J Batt hired as the New Athletic Director of Kentucky - Official
- Thread starter TheResistance
- Start date
Well,, From what i understand he is money man. If thats true you wont see any of those lifetime contracts bull?#*+ with guy. Money guys dont usually like to just throw it away…
You should apply context. Georgia Tech has made the NCAA Tournament once in the past 15 years and he was only there 3 years. Taking anything away from that is silly.
I don’t mind the hire. Not sure we could have done better. I don’t think Eli should have been the one making the hire. He needed gone as well.
as for the new hire. It’s time to clean house. Baseball and softball need a whole new staff immediately. Leave stein alone he’s doing great. Tell pope you’re hiring a GM this summer whether he likes it or not.
as for the new hire. It’s time to clean house. Baseball and softball need a whole new staff immediately. Leave stein alone he’s doing great. Tell pope you’re hiring a GM this summer whether he likes it or not.
I was listening to Amber and Ian on ESPN just now... and Tom Izzo is furious over the board to let this happen with the AD but more so the President leaving/firing or whatever happened there. Absolutely ripped MSU a new one.
Ian thinks this is going to get ugly very fast. I wonder if it wouldn't hurt to have our new AD keep tabs on some of the current MSU players and recruits.. just saying lol.
Ian thinks this is going to get ugly very fast. I wonder if it wouldn't hurt to have our new AD keep tabs on some of the current MSU players and recruits.. just saying lol.
Hoping my future self doesn’t wind up laughing at me when I say surely this guy can’t help but be better than Mitch.
We can both be laughingstocks then.
Ima say it with you:
Surely this guy can’t help but be better than Mitch!
If it doesn’t work with Pope, I’d expect that at this point.
If there’s a betting market for such a thing, I’d throw big pockets of cash on Oats as next coach at UK.
A new young, modernized AD who understands what this new era needs, and we now can tell potential coaches that we can give you $20mil/year to spend on a roster, something 99% of other programs wont do or cant do..
Im very bullish on Kentuckys future lately, because of this. We have a few aces up our sleeves now.
The key for me is, CAN we continue to throw this sort of money at the basketball roster? If we can, then we are looking good. 6 months ago, we cant get any big names to coach here. But now? I think you could convince a Billy Donovan to come here, because of those two things. Ive changed my stance on that. I think Kentucky has the tools to go big game hunting now and I think you now can land those tier 1 guys.
We didnt really know this when we hired Pope. NIL was still so unknown, and we had Mitch. Not anymore.
Yeah I’m pretty locked in on Pope. I still believe he is best case scenario if it can work.
But if it can’t….boy oh boy Oats is exciting. And I fully believe he, specifically, is next in line.
In terms of NIL, man I always try to be honest about things like this and say I have no clue. I’m trusting people who know more than I do that believe this AD (Batt) is the cream of the crop as a fundraiser. The only question is whether the new guy will go all-out on ensuring basketball returns to the top. That I don’t know, but I’m hopeful. If he’s as good as people say with getting new money, I see no reason we can’t be top in basketball and darn good in football as well.
Time will tell on some of this though.
Well ive been vocal on this. I am not as confident as others here that we can just keep throwing $20mil/year at the roster. That sort of thing is gonna take a lot of work, fundraising and moving money around. So thats my big worry.
Pope finished the recruiting cycle strong. I still need to see quite a bit though in the regular season. I need defense, I need roster management, I need to see him crawl up his teams ***, I want more attention to the refs.. but these things can be fixed.
And if not, well then we take our offer of NIL and a modern AD and go get a coach. We have a great offer we can throw out there. Like, I actually think Hurley and Oats and Donovan pick up that phone a little faster now in 2026. Not saying they say yes. But Kentucky can honestly say now, to a guy like Hurley, "we will give you more salary cap than Uconn will" (which I think is true, not positive).
I’d honestly be surprised if Hurley ever truly entertained us. His wife loves the northeast and there’s a cultural fit there. But I’ve been wrong before.
Donovan though — idk maybe I’m naive, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he’d want another shot here at some point. It’s true he turned us down twice, but he also did accept once as well. He just changed his mind.
Gotta see how it plays out, but I can imagine coaches are more interested in a forward thinking athletic department with a fundraising director leading the way. Definitely doesn’t hurt.
Hurley wont. Hes got another title appearance since then.
Donovan though, apparently is telling his circle that hes interested in coming back to the college ranks. That UNC fan who tries to troll here shared some links on it, I think. And hes without a job now.
Idk who we will get. I just know that we have a lot to offer. Maybe we go get the next Dusty Maye.
J Batt is a Tar Heel. Batt is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he was a member of a national championship soccer team and later earned his master’s degree.
Congrats Cats. I'm looking forward to seeing what Jason does in Lexington.
How long does it take to turn around a basketball program? How many coaches did he hire during his stretch at GT? He was at MSU for but one year. He jumped quickly. Izzy has a right to be concerned.
I think Fitz was a good hire at MSU. Batt pulled that trigger five months into the job. But replacing Pastner with Stoudamire was … 
He seems to think the JMI connection was innovative and very important. Let the unrest begin!!! Damn Tarheel trying to destroy our greatness!
I suppose you could just stop supporting UK athletics if it bothers you that much that a Tar Heel is in charge. My guess is the very successful UK athletics department won't notice your absence at all.
Not sure you're doing a good job following along. I could not care less where the AD graduated, as long he does what he is PAID TO DO, and that's do what's best for the University of Kentucky athletics. Not sure why you, as a TARHOLE fan is trolling here. This is not a site for TARHOLE fans. Got it?
I'm not trolling and I'm not a "tarhole." Are you a child? As has been well established prior to today, I'm the guy who grew up in Lexington and when I discovered my love for basketball in the YMCA league, Kentucky was banned from TV. So naturally I wanted to watch basketball and cheer for somebody. Well the Bulls were on WGN every other day, so naturally I started cheering for MJ. Which led me to also cheer for UNC. Then in middle school I moved to NC, and eventually found my way UNC for college. In fact, my time at UNC overlapped with the new UK AD. I had family that attended UK, and I still routinely visit Lexington.
I come here because I maintain an interest in UK Sports. And most fans have no problem interacting with me. I'm not sure why you feel the need to behave like a toddler.
Around a 4.5 weighted GPA. Though out of state applicants have a tougher road.
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I was making a joke in response to your "two words, Tar Heel" response, and you reacted, so I responded accordingly. It's not that big of a deal. The AD could come from Dook or Louisville and I would not care. If Coach K came to coach UK, I would be all for it, because he's an excellent coach. TBF, I care less and less about college sports anyway.
Around a 4.5 weighted GPA. Though out of state applicants have a tougher road.
UNC Admission Requirements
Find out admissions requirements for UNC, including GPA requirements and SAT, ACT, and application requirements.
Remember when it meant something and was really difficult to get a 4.0? The way grades have been diluted in the last couple decades is just crazy to me. Read an article the other day that SIXTY FIVE percent of Harvard students get As. I mean it’s just crazy. Why the hell do they need to give out weighted 4.5 GPAs? So dumb.
Yup. I know UNCCH is a great school, but yes, GPA's are grossly inflated, and colleges have gone easy. Also, the kids nowadays can graduate at 20 without graduating HS early. Insane.
We can do better than a guy with a final four, 2 elite 8s and 5 SEC titles?
The dead horse would say Billy D his 2 NC. It feels like Hurley and Golden are being put on that pedestal of "we have to ask every time we have a coaching change".
We can’t lose this season no matter what. Either Pope has a very good year and comes back for a 4th season or he continues with his 64% winning percentage and gets fired. Then we hire either Oats or Donovan. Whatever way this plays out, I’m gonna try not to get upset if things go south because I know it will get better soon because we won’t stand for losing anymore. Win or get out.
At a school that cares very little about basketball and is considered the top football program of all time. He’s winning at a pretty good clip with not half the resources he would have at UK.