HarlanAlive 23

The team that would scare me the most in that mix is Auburn. I think SC will be young, and I think it could be a disaster season in Florida.

My prediction (may take some heat):

Southern Miss- W

South Carolina- W

Georgia- L

Ohio- W

Ole Miss- L

Vanderbilt- W

Florida- W

Auburn- W

Tennessee- L

Murray State- W

Texas- L

Louisville- W

Is there a chance that Barnhart panicked and didn't want Kentucky to be told no by multiple coaches?

Look, I understand that Mark Pope has very strong ties to Kentucky. I understand that he won a championship as a team captain here. I understand that being mad at him is extremely stupid. That I should feel proud that he didn't drag his feet, but instead jumped on the opportunity.

Don't get me wrong, I am happy that he realized how great of an opportunity it is, and my frustration is not with Pope. My frustration is with our administration.

I loved the idea of Scott Drew, and they made him say "no", which is fine. The next call should have been to Billy Donovan. We should have made Billy come to Lexington and say "no", and if that meant having to wait until the NBA season ended then so be it.

We should have called Bruce Pearl and made him say "no". His past does not concern me as the landscape of college recruiting has changed so much. He would have left Auburn for Kentucky.

We should have really kicked the tires on Pitino to see if he would have considered returning and finishing his career in BBN.

We could have done all of those things, and if the answer had been "no" from all of them, then Pope would have still been there.

Instead we went from Drew to Pope with nothing in between. So please understand that I am not upset about Pope, and I wish him nothing but the best in leading the program. I just feel that we could have knocked on a few more doors.

He is 71. Only six years older than Cal. Kind of had a hard time believing that myself.

The more I learn about Scott Drew, the more I hope he is our next head coach.

It was a multitude of things that have impacted the overall success. Coach Cal has had to deal with things such as:

-The SEC improving greatly overall as a conference. Some games that were gimme wins when he first arrived have turned into absolute wars.

-Some tough first round losses that made really strong years end up seeming underwhelming.

-Missing out on national championship opportunities in both 13-14 and 14-15.

All of these factors have hurt UK, but Cal has still done a great job. I just think it was a good time for both parties to go seperate ways.

The fact that he does not win at Arizona State.

There is still much to be decided in the Kentucky basketball hire, but Scott Drew is getting a lot of speculation at the moment. I am still hopeful that Billy Donovan will be made to say no, but I do like the idea of Scott Drew.

Scott has an overall record of 446-244 at Baylor. However, many people forget that he took the program over in their darkest hour.

In his first three seasons, which were major rebuilds, his record was 21-53. Since that point he has a record of 425-191.

Before Scott Drew Baylor had only made the NCAA tourney four times in its history. Drew has taken the Bears to the tourney 12 times, including winning a national championship in 21. He also did not get to take one of his best teams due to the tournaments cancellation during 2020.

Drew has been able to build this program while having to compete against some really good Texas, Kansas State, Iowa State, Oklahoma, West Virginia, and of course Kansas teams.

Don't kid yourself, Baylor is not an easy place to consistently get talent, but he has been able to build a tradition at this place while going head to head with some of the best programs in the country on a regular basis.

Giving this man the resources that are available at a place like Kentucky could be a dangerous combination.

So the odds on favorite to be the next basketball coach at Kentucky right now according to Vegas is Scott Drew. Nate Oats is also an odds on favorite. I’m hoping for Donovan, but who knows?

However, the name that I have seen to slightly, and I mean slightly, start to circulate is none other than Rick Pitino.

Now I can’t even really imagine this. The man is 71, and even though he just did a nice job with St. John’s this season (should have been a tournament team), I can’t imagine him stepping back into the head role at UK.

Not to mention I can’t believe the powers to be in BBN would want to hire someone who at most would probably be there for a max of five years.

But since everything is speculation at this moment, let’s imagine that the Kentucky athletic department couldn’t get the guy they wanted, and instead opted to hire Pitino as a bridge guy.

Would this be exciting? Would the fans like to see him finish his days in Lexington? I can’t lie, I think the whole idea would be kind of awesome.