Who should Kentucky target to replace John Calipari? One name should top UK’s list

If John Calipari is going to spend the twilight years of his coaching career calling the Hogs (Woo! Pig!), I am on board with Kentucky dialing up every “make ’em say no” coaching name you can conjure as it seeks a replacement.

Call Brad Stevens, Jay Wright and Billy Donovan. Call Steve Kerr, Dawn Staley and Pat Riley. Heck, place a call to a hologram of the late Lute Olson just for old time’s sake.

Once the Wildcats have inevitably been told no by every pie-in-the-sky name out there, what should Mitch Barnhart and the University of Kentucky brain trust be looking for if UK finds itself in the market for a new head men’s hoops coach for the first time since 2009?

First, let’s start with who should not be considered. It should be a hard no on Kentucky hiring any coach who has, in recent years, been fired from a high-profile job after being linked to a domestic violence incident.

No coach currently under a “show cause” penalty from the NCAA for prior rules violations should be in the mix at UK, either.

Otherwise, there are five qualities Kentucky should be seeking in its next men’s hoops head man:

1.) UK needs a coach who understands “modern basketball,” who is comfortable with an analytics-driven approach that features an open lane, a heavy reliance on the 3-point-line and a fast pace.

2.) Defensively, if Kentucky could find a coach who knows how to contain the high pick-and-roll, it would be such a refreshing change.

3.) A coach with a viable recruiting plan to alter Kentucky’s image as a one-and-done factory and create older teams with greater roster continuity would be a godsend.

4.) Off the court, UK needs a coach with a personality that will embrace the “big top circus” that is the Kentucky basketball experience. It also needs a head man secure enough in what he believes not to wobble when things get rough in what is one of the most-scrutinized coaching jobs in American sports.

5.) It goes without saying that Kentucky should seek a men’s hoops leader who can return the Wildcats program to winning like UK is accustomed to winning — and do so in what is a far more competitive SEC than what the Cats have traditionally faced.

For various reasons, I am not sure the three names I hear UK fans discussing most for a potential Kentucky coaching vacancy are especially likely.

As these words are written, Connecticut coach Dan Hurley stands 40 minutes from possibly leading the Huskies to back-to-back NCAA titles.

Unless Hurley is terrified of his program eventually being left behind as college sports power consolidates in the SEC and Big Ten, I don’t see anything he would gain by coming to UK that he doesn’t already enjoy at UConn.

Strictly as a basketball matter, Alabama’s Nate Oats would likely be Kentucky’s best choice.

However, after watching the disastrous public relations handling by Oats last season of an off-the-court issue of real-life gravity, he might be one of those basketball coaches best suited to work at a school where the football head man gleans all the attention.

There’s also the $18 million buyout Kentucky would have to pony up to get Oats out of his Alabama contract.

Behind the scenes, Baylor’s Scott Drew has been the name most linked with a potential Kentucky opening in recent years. But at age 53 and with the 2021 NCAA championship hardware resting in the Baylor trophy case, Drew is likely headed to “statue status” in Waco.

Would he really give that up to come grapple with the UK pressure cooker?

If Barnhart is feeling bold, he could try to catch a relatively youthful coaching star on the way up.

In four seasons, Amir Abdur-Rahim took Kennesaw State from 1-28 (2019-20) to 26-9 and the 2023 NCAA Tournament. Taking over a South Florida program that had suffered 10 losing years in its previous 11 seasons, Abdur-Rahim, 43, led the Bulls (25-8) to this season’s American Athletic Conference regular-season title in his first year on the job.

As impressive as Abdur-Rahim’s work has been, however, it would be an enormous risk to take a flier on an up-and-comer in a program of the stature of UK men’s basketball.

On the opposite end of the age spectrum, the idea of “closing the circle” by bringing Rick Pitino back to his old Kentucky home is intriguing.

The St. John’s coach, 71, has publicly lamented leaving UK in 1997 for a failed stint running the Boston Celtics. He followed that with a controversial return to the commonwealth of Kentucky as Louisville head man.

While it would be great fun to watch UK and U of L backers once again switch allegiances where Pitino is concerned, “going home again” in coaching does not have a great track record of working out.

At 64, Auburn’s Bruce Pearl is another well-seasoned coaching veteran. Pearl has the showman’s personality to handle the Kentucky job. His full-court pressing style would hearken back to Kentucky’s 1990s golden era.

At a reported $8.5 million, the buyout required to get Pearl out of his Auburn contract is, as these things presently stand, reasonable.

It is true that Pearl, like Pitino, carries more baggage than Delta Airlines. But college sports is in a new era where many past recruiting scandals have been rendered passe by evolving standards.

Pearl knows the SEC, knows how to construct rosters in the current era and would be motivated to take it to the teams — Alabama, Arkansas and Tennessee — that Kentucky will have to beat to return to the top of the conference.

All things considered, Bruce Pearl is who UK should prioritize hiring.

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