mjkvol wrote:Negrodamus wrote:mjkvol wrote:I believe the buyout is $33 million, but regardless, it's an incredible sum to make a coach go away.
The thing about Calipari is that in-game coaching aside, the guy is built for the Kentucky pressure cooker, which can't be overlooked if they are planning on replacing him. Killer recruiter and money-raiser (although the boosters are probably turning against him), and he has the temperament to deal with an incredibly rabid fan base. The list of coaches with the ability to handle all that as well as the in-game coaching can't be very long. But he may have finally reached the point of no return.
As a fan of a team that rioted when Lane Kiffin went to USC, I think you can appreciate how insane a passionate SEC fan base can get. Cal used to joke about getting for sale signs put on his lawn if he doesn’t win… well that’s about to be just the beginning in Lexington.
The Kiffin thing paled in comparison to the protests when Greg Schianno was hired and then unhired, so yeah, I can relate. The UT forum is more giddy this morning about the UK schiitshow than they are having a team with a legit shot at making the first Final Four team in the school's history.
Social media is the unofficial meeting place of the worst faction of every fan base, and is on steroids at places like UT and UK.
Question - if this comes to pass and Cal is gone, who do you see as a viable replacement? I hear mention of guys like Oats and Pearl, but I think both, given their loose cannon-like personalities, would be eaten alive in that pressure cooker. The coach I think could handle it and thrive there is Scott Drew. But he has been at Baylor forever, won a title there, and already said he's not interested in the Louisville job.
How weird is it that the Louisville and Kentucky jobs might just be open in the same off season?
If I'm being honest, the real move that everyone at UK would hate but is the right move would be going after Tony Bennett from UVA. I know he's painfully boring and has won only once, but he's the closest thing to the "good ole days" of recruiting 3/4 stars (some of them from Kentucky), they stay for 2-3 years, and we are perennial contenders (to varying degrees). Coached well, can form a relationship with the players, yada yada. The things Kentucky fans have been clamoring for since the beginning but have relented due to Cal's success.
That said, everyone would hate the move immediately because Bennett only has ultra good defensive teams and the offense is exceptionally boring.
Oats and Drew are the coaches du jour in the Kentucky circles right now. Billy Donovan has always been the "coach that got away", so he might have gotten his NBA fill at this point. I think Pearl would listen but I don't think it'd be received well and he doesn't seem like a character the UK athletic department wants to involve themselves with. I always thought Chris Beard would have been the eventual option, but no way with his arrest.
It's a weird time to be looking for a coach. Louisville will be the one who DGAF and will take anyone. Chris Beard would actually suit them well and would kinda scare me.
