Michigan, UCLA, and SMU are all being rumored
Wholleeeee lotta money in that SMU program. Cals mentor Larry Brown also did a little stint there as his sunset tour. SMU just joined the ACC
Based off the last 5 years here what makes you believe he would “ likely have a lot of success” at Michigan including a FF? Because of media hype and being cool? That is what UK has been. And we’ve seen atrocious results.
Just curious why he would take his high school guys to great success and final fours at Michigan but not nor hasn’t here?
I didn’t say I’d expect him to make a final 4 but if he did it wouldn’t necessarily surprise me as a one off, caught lighting in a bottle result.
I also don’t think he’d have that same result here.
But to your question, bc sometimes a fresh start can be good for all involved. He’s hit a point where he has so much animosity towards the fans, UK sports media, etc that it’s almost like he refuses to play the lineups and players he should if it’s been publically called for. On top of that, the boosters don’t support him like they use to here and college sports are all about deep pockets. Wherever he went next, the boosters would be all in on him for 3-5 years and ecstatic about pulling in top classes and the media hoopla that comes with it…the things that we are all numb to bc we ultimately know it’s irrelevant. Thirdly, “success” is relevant to expectations. His success is done at UK where we expect a bare minimum of E8s and maintaining our status as the winningest program. But relative success to a program that would be happy with top 3 finishes in their conference and s16s- ceiling of E8….he can do that. The first round exits likely aren’t a forever thing just as the run the first 5 years wasn’t sustainable.
The relationship here isn’t salvageable and his priorities aren’t what they should be as the man in charge of maintaining the greatest tradition in CBB. But he can do his song and dance somewhere else that would be happy for some positive attention and get excited of draft picks and recruits bc it’s new to them…if he kept getting top recruiting classes, 1 of the 5-6 years he likely gets an E8 just from an odds standpoint…but that’s not enough here if the other seasons are trash. We need an E8 average like our historical data implies