Oats wanted the UK job but Mitch didn’t even think about it. 18 million dollar buyout is a lot but pay it over time. You were willing to drop 12 million on Hurley so the money was there to pay this buyout. This is completely ridiculous. I hope Pope works out but when it comes to recruiting and actually winning a title I don’t see it happening. Mitch just ruined his legacy at UK with this hire. Cal has to be laughing at us right now. Oats, Pearl, Shaka, and Rick Pitino would have been my picks in that order after Hurley and Drew. This is just a complete failure and fumble of a hiring process. Boosters didn’t even know and the people around the basketball program didn’t even know about this hire. Complete shock.
