He has done a good job at Duke, they are in the NCAA tourney for the 1st time since 1961. He is probably pretty loyal to the Blue Devils.
New Coaching Prospects
- Thread starter Comebakatz3
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If Barnhart is serious getting a top coach then it will be a while.
as most of the ones you would want are in the CWS.
He could make contact, tell them he is interested, are you?
Get back to you after the CWS if you are interested.
as most of the ones you would want are in the CWS.
He could make contact, tell them he is interested, are you?
Get back to you after the CWS if you are interested.
G. Lovelady is the coach that will get 3 of my family & others back in there seats....................GO AFTER A PROVEN WINNER MITCH PLEASE..........
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Probably the front runner right now !G. Lovelady is the coach that will get 3 of my family & others back in there seats....................GO AFTER A PROVEN WINNER MITCH PLEASE..........
Do you expect UK to hire a head coach from a smaller school (smaller in terms of conference affiliation) or a top assistant from a big-time program?
Some info on a few names. Bohannon left under bad circumstances with Mitch and don't think he will on the list. Vandy hitting coach is good, but the success at Vandy lies square on the shoulders of Tim Corbin - probably the best coach in college baseball. Unbelievably organized and detailed, and did a tremendous job building the Vandy program. U of L pitching coach and Lovelady look like the two best options on the board right now.
It probably means Mitch's top choice hasn't been mentioned in this thread. No idea who it may be though.
I can really even speculate. I don't know exactly what would be considered aiming for the stars. It somewhat implies that it isn't someone that we've predicted so far. Seems like it would be someone more established that we wouldn't expect. So I really have no idea who it might be.
Maybe it's an established head coach from a big school looking for a fresh start? Any names that come to mind?
Hopefully his quote also means that construction on a new stadium will begin soon. It's hard to shoot for the stars without upgraded facilities.
The rest of that tweet says "I'd also take a hard, hard look at Greg Goff." Granted, it was in response to someone asking about Goff returning to Lexington. Could interpret that in a few ways I guess.
Sounds like we're going after a BIG time coach, doesn't mean we will get them though. But, it does mean Mitch is serious about this hire !
This^^^I said this before...the dirt needs to be moving on this new stadium before you are going to be able to reach for the stars in a coaching search.
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He's probably going after Tennessee's Coach!
I want to laugh at this, but it's so scary that it is almost not funny. lol
Heard a little talk about this, do not take this as Gospel by any means, but said coach Kendall may be speaking of is Coaching in the Nashville regional right now ..... Think West Coast !!
Andrew Checketts? That would be an awesome hire. Outstanding recruiter and pitching coach. He was the main reason Oregon was competitive immediately after starting their baseball program.
I think that would be pretty exciting, but the concern for me is that this would be a guy who has never been off the west coast as a coach. How will that translate to the SEC?
Checketts would be a BIG TIME get. Read his bio, he actually played his Freshman year at Florida, then transferred to Oregon State. He sure has done wonders at UCSB, maybe he will be the guy Mitch goes after, he isn't making the money out there that UK could pay him.
I am not saying he couldn't be big time. However, Serrano was a guy who was also almost exclusively a west coast guy, other than spending one year coaching at UT (maybe two). He came to UT with TWO college world series appearances on his resume from two different schools. Yet, he's been a disaster at UT. I don't know why he has struggled at UT, but the similarities do give me some small concern. Still, I am more than happy to move away from Henderson. haha
Not to mention the cost of living in Lexington would be way less.......
I would love to have Checketts and love that he is a pitching guy. I really enjoy the small ball played out west and so I would love to roll the dice on him. What are your thoughts Ages? How do you think he'd do recruiting here? Would he struggle not really knowing the lay of the land or do you think he'd settle in all right? Would he be able to recruit California/West Coast still or do you think he'd abandon that? He's had one head coaching job and one assistant job. What kind of assistants do you think he'd bring in?
I would like him or Lovelady. I really liked the way Wright State played.
I know Baseball is Baseball no matter where you play, looking at his roster at UCSB, every player on the team is from California. That doesn't mean he couldn't be an effective recruiter here. I would be a little concerned, but it could also open up the West coast i.e. softball is the SEC. I believe Kentucky kids are attracted to UK, no matter where the coach is from.
I imagine, if he is hired, he would bring a couple of his ast. coaches with him. Or he no doubt has coaching contacts he could bring in also.
I like Checketts along with Lovelady and Goff as HC possibilities. The concern with Checketts is almost always being on the West coast. Recruiting other areas like Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Tennessee, and Georgia might worry some. This is not a concern with Lovelady or Goff, as they both have recruited said areas before. UK has had Great success with JUCO players, too many to name, I think that is essential to the success of our program.
Will defer to you guys, but I worry about the spur of the moment hot name phenomenon. Every year it seems we watch some team hire a basketball coach who just did really well in the NCAA tournament. Dan Monson, Andy.....the guy at USC, from the Florida directional school a couple of years ago. Rarely it works - usually it was a one hit wonder kind of deal, team gets hot, wins 2 or 3 games that it wasn't supposed to - and it turns out the guy wasn't a coaching prodigy, his team just got hot.......
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Looks like Checketts was making less than $175,000 in 2015 I think Mitch would get him $500,000 that would be tough to turn down. Couldn't find Lovelady's salary but I would think it is probably just over $100,000 at WSU.
Checketts is not a 1 year wonder, he has been successful for the past 5 or 6 seasons. Lovelady has just completed his 3rd year at Wright State, has 2 NCAA regional finals, 2 Horizion league titles, and 2 HL tourney titles, Goff had several NCAA tourney appearances at Campbell, and took La. Tech dancing in his 2nd season there.
You need to pay the HC $500-700k and give the staff enough $$ so they don't have to rely on summer camp $$. I would get an assistant with SEC/Florida ties for recruiting, use the new stadium and facilities to lure top recruits, and get a coach who can develop kids.
