For everyone who believe that the University of Kentucky’s coaching search was this gigantic catastrophe, I don’t understand.
Here was the list. I’m not going to say that I’ve been crawling around in Athletic Director Mitch Barnhart’s head like some seem to believe they’ve been doing for the last 3 weeks, but this is still the list of coaches in order according to pretty much everyone.
1. Billy Donovan
2. Billy Gillispie
3. Rick Barnes
4. Jay Wright
5. Tom Izzo
UK’s only problem was that Donovan played until Monday. However, none of those coaches could have been hired before Donovan turned down the job. Even if you hired all 4 of them.
UK couldn’t hire Gillispie until Donovan said he wasn’t going to take it because as soon as Gillispie or anyone else lost his first game many fans would say “Donovan would have won that game.”
You hire Gillispie 48 hour earlier and you might was well bring Tubby Smith back.
And it’s not like any of the coaches were “interviewed.” All of that junk about UK bringing in a firm to help they search was just filler stories to make it look like they were doing more than watching NCAA games with their feet on their desks.
Should they have been doing more? I guess, but it doesn’t matter because if the coaches who wanted to come to Kentucky really wanted to come to Kentucky, they would be ready and waiting regardless.
That’s not being arrogant, it’s just the way it is.
So even though everyone seems to think that this “search,” if you can call it that, was a gigantic failure.
If getting your second choice because the first didn’t want the job is failure, we should all be so lucky in life when the decision isn’t ours to begin with.
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3 comments:
When you're a first rate job like UK is and you have Jay Wright, Rick Barnes, Rick Pitino, Billy Donovan and Tubby Smith all say they don't want it, that makes UK look bad.
Barnes, by the way, was largely considered the second choice as recently as last week.
I think it makes the coaches look just as bad. UK and its fans would bend over backwards to help a coach win. If a "big time" coach doesn't have the onions for the job, then they should stay where they are and be safe and comfortable.
I just don't understand how UK fans became the most hated in basketball. We want to win. If you are a WKU fan you want to win. If you have a coach at a mid major school that misses the tournament for 8 or 9 years, is that satisfactory? At UK you are expected to go to the Final Four every 4 to 6 years. Tubby went in year one and hasn't been back since, even when he had the best team in college basketball a few years.
Look at Arkansas, why isn't a bigger stink being made there? Their coach is fired after only five years and his last two seaons were both 20 win seasons and they made the NCAAs this year. Who seems more unreasonable? Where is the history that says Arkansas is a top 10 team every year. That was in the 1990's, not the 40's, 50's, 60's, 70's, 80's and 90's. If the media and other fans want to be mad about something, be mad about that.
What about the UNC/Matt Doherty situation? The Notre Dam/Ty Willingham situation? UK gave Tubbby ten years and most of them were good. How long did Matt and Ty get?
I know some UK fans are nuts, some UK fans hated Tubby because he was black, that's nuts. But most of us just want a chance to compete each year. If all other fans are content to just be mediocre to good every year, then good luck to you. I guess you just have different goals than the rest of us.
By the way, if I were Dickie V and I had to come to Lexington next year after the way he trashed the UK fans, I would hire a security team.
I think they got a good coach; end of story.
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