Georgia basketball is officially looking for a new men’s basketball coach after the school announced it is parting ways with Tom Crean on Thursday.

Crean had been the coach for Georgia for the past four seasons, compiling a 47-75 record. This past season saw Georgia go 6-26, with a 1-17 record in SEC play. The season came to an end on Wednesday with an 86-51 loss to Vanderbilt.

Related: Georgia basketball fires Tom Crean

Georgia Athletic Director Josh Brooks put out a statement commenting on the news while providing insight into what the next steps for the program are.

“I would like to sincerely thank Coach Crean and his family for their commitment to Georgia Basketball,” Brooks said. “Tom Crean demonstrated unquestionable effort and enthusiasm in what he has attempted to accomplish at Georgia.  That said, our expectation is to compete for post-season success in all 21 sports. We believe a leadership change in men’s basketball is needed to achieve our goals.”

The official release from Georgia added that the Bulldogs would begin a national search that will begin immediately.

Crean’s buyout is expected to be around $3.2 million but the full details are not available at this time. Crean was hired in 2018 to replace Mark Fox, with the hope of elevating Georgia to becoming an annual NCAA tournament team.

That obviously did not happen under Crean’s watch. What’s more is that SEC foes such as Auburn, Alabama and Tennessee have further established themselves as conference powers. Auburn’s rise, in particular, has made things difficult for Georgia, with much of Auburn’s top talent coming from the state of Georgia.

There are already some other Power 5 jobs available, particularly in Louisville and Maryland. Georgia will be competing with those schools to try and land the next head coach. Some of those possible replacements have already taken their names off the market, as Wake Forest’s Steve Forbes and USC’s Andy Enfield both signed extensions with their current schools.

Among names that have been mentioned include Xavier assistant Jonas Hayes and Cleveland State’s Dennis Gates. Hayes played at Georgia and previously worked at Georgia as an assistant when Fox was the head coach. He has strong recruiting ties to the state of Georgia, as does Gates dating back to his time as an assistant under Leonard Hamilton.

This will easily be the biggest hire of Brooks’ time since taking over as the full-time athletic director in January of 2021. He has made three coaching hires so far in softball, track and field and soccer. The latter two jobs saw him go out and hire a National Championship-winning coach in said sport, while in softball he promoted assistant Tony Baldwin to replace long-time Georgia softball coach Lu Harris-Champer.

Brooks took over his job from Greg McGarity, who hired Crean back in 2018.

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