The UK Job - How Attractive Is It?

Smeegs

All-Conference
Nov 19, 2025
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It takes a certain personality to be able to do this job, and that’s pretty much an arrogant prick with thick skin.
Pitino really had the perfect personality for it. Not only that arrogant thick skin thing you describe, but I think he actually LIKED the high pressure of it. That’s why he still refuses to slow down even in old age. He lives for the high intensity heat.

it’s a shame he fell for the lure of the Celtics. He could’ve had such a legendary run here if he’d stayed.
 
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NociHTTP

Heisman
Mar 8, 2023
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I think part of the problem is unless you're into horse farms, there really isn't much of a life around Lexington. And it doesn't help that much of country thinks of the state of Kentucky as Hicktown.
 
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ChicagoCat90

All-American
Oct 12, 2014
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honey boo boo wtf GIF
 

Crestcat

Senior
Sep 5, 2025
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I think Kentucky would still be the most attractive of those jobs to certain coaches. Each of those schools have their own unique competitive advantages but so do we.
I think UK would be very attractive to some coaches. An older coach with a sense to the history of the game, someone like Bruce Pearl would jump at the opportunity.
 
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Kywildcat_nation28

All-Conference
Jan 28, 2014
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I can vision it now Self last year stole Stokes from Kentucky then retires and Kansas hires Donovan Kentucky just keeps being the laughing stock of CBB
 

Randy Bob

All-Conference
Jun 14, 2009
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Ky is the best BB school out there maybe not lately but it has the traditon, most wins and most everything in college BB, we need a good AD to get the right coach.
 
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4UK4life1

All-Conference
Dec 21, 2004
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Thank you....this whole JMI narrative from Matt JOnes is baloney. Stein aint' having a problem in the world with it. And Jones can't explain that away
It’s hard to compare Stein’s recruiting to basketball recruiting though. In basketball it’s considered a fail if we don’t get 5* players because there’s a pretty huge talent dropoff between 5* and the next tier most of the time. In football a 3* guy could be hugely celebrated as a commit. So how do we size up each vs the other with NIL. Would the QB commit we recently got be equal to Tyran Stokes and so on
 

Dward13

All-Conference
Feb 5, 2008
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Donovan will be off the board by then. If we want Donovan now is the time. Schertz isnt uk material by any stretch. We can’t afford another bad hire. We need a slam dunk. That means big time name recognition. We need someone who knows how to innovate and adapt. If we get a bb friendly AD who can sell who knows how to piece together a hiring committee with gravitas. We have a lot of former greats who make it hard for coaches to say no but Barney had no clue or his ego kept him from putting a legit committee together sans the committee with Pratt on it to hire cal.

I think ideally, if Pope starts off another season slow and struggling we make the move for Donovan mid season. Give him a head start on his first full season.

Honestly recruiting has been bad enough i think you could justify making a move now.
 
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PopesCrewCut

Sophomore
Apr 25, 2026
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Ky is the best BB school out there maybe not lately but it has the traditon, most wins and most everything in college BB, we need a good AD to get the right coach.
Nobody cares anymore about the Fiddlin Five of 1958 or Rupps Runts. The "tradition" angle is completely meaningless. And KU is right there on most wins. None of this matters to anyone but Billy Joe Wildcat