re: Pucker up Bama fans...Cal will be leading candidate for the Texas job.

quote:

---

lsupride87

---

Is it...like I said, word is from Texas they are going all in on Cal. Doubt he ever leaves Kentucky. BUT, Texas will go after Cal (this is being discussed in Kentucky Sports Radio at the moment).

I don't pretend to have any clue what Oats thoughts are about other jobs or his timeline or his end goals. And I'm sure as hell not going to worry about it either.

quote:

---

Alabama is officially a better job than UK now,

---

And Kentucky football is better then Bama? Your take is pretty dumb.

quote:

---

No. They are actually pretty similar.

---

Oh they are?

Indianas success in Basketball dates back to the early 1900s

They also have 2 conference titles in recent years, and still recruit well. I dont think they relate to Nebraska, but agree to disagree

quote:

---

Kinda points towards the color of their blood, no?

---

Indiana is no doubt a blue blood. They are also a good job in a nation full of good jobs, but with the added pressure that if you win the conference and follow it up going 18-15 you'll get fired. Crean took over a smoldering pile of rubble and by year 4 started a run of going to 3 Sweet 16s, won 2 B1G titles and then got fired 12 months after his last of those.

Some guys are cool with that, some aren't.

quote:

---

I also think you have the NBA to contend with. I think Oats is the real deal. I have a tough time seeing him at Bama long term

---

Now we need to worry about the NBA and all of college basketball. And Oats hasn't made his way out of the sweet 16 yet.

The Cal to Texas thing legitimately makes no sense to me. In a world of weird coaching rumors, that one stands out.

Why would Kentucky lose a basketball coach to Texas? I mean in all seriousness, that would be a pretty humiliating turn of events.

As far as Oats goes, I have no idea what he wants to do. College basketball is a pretty decentralized landscape - you can absolutely build a powerhouse program at a place like Alabama (or Texas or Loyola-Chicago or hell even Georgia). And we will presumably match a pretty high salary. But who knows, maybe he or his wife would rather live somewhere else than Tuscaloosa. That wouldn’t be shocking.

The NBA is a different ball of wax. Obviously that could be something he would jump at immediately. But frankly it would mean he’d done a hell of a job here, so I don’t worry about that.

I'll also just add that comparing blue bloods in basketball and football is a little bit different in 2021, IMHO. You have to be at certain schools in football to win big. You have to be rich, be in an area where you can sign tons of great players and be in a league that gives you a chance to consistently get to the playoffs. It's fair or not but it is what it is.

In basketball, you don't have to have most of that stuff. You need a place that will invest in what you need, be in a conference that is good enough to boost your tournament resume and be able to recruit (either via your connections or location). The required necessities to be an elite basketball program are far less than to be an elite football program, and because of that I think the pressure to go to one of the 15-20 traditional schools is less.

Now, there are exceptions to that rule - Kentucky, Kansas and Carolina, mainly. Duke maybe but to be honest we don't know what non-K Duke looks like in the modern era. UCLA would have been one of those jobs but 2 decades later it's kind of shown not to be.

UK dug themselves into a massive hole with that lifetime contract and will have to ride it out.