ASU Basketball: 5 coaches who could potentially replace Herb Sendek

The world of college basketball is vast. With the firing of Herb Sendek Tuesday as the head coach of the men's basketball program after nine seasons, Ray Anderson now begins the search for a new coach to revitalize the program. Here are just a few names that could be in the mix in no particular order.

Stan Johnson

Johnson is one of the Sun Devils current assistant coaches. He's under the age of 35 so he would bring a jolt of youth into the program without a doubt. He was a three-year letterman at Southern Utah and has 12 years of coaching experience under his belt already. Most notably, Johnson was an assistant at Utah from 2008-11 and then Drake from 2011-13 before joining Sendek's staff at ASU. During his time as an assistant at Utah in 2008-09, he helped coach the Utes to a 24-10 record, a share of the Mountain West Conference title as well as the conference tournament title. The team earned a No. 5 seed in the NCAA Tournament. He's already familiar with the players and knows his way around Tempe and the Weatherup Center. It would be a relatively safe play for Anderson, but definitely not the worst choice.

Josh Pastner

The reach. The big fish in the pond. Would Pastner make the jump all the way out west? Your guess is as good as mine but this would certainly be a huge splash in Tempe Town Lake. He has Arizona roots, having played for Arizona from 1996-2000 and was a staff member under Lute Olson from 2000-02. He then made the jump up to Arizona assistant under Olson and then Kevin O'Neill where he helped amass two Pac-10 regular season titles and six NCAA Tournament bids with two Sweet Sixteen and two Elite Eight appearances. After assisting for one season at Memphis, he became head coach there in 2009. He became only the seventh NCAA Division I head coach to get more than 130 wins in his first five seasons. He put the Tigers in the postseason NIT or NCAA Tournament every year from 2010-14. He can also recruit, signing the nation's No. 1 class in 2010 and No. 2 class in 2013. While Pastner is absolutely the longest of long shots, it can't hurt to put a call in if you're Ray Anderson.

Ben Jacobson

Jacobsen is currently the head coach at Northern Iowa where he has averaged 20.8 wins per season. The Panthers have made the postseason five of eight years during his tenure and made the Round of 32 again this season in the NCAA Tournament. The Panthers made it to the Sweet Sixteen in 2010 under his guidance. He has also been an assistant at North Dakota State and was a 4-year letterman at North Dakota

Brad Underwood

While older, the current Steven F. Austin head coach is just now coming into his own. He was an assistant at Kansas State for six years followed by a one-year stint at South Carolina as an assistant. In his first season as Lumberjacks head coach last season, the team went a perfect 18-0 in Southland Conference play to win it. Underwood was named Southland Conference Coach of the Year. This season Stephen F. Austin went 21-5, winning the Southland Conference again and advancing to the NCAA Tournament. While he is certainly under the radar, at this pace it's only a matter of time before he finds himself a better Division I job, if ASU is willing to take a chance on a guy for a lower salary, he could be it.

Russell Turner

In his four years as the head coach at UC Irvine, Turner has helped the Anteaters do a 180 degree turn. After starting 13-19 followed by a 12-20 record the following year, he has rattled off three straight 20-win seasons with UC Irvine. Last season his team made the NIT, followed by an NCAA Tournament berth this year. Turner also has an impressive resume. He was an assistant at Wake Forest for six years in the 1990s and then spent four years as the assistant coach at Stanford. For six years prior to landing the UC Irvine job, Turner was an assistant with the Golden State Warriors in the NBA.