran a model program.

Now the hot young trio of coaches are not so young and are sitting directly on the hot seat. Keep these three coaches stories in mind, when you hear Dick Vitale touting the next new young upstart who makes his name during Championshop week. The storybook endings that Alford, Snyder, and Amaker have dreamed about look to have little chance of happening. If they do, it will be in the distant future at different jobs.