I see a lot of posters that say they want Nate Oats and I didn't see why, but after a closer look he is coming of a 25-10 record last year and a sweet sixteen appearance, and has Alabama ranked number 20 going into his 8th year. That is the type of coach UK needs, bring on Nate Oats I am on board.
I have changed my mind about Nate Oats
- Thread starter Get_over_it
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Don't forget the increase in drive by shootings! He gets guys who can drive and shoot!
That’s the resume?
“Ten-Loss Tubby” doesn’t mean anything to you?
“Ten-Loss Tubby” doesn’t mean anything to you?
Some of you will have to pretend you didn't go on with this kind of stuff when he's the next coach at UK. I hope Pope kills it, but if he doesn't, some people gonna be overdosing on oatmeal.
I like him ok, but it's not like Bama has done something crazy special.
I would rather have Golden or some other Proven imo.
I would rather have Golden or some other Proven imo.
It’d be nice to hire him, but I’m not expecting it. He’ll stay in Tuscaloosa, maybe take an NBA job at some point because the NIL situation for Alabama basketball is pretty mediocre, apparently.
Anybody thinking he wouldn’t be an instant upgrade over Pope is kidding themselves. Took Bama to a final four and plays the closest to Pitino ball we’ve ever seen.
Agree. If you give him elite talent he produces really good results. That is nothing special.
Other than Golden, I really don't see the obvious home run hire we enjoyed basically every time in the last 30 years (yes billy g was a home run hire too, his issues were post hire). Plus now UK is just one of many schools willing to spend big on basketball.
So along with paying Pope's buyout, it's going to require a big risk and a big check, or maybe both.
Not a chance he goes to the NBA. He doesn’t fit that league at all. The stuff about Kentucky offering him didn’t happen either and he flipped it for recruiting momentum. Barnhart wouldn’t have offered him for that corrupt retirement bonus.
We do this what seems to be by pattern over the last 30 years or more. Oats is the obvious choice when Mark is finally fired which will be after this season most likely. Then we’ll likely hire Oats and the Pope is Dope train, just like they did when they backed Gillespie until Calipari was hired (then went all in after talking about how unethical he is) will find some charities that’s Oats has contributed to and turn him sainthood, and we’ll roll.
I think a lot of people want a Nate Oats "type" of fiery passionate head coach with proven ability to win conference championships and get to the final four. Not necessarily Oats himself.
I personally would prefer a young, modern coaching style, fresh face with a chip on his shoulder than an established old school guy. A lot of people will throw out like a Josh Shertz or similar. Don't know exactly who I would hire, if I were the AD at this point. Jordan Fee (would never get the UK job right away) but that guy will eventually get a major program job. Young, passionate, just wins basketball games (0.917 win percentage so far) Won the regular season and tournament title, and went to the DII Elite 8 in 23-24 season. Coach of the Year in his conference. Then got hired as assistant HC at Florida Atlantic as he moved up to D1 for the next two years and got hired as Lamar's head coach for this year (D1) and is already off to a 1-0 start. Someone like that (not necessarily him specifically), on the rise might rally the fanbase like Stein has for football.
However, the established, proven big game winner and elite recruiter is probably the ONLY thing this fanbase would accept at this point.
I personally would prefer a young, modern coaching style, fresh face with a chip on his shoulder than an established old school guy. A lot of people will throw out like a Josh Shertz or similar. Don't know exactly who I would hire, if I were the AD at this point. Jordan Fee (would never get the UK job right away) but that guy will eventually get a major program job. Young, passionate, just wins basketball games (0.917 win percentage so far) Won the regular season and tournament title, and went to the DII Elite 8 in 23-24 season. Coach of the Year in his conference. Then got hired as assistant HC at Florida Atlantic as he moved up to D1 for the next two years and got hired as Lamar's head coach for this year (D1) and is already off to a 1-0 start. Someone like that (not necessarily him specifically), on the rise might rally the fanbase like Stein has for football.
However, the established, proven big game winner and elite recruiter is probably the ONLY thing this fanbase would accept at this point.
Definitely. Oats has a 15-9 career NCAA tournament record with a final four appearance. 70% winning percentage with four conference championships in 11 years of coaching.
Pope has a 3-2 NCAA tournament record with a sweet sixteen birth. 63% winning percentage with zero conference championships in 11 years of coaching.
Anyone thinking he wouldn't energize the program is just fooling themselves.
JB
Getting ready to play a convicted felon here in a couple of games
Felony drug charges
However you want to spin it
Felony drug charges
However you want to spin it
Oats has 7% better record than Pope & Pope’s NCAA record is 15-10 opposed to 15 - 9 if you look at it mathematically. Oats makes $1.5 million more than Pope with their combined buyouts of $28 million . Oats would demand $8 to 10 million from Ky.. DOES THAT MATH REALLY WORK?
Yeah...I don't personally care whatsoever. And if those were our players, we'd be arguing about how misunderstood the whole situation was.
If Kentucky needs a coach, there is no doubt, for me, that Josh Shertz is the guy. It’s going to get increasingly harder to get him as there will certainly be blue blood programs looking to grab him. Shertz turned down Syracuse last year as he knows bigger names are going to be calling soon.
The financials are debatable but I can assure you that inflating Pope's record to 15-10 does not work. You can't just multiply one side of a comparison out to infinity - you have to do the work. You have to make the tournament. You have to win the games. And actually I misspoke: Pope's NCAA record is 3-4 so let's extend that out to 15-20.
I think about half the fan base would love to hire Shertz. He's a fast riser which is why I mentioned him first. The other half would hate it from day 1 with factions wondering why we didn't hire Billy D, another faction wondering why we didn't dry freeze Rupp when we had the chance so we could thaw him out in a time of need, another faction wanting to bring Pitino back, and another wishing wanting (Lloyd, Otz, Oats, Golden, Pat Riley, or the Ghost of Kobe Bryant) to be our coach. We'd literally see a race on RR to see who could say I told you so first, the first time a new hire misses a recruit a loses a game.
We had that with Cal except a higher preseason ranking every year. 25-10 years will have the fans helping you pack up. Oats can stay where he’s at.
What?
ESPN details that Alabama guard Aden Holloway faced felony drug charges in March 2026, but resolved the case through a diversion program instead of a formal conviction
Oats would kill it here. He's at a football school and turned the program into a winner. Whoever it is we need to crush it. Shertz has done well but it's always a risk on hoping a mid level program coach hits a homerun. Plus would Shertz be able to get out of his contract hosting pawn stars.
Oats is a young 52. He's not an Elmer Fudd like Scott Drew.
He's on the cutting edge of analytics, math teacher. He's won consistently with less money. He's got a clear cut, face paced offensive system that kids love to play for.
I'm pretty sure if he came to UK (big if), he's a coach you can count on to right the ship and turn UK into an annual F4 contender. He took a broken football schools BB program and turned it into a winner pre-NIL in two years. Think what he could do with the most NIL in CBB. He's won with a LOT less. He knows the SEC.
He'd have to get a whole new set of plaid blazers in blue.
The guy has a F4, an overall 1 seed and made it to the S16 5x in 7 years.
Not the right guy, but after seeing Otzelberger lose to Memphis last night with what looks like a Walmart roster, would have to think he might listen. I'd put him far behind Oats though.
Oats would be a good hire but I’m still all in on Jai Lucas.
I wouldn't touch him. I think he would stink at UK. He's a recruiter. Still hasn't figured out how to coach.
He did a few years under Shaka Smart, two year under Cal and then 3 under Scheyer.
So he's coached under a guy that's gotten booted and can't win in the tournament. Annually runs his team into the ground playing hell ball and then worn out.
Then under Cal during some bad years. Then Scheyer for 3 years when Scheyer had no idea what he was doing other than recruiting. So he had 5 years under staunch recruiters with no system, and Shaka Smart before he was fired from Texas.
No gracias. Oats or Hodgson would be the call.
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If Oats turns us down, Shertz should be the next call.
Watching him coach, I don’t think he’s got that kind of personality Kentucky fans love.
I'd rather go for a 3-5 year Bruce Pearl/Billy Donovan until a good coach comes up. It seems like Jai Lucas has that potential but needs more time to develop.
Good to know.Numbers never lie.
I was an early enthusiastic Pope supporter & still wish him all the best but he does have his faults. I do like this current staff & team.
Bruce Pearl is never coming to Ky.
Donovan for $10 million dollars would be risky but I’d support it .
Think whatever you want to think
What do you think would’ve happened to you or me?
Some people get favoritism treatment
It is what it is just like I said
Spin it however you want
OJ didn’t do anything wrong either prolly in your opinion
WTH do you think resolved the case means?
When Cal left he pulled a Rick Barnes and removed himself from consideration before anyone even called him. He has said he's not moving his kids, they like their school.
He didn't even want to talk about it a couple of years ago. I'd be shocked to see him at Kentucky.
So if Pope is let go we need to hire a guy that has lost 10 games or more 6 times out of 11 years of coaching and in his 8th year of coaching Alabama he has them ranked 20th after losing 10 games the year before?? I don't get it.
I hope we can get an established coach like Oats, but UNC didn’t exactly have their pick of the litter when they actually ran a serious coaching search (unlike Mitch). We just need to accept that we’ll probably be looking at guys like Lucas, Shertz or Hodgson at the end of this season.
UNC did NOT learn from Kentucky's mistake when it came to looking for a coach. That mistake being that coaches would fall all over themselves to coach here just because we were a blueblood. Mitch just said screw it early because he knew he was on his way out and hired a gimme. UNC ran out of time because the transfer portal season was ramping up and they had to have someone in place. This is why the AD has to start putting feelers out waaaay before the end of the season.
With NIL, Kentucky is no longer the gold standard. Florida is spending 20+ million (Haugh is a lotto pick that would be taking a paycut to go to the NBA) and has four of their five starters from their Natty team from TWO years ago. The three bigs could come back NEXT year, and become 25 year old rookies!
Alabama has been a threat every year seems like. A top team. Im not going to act like hes no good because of a pre season ranking.
And while we are talking about preseason rankings....Bama is rank3d higher than 96 Pope. From now on I'll call him 96Pope because that's the only reason he got this job. 96. Ol 96Pope.
And while we are talking about preseason rankings....Bama is rank3d higher than 96 Pope. From now on I'll call him 96Pope because that's the only reason he got this job. 96. Ol 96Pope.
I really want to succeed here but if he doesn’t my dream scenario would be Dusty May pulling a Saban. Winning a title at a school with decent history, flaming out quickly in the pros, comes back to college with a historic run.
Schertz would be a B hire. I think it could work, but I wouldn't feel overconfident.
UK has a ton of NIL, has brand. This isn't 2010 where it was UK, Duke, UNC and Kansas. Need a coach strong enough to deal with the fanbase. The biggest issue UK has is a over the top, extreme fanbase that knee jerks to everything and has a delusional sense of expectations. So it's going to take a coach with ample confidence ready to deal with that. Need a coach that can thrive in the spotlight and get comfortable in the fish bowl. I don't think it's going to be a giant pool. Hurley could have been a great fit, but that's not happening. It's no coincidence that it's been northeast guys that have worked. Oats is a gritty Detroit guy.
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