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Entered the portal today, I would hope UK is interested no matter who the Coach is.

Tommy Lloyd has built a great roster for competing in modern college basketball. He has established a great culture there built around multi-year development and love for the program with veteran hired guns mixed in. Starting lineup includes four seniors and a sophomore.

• Oumar Ballo is a 5th year senior who transferred in 3 years ago so he's been in the program developing for 3 years.
• Keshad Johnson is another 5th year senior transferred in as a proven March Madness performer.
• Pelle Larsson is a true senior who also transferred in 3 years ago with Oumar Ballo and has been developing for 3 years in the program.
• Caleb Love is another true senior transfer. Former 5-star recruit with a significant March Madness experience (7 starts/5 wins) including a run to the Championship Game two years ago.
• Finally get an underclassman, Kylan Boswell, as a sophomore home grown talent in the process of developing and will be one of the stars of the team for two years after this.
• 6th man is a sophomore former 5-star recruit transfer, Jaden Bradley, who will earn a starting job next year and likely be a star alongside Kylan Boswell for two years.
• It's not until you get to the 7th and 8th men in the 8-man rotation until you get freshmen.
• Then you have other underclassmen developing behind to scenes hoping to earn bigger roles in the future.

We need to do something similar with our roster next year. Start by getting Reed, DJ, Adou, and Big Z back from this roster. Add three big time transfers who have proven success in March. No more Kellan Grady's or Antonio Reeves' who arrive with the same amount of tournament experience as our freshmen. We need alphas who know how to win in March. One freshman can earn an 8th man role and play 10-15 minutes a game. Any of the incoming freshmen who don't like this new plan and new culture, we'll let them out of their NLI.

I still won't be fully confident that Cal won't be screw things up but 3 veteran March performers could be Cal-proof and win despite him.

This is something that occurred to me this morning.

According to Matt Jones, Mitch and Cal is meeting later this evening. We should know about the future of Kentucky either tonight or tomorrow.

Everything is pointing towards that Cal should hang it up and retire.

Jay Wright is the supposed first call. There is a week between the Sweet 16 and Elite 8 games. No broadcasting for Jay Wright. The timing is literally perfect for Jay Wright to come here because he's off until those games, Cal BETTER be canned tonight. Jay Wright hasn't coached. He's the most free out of anyone.

From another angle, I know Scott Drew and Bruce Pearl are other candidates some folks want on this board and they are free. I know Nate Oats and Dan Hurley are other candidates mentioned on this board, but they're still in the tournament.

If Mitch wants to make a fast move this week and wants to exclusively go after a college coach. The ones that are free are Jay Wright, Scott Drew and Bruce Pearl.

I bet Mitch reached out to Jay Wright already to gauge interest. Would he regret turning down Kentucky?

The timing for Jay Wright to be here is definitely interesting.

Mixed messages right now from connected sources in each direction. I have heard something similar to what Matt Jones tweeted this morning that the money is there, specifically it is done over time in payments. There evidently is no lump sum that has to be paid up front. Where the money comes from is also up for debate. Early speculation (Friday) was out there that money would not be an issue, and there was also buzz floating around that it could be raised without a huge handout from the Craft family. But a very good source who knows that lay of the land says there aren't that kind of donors floating around, especially with all of the money pledged to facility projects. If the move is in the hands of Mitch Barnhart, the same source who has heard from inside the athletic department is strongly unconvinced that Barnhart would make the move even if the money was available, which he says it is not.

I understand me included, everyone wants Cal gone. When it’s all said and done, it’s is not up to us. That’s just what we want doesn’t mean it will happen. How would everyone feel if the university came out and said Cal is going to Coach two more year. They name Tyler Ulis as the coaching waiting kind of like Duke did. They give Tyler a bigger roll for the next two years and then he takes over when Cal retires. This is just hypothetical, how do you think that would be perceived?

What qualifications/accomplishments should they have to be a qualified candidate?

Whose coaching tree should (‘nt) they be from?

It was a little before my time.

I’m bargaining on the fact that he gets fired or resigned but who are actually some plausible replacements for cal. People like hurly, brad steven’s and billy donovan would be great to have but it’s not happening. so who are some realistic replacements for cal

… expected the Big East to be strong in the tournament and thought they deserved another team or two to get in, but didn’t expect the ACC to get it done they way they have …

Assuming Houston closes this out

The biggest surprise so far in this year’s men’s NCAA tournament isn’t the first-round upsets suffered by Auburn and Kentucky.

It’s that so few other highly seeded heavyweights also went home early.

Every top-two seed advanced to the NCAA tournament’s second weekend for only the fifth time since the bracket expanded to 64 teams in 1985. All but two remaining teams rank in the top 17 in Ken Pomeroy’s efficiency rankings.

Another name to throw out there. He def does not have the appeal of the top of the list candidates such as Jay wright, but assuming those guy say no he’s a semi interesting option.

He’s now taken ISU to the sweet sixteen 2/3 years, young, defense minded tough coach.

Not endorsing him, but I think he’s just as viable as guys like Scott Drew. With UKs resources could he be 20% better? If so that’s a perennial power.

Has officially removed his name for the worst SEC coach in last 5 years.


Would you be happy to see a SEC team win the title? Who are you hoping will win the tourney since Cal opts not to participate in tourneys to focus on draft night?



I have a lot of friends that are Iowa St fans. That would beat stomaching watching UNC and the Vawls I think.

U6 leading scorer enters the portal but says he will remain in contact with u6 while they search for a coach.

Would you rather have $1000 or Matt Painter's head full of nickels?

Did he fly back to Lexington with the team first and then go to New Jersey? Or did he split off from the team after the game, and they flew home and he went to Jersey? Depending on what happened, there could be a reason for it.

If I do the monthly membership with Rivals, is there some catch where I can’t cancel for a year or anything? I’ve been thinking of doing the membership this month while everything is in chaos, but don’t want to commit to paying forever.

But you throw everything at him if the job becomes available and one reason is from an article I read below. You can only dream about the things Kentucky would do under Wright.

“The most appealing thing about Jay Wright is that he’s in many ways the antithesis to Coach Cal. Wright loves to keep players for multiple years and focus on skill development and fundamental basketball. Taking that philosophy and inserting it into the Kentucky infrastructure could create a death machine that destroys everything in its path.”

1. Donovan - Probably won’t come back and turn us UK down again but he’s 1st to call. Why not?

2. Wright - Cant hurt to see if he’s interested in coming out of retirement. Who knows?

3. Hurley - Guy has been good everywhere he’s been, but would he leave Storrs for UK? Maybe?

4. Smart - Yeah I know he flopped at Texas, but they don’t care about basketball in Texas. I think he got a raw deal there. I’d call him before Drew from Baylor.

Just my $.02.

His history, demeanor, and comments over time would suggest he is an opportunistic grifter. At the same time, he has always been great, if not outstanding at PR and drumming up support across the state --whether it's promoting his own success, or providing for disaster relief. As insincere as he seems most of the time, to his credit, he seemed to do a great job of including Joe B. Hall and Tubby in general celebrations of UK Bball when it was time to do so.

Was all of that just another part of his grift, or was it genuine? Does he want, or care about seeing, his name in the rafters???

Just thinking if Cal is gone and UK got a “normal” coach. Isn’t it crazy how every year UK fans are watching recruiting and waiting to see how many McDonald’s all Americans are coming? Knowing if they don’t land a few high ranking recruits it may not bode for a good season.

I think just having solid players for 4 years while sprinkling in a few each year from the portal along with a couple of talented recruits would be great

Of course the list of things that they would do different, in every aspect, from Cal is too long. Especially not hearing my team is young! Hope Mitch is smart in his hire so we can get back to enjoying college basketball which hasn’t been happening much here lately.

We are all DUKE FANS today, JAMES MADISON DUKES. First game Colorado - Marquette. I think Marquette will handle business but the PAC-12 has been stout in the conferences swan song so it wouldn’t shock me if Colorado pulls the upset

Except for NC State taking our place there's only one team below a five seed in the whole Sweet Sixteen.

I'm here for it.