Does anyone else believe like I do. That the only coach that Barnhart has contacted has been Scott Drew?

[TopCatCal]

If this is the case & Drew is our next coach. And if he doesn't win big and do it fast like making it to the Final Four in his first 2 years. Then expect Barnhart to be run out of town on a rail. I believe that Billy Donovan wants the UK job. He says that UK has not contacted him at all. Knowing this, Barnhart better hope that Drew wins & wins fast.

 

[the nail at the foul line]

No

Now stop being a moron.

Hurley doesn't want to be here.

Donovan doesn't want to be here either.

 

[Titpwhami2014]

I want Mitch gone more than anyone…but he’s not that unprepared.

 

[ThunderCat98]

No, because that's absurd.

 

[Drcatfan]

Contacted directly maybe. I'm sure a lot of the discussion/contacts happen through back channels. UK doesn't want to directly communicate with a candidate and make an offer until they are pretty sure they will accept.

Avoid embarrassment of getting turned down. Also, don't want your eventual hire to know he was the 3rd or 4th choice.

 

[sefus12]

Some of you folks either need to step away from the keyboard for a while or just want to be mad at Mitch. Probably both.

 

[cats2010]

If this is the case & Drew is our next coach. And if he doesn't win big and do it fast like making it to the Final Four in his first 2 years. Then expect Barnhart to be run out of town on a rail. I believe that Billy Donovan wants the UK job. He says that UK has not contacted him at all. Knowing this, Barnhart better hope that Drew wins & wins fast.

And how long do you want to give Donovan to get UK to a FF? With Donovan it’s likely we don’t even field a competitive team next season due to the late roster construction as could be several more weeks before that even came to fruition.

 

[KFuqua]

No. There’s not a chance of that. Some people just want to hate Mitch and make up reasons to do so!

 

[the nail at the foul line]

As pointed out above people are contacted without being directly contacted. When Billy Donovan says nobody contacted me that may be true but his people have been in contact.

 

[know1]

Why do you believe he's the only one who has been contacted? How about some specifics?

And why would he be run out of town on a rail after two years of no Final Four? Look at Cal's last TEN YEARS - including a 9-16 season.

Seems to me you just don't like Mitch and basically want him to fail. And that's sad.

 

[TankedCat]

I said this earlier

If word gets out that UK did not contact Hurley and he formally refused - or at least dragged his feet, then whatever Scott Drew does or doesn't do will be put at Mitch's feet.

If he went after Hurley and Hurley laughed off the idea of coaching at Ky, then UK fans will be behind Scott Drew all the way and thankful that Mitch landed a good coach in the current coaching landscape.

but at Mitch's age, after hiring a women coach and now a men's coach , and it looks like Stoops is here to stay for another 3 years , I think this represents the last major coaching hire for Barnhart before he retires - and him hiring a safe choice, someone he has a relationship with and someone who will not be a rogue once he gets a few wins is exactly what he wants to ride into the sunset.

Scott Drew has to understand coming here that he can't have more than 1 year missing the tournament, and that's only acceptable if he had a banger of a year prior to that.

 

[uk78]

In answer to the question none of us really know. But, some of the names do seem like they have not been contacted simply based upon their public comments of a lack of interest. But, I remember when Saban coached the Dolphins (it was not behind the scenes) and was point blank asked if he was considering Alabama. "Absolutely not" in an angry tone. So behind the scenes we simply don't know.

 

[JoshAllenFan]

This board has lost its mind. Who knows who Mitch has talked to? Nobody. Mitch is notoriously tight-lipped in the early stages of any coaching search. He just made an awesome hire in Kenny Brooks for the women's team. Give it a chance to play out.

 

[chroix]

Got to love that username OP. Your judgement seems excellent.

 

[JFCats22]

Awesome, another Mitch sucks and doesn’t know what he’s doing thread.

Clearly the boosters are on board with what Mitch is doing. The biggest booster let him use his plane yesterday. You think if he didn’t agree with how Mitch has handled this he would offer up his jet?

 

[bigblueinsanity]

If reports are believed, oats was the first call but the buyout was an issue.

If 10 million buyout was really the issue and why we never contacted oats directly, then some very hard questions need to be asked because that is not an unreasonable amount. If the rich were willing to buy out cal, this cost was a non issue.

So if that's true, it means Mitch made the call just to more or less save face.

 

[TNCatfanforever]

If this is the case & Drew is our next coach. And if he doesn't win big and do it fast like making it to the Final Four in his first 2 years. Then expect Barnhart to be run out of town on a rail. I believe that Billy Donovan wants the UK job. He says that UK has not contacted him at all. Knowing this, Barnhart better hope that Drew wins & wins fast.

I think he has been checking with coaches agents for a few weeks or months. He has seen this coming

 

[crestcat]

No. There’s not a chance of that. Some people just want to hate Mitch and make up reasons to do so!

I already don’t like Mitch but I’m good with hiring Drew, he’s a good coach. He ain’t screwing it up completely like with BCG

 

[MrHotDice]

Barnhart has a history of screwing this up.

 

[Stretch98]

If reports are believed, oats was the first call but the buyout was an issue.

If 10 million buyout was really the issue and why we never contacted oats directly, then some very hard questions need to be asked because that is not an unreasonable amount. If the rich were willing to buy out cal, this cost was a non issue.

So if that's true, it means Mitch made the call just to more or less save face.

Oats would be a backup target if Drew declined. Drew's coaching credentials far exceed those of Oats and Drew's teams defend.

 

[wkycatfan]

Hurley doesn't want the job IMO, and would just be using us to leverage UConn. Donovon might want it 'now', but we have to wait to find out and he's turned us down twice (that's a problem for me). So it's Drew. We need a coach pretty soon in the current environment of CBB. I like Drew better than most seem to on this board.

 

[Mike_Edwards]

I don’t believe it has been a singular search by any means but I do believe Drew has been his choice all along, and that has been common knowledge for quite some time so at the end of the day, does it really matter? I’ll be happy with Drew and support him because I am a Kentucky basketball fan, but there were other choices I would have rather had for sure.

 

[bigblueinsanity]

Oats would be a backup target if Drew declined. Drew's coaching credentials far exceed those of Oats and Drew's teams defend.

Maybe they would circle back but report was Mitch called the bama ad to discuss negotiations on the buyout and he wouldn't budge, which shouldn't be a surprise. Given that they never called oats directly.

For the last few years it was pretty well known drew was more or less coach in waiting for whenever cal left. Maybe if he says no, they'll circle back to oats despite the buyout which doesn't seem absurd.

 

[Jakerz]

Most likely

 

[FilsonCat]

I don't believe that for a minute. There are complicating factors with each of the top candidates people have advocated for online. Through back channels, it wouldn't surprise me if they're in contact with some names not really on the radar of the media types.

 

[Jjohnb5393]

You can gauge interest through back channels, without making some sort of a public offer. You can bet they have reached out to Hurley’s people, but it just doesn’t seem like he is too interested. All you can do basically is offer someone way more than they make now, and sell the heck out of your program and university. You can’t force a man to come here . Years ago, you could offer someone a couple of million when they were making $300,000 somewhere. Nowadays, a guy is making 5 million, and you offer him 9 million it’s just not like it was. Once upon a time, the right job would give you a total lifestyle change and set up your grandkids for life, now most jobs do that.

 

[WildcatDJ]

Oats would be a backup target if Drew declined. Drew's coaching credentials far exceed those of Oats and Drew's teams defend.

His team defense has been ranked 107th and 72nd the last 2 years without Jerome Tang as an assistant. Kind of concerning.

Nate Oats lost ALL of his assistants, replaced them, and still went to a Final Four...

 

[Runnin'Ramel]

I said this earlier

If word gets out that UK did not contact Hurley and he formally refused - or at least dragged his feet, then whatever Scott Drew does or doesn't do will be put at Mitch's feet.

If he went after Hurley and Hurley laughed off the idea of coaching at Ky, then UK fans will be behind Scott Drew all the way and thankful that Mitch landed a good coach in the current coaching landscape.

but at Mitch's age, after hiring a women coach and now a men's coach , and it looks like Stoops is here to stay for another 3 years , I think this represents the last major coaching hire for Barnhart before he retires - and him hiring a safe choice, someone he has a relationship with and someone who will not be a rogue once he gets a few wins is exactly what he wants to ride into the sunset.

Scott Drew has to understand coming here that he can't have more than 1 year missing the tournament, and that's only acceptable if he had a banger of a year prior to that.

You know or have a strong indication before you make the formal offer to - in most cases - avoid the PR hit of being rejected.

People believing UK hasn't contacted others are morons. Period.

 

[Jjohnb5393]

His team defense has been ranked 107th and 72nd the last 2 years without Jerome Tang as an assistant. Kind of concerning.

Nate Oats lost ALL of his assistants, replaced them, and still went to a Final Four...

What intrigues me about Drew is he walked into a situation where a program had only been to one NCAA tournament ever, it was in the middle of the worst scandal in college basketball history. A murder scandal, where one player killed another. Fast forward, they are a fixture in the NCAA, won a title and nearly won another one. He would be the only coach UK has ever hired that has won a title. I think if you gave him UK recruiting budget, assistant coach salary pool and turned him loose he would be just fine. He is very well respected as an X’s and O’s coach. Hurley went 50 - 47 his first three years at UConn, and you hope that these last couple of years haven’t been mostly having a lot of luck in the transfer portal.