John Calipari is expected to become the next head coach at Arkansas, and Kentucky needs a new men’s basketball coach. As hastily as the last guy abandoned the post after his latest postseason failure, that’s how fast prospective candidates will run toward Lexington. Probably.
Five different men have won national championships there. Kentucky jockeys with Kansas to be the winningest program of all time. There is no ceiling, because there’s no limit on the winning a coach can do there.
The expectations and scrutiny, of course, are not for the insecure or faint of heart. But the upside might be too much for many to resist.
John Calipari was one of the two highest-paid coaches in the country. Money should not be an issue — for anything.
But then there was 2022, and the very public spat between Calipari and athletic director Mitch Barnhart regarding the need for a new practice facility. Does Kentucky actually need one? Might be in the eye of the beholder. The Craft Center opened in 2007. Is that antiquated in the arms race of college athletics?
The name, image and likeness operation is also worth examination. Kentucky notably lost NIL mastermind TJ Beisner to North Carolina last offseason, and he dramatically improved the situation in Chapel Hill. On March 14, Kentucky launched an NIL initiative with a goal of $1 million. Less than a month later it has roughly $50,000 in the till.
And of course, Kentucky is in the SEC. Coaching in one of the two conferences that will shape the future of all sports is a fairly secure position.
The dream candidate for Kentucky fans ever since … oh, about 2007. Donovan was a Kentucky assistant under Rick Pitino and doesn’t have the baggage of his former boss. But would he leave the NBA for the fishbowl of Lexington? Does he have any interest in returning to college? It seems unlikely, but Barnhart has to at least make the call and make him say no.
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