Kentucky’s teaching search isn’t off to an amazing begin. Sooner or later after former coach John Calipari was launched at Arkansas, the Wildcats’ first alternative to switch him, Baylor coach Scott Drew, turned them down.
“God has referred to as my household and I to proceed our work right here,” he mentioned in an announcement.
So what now for Kentucky? That’s a several-million-dollar query and not using a clear reply.
Drew was the popular choose of UK athletic director Mitch Barnhart to switch Calipari courting again a minimum of three years, since Barnhart was chair of the NCAA Match within the COVID-19 bubble in 2021, a event received by Baylor. Barnhart and Kentucky moved shortly to focus on Drew; Calipari had not even left city earlier than a UK contingent flew to Texas to gather Drew’s household and present them round Lexington, Ky., on Wednesday. To have already got a “no thanks” by Thursday morning is a major blow.
#JOY pic.twitter.com/JhxpsmHVOw
— Scott Drew (@BUDREW) April 11, 2024
Not solely is Drew one in all seven energetic coaches with a nationwide championship — and a sterling status for rebuilding a scandal-rocked, sanction-ridden program right into a perennial Massive 12 contender — he supplied maybe the most effective likelihood to right away restock Kentucky’s roster. He would have introduced a few of his returning gamers with him, and Baylor has the No. 6 recruiting class within the nation, together with two five-star prospects. In principle, he has additionally already made main headway in restocking via the switch portal. It may have been a fast flip, to borrow a phrase from BU superfan Chip Gaines, the HGTV star who spent all day Wednesday bantering with UK followers on social media.
Fixer Higher 1, Kentucky Rebuild 0.
If you let a Corridor of Fame coach stroll (or fly personal) to a convention rival, as Kentucky did with Calipari, you higher nail the substitute, and Barnhart thought he had his man. Now Kentucky’s 64-year-old AD, in his twenty second yr on the college, is again to the drafting board on a very powerful rent of his profession. This one is a legacy-defining rent.
Which means now it’s time for Barnhart to marshal all accessible sources, with assist from some extremely motivated boosters, and take the massive swings. It not issues that every of the “make-them-say-no” candidates has already publicly dismissed the thought they’d have an interest, with various levels of definitiveness. Nate Oats, the Alabama coach contemporary off a Remaining 4, launched an announcement that he was not going wherever. Dan Hurley, the Connecticut coach contemporary of back-to-back nationwide titles, informed The Athletic “no manner” he’d depart the Huskies. Billy Donovan, the Chicago Bulls coach who led Florida to consecutive nationwide titles in 2006 and 2007, mentioned of his present job, “My complete dedication and focus is right here.”
It’s time to check their conviction, notably Hurley and Donovan. Some within the higher tier of Kentucky’s donor base have maintained their perception that Kentucky ought to take a look at the boundaries of UConn’s capability to maintain Hurley glad by making him an astronomical supply few males would refuse. We is perhaps about to search out out the worth of happiness.
Donovan is essentially the most attention-grabbing case, as a result of his Chicago staff remains to be enjoying till a minimum of subsequent week — the Bulls have certified for the NBA Play-In Match — and he received’t actively have interaction with Kentucky till after his NBA season ends. However individuals near the 58-year-old Donovan, who received six SEC titles and made 4 Remaining Fours at Florida, imagine he’s extra open to a return to school basketball than at any level since he left for the professionals in 2015. Donovan additionally started his profession as an assistant at Kentucky underneath Rick Pitino within the early Nineteen Nineties.
“Two children have been born there. Like all my stops, you’ve got very fond reminiscences,” Donovan mentioned when requested concerning the Kentucky opening on Tuesday. On the time, he mentioned he had not been contacted concerning the job and was centered on his present one. But additionally, “I perceive the magnitude of that place and the historical past and custom. It’s flattering to be talked about with a faculty and a practice like that on this recreation.”
GO DEEPER
Would Billy Donovan depart the Chicago Bulls for Kentucky basketball?
The timing makes Donovan as a candidate difficult. Kentucky wants somebody who can hit the bottom operating and replenish the roster via recruiting and the switch portal — which didn’t exist the final time Donovan coached in school. Neither did the large title, picture and likeness offers now required to get and maintain high expertise. There’s an entire new world Donovan must navigate, and he’s not bringing any gamers from his present staff (or nonexistent recruiting class) with him, like different candidates may. However Donovan is among the brightest minds in basketball and plenty of imagine he may determine all that out shortly, even when his hiring is delayed.
Donovan is price ready for. Not less than price gauging, via again channels or in any other case, whether or not he’s keen to have that dialog after the Bulls’ season ends. If that’s the case, you wait.
If not, and if Barnhart strikes out on all the house run choices, this search may grow to be a circus. So who breaks the autumn in that case?
BYU coach Mark Pope, the 51-year-old former captain of Kentucky’s 1996 nationwide championship staff, can be an choice. Smart, if not horny. The security-rated sedan of hires. He received 25 video games in his fourth yr at Utah Valley and has received 68 % of his video games in 4 seasons at BYU, making the NCAA Match twice. The Cougars moved to the Massive 12 this season and greater than held their very own in that heavyweight division, ending fifth within the league with a top-15 offense nationally. The query is whether or not Pope strikes the needle sufficient for a program of Kentucky’s stature, particularly after capturing for the moon.
If Barnhart is already that far down the listing, although, he ought to contemplate 55-year-old Xavier coach Sean Miller. That doesn’t come with out some baggage, however neither did Calipari, who’s coincidentally an previous buddy of Miller’s. In his first stint at Xavier, Miller coached the Musketeers to 4 straight NCAA Tournaments, two Candy 16s and an Elite Eight. Then he left for Arizona and went on fairly a run: seven 25-win seasons in eight years, 4 30-win seasons, 5 Candy 16s, three Elite Eights. However he by no means made a Remaining 4, received snarled within the 2017 federal investigation into corruption in school basketball and was finally fired 4 years later.
Miller rejuvenated his profession with a return to Xavier final season, the place he promptly led the Musketeers to 27 wins and one other Candy 16. If we’re speaking about stopping a training search freefall, an AD may do a lot worse than Miller, who will surely recruit at a excessive degree.
However what concerning the nuclear choice?
There’s a person who is aware of a factor or two about respiration new life into basketball applications in Kentucky, and he would stroll barefoot over glass from New York to take the job. Rick Pitino again within the Bluegrass can be the largest story in school basketball, by a mile. His age, 71, is actually an element. And if we’re speaking about baggage, Pitino comes with an entire baggage cart, however the man is a Corridor of Famer who received nationwide titles at each Kentucky and Louisville, received Windfall to a Remaining 4 and has made St. John’s related once more.
GO DEEPER
Rick Pitino is obsessed. He doesn’t have time to cease
Would that be a loopy factor to do? Perhaps. Fully out of Barnhart’s straight-laced character? Completely. But when this search shortly goes sideways, and the “no thank yous” start to pile up, there’s just one coach who may completely flip the script. That’s Pitino, who may also double as the one particular person able to convincing nationwide freshman of the yr Reed Sheppard, whose father performed for Pitino, to return for a sophomore season.
If this all ends with Pitino striding throughout a stage at Rupp Enviornment with Sheppard at his aspect, Barnhart would possibly but win the information convention.
Required studying
(Photograph: Sean M. Haffey / Getty Photos)
