Greg Byrne hired Oats from Buffalo when nobody knew anything about him. He just married a woman from T-town & wants to stay close to his kids. Oats has already turned down UK at least once.
Who should we hire next?
- Thread starter anonymousunranked
- Start date
Oats was never offered the job. What did he exactly turn down?
In all seriousness, Billy Gillispie had a better resumé than Pope when he got hired.
If Oats wants a shot at winning a title, he’ll take the job if offered. Alabama will never offer the basketball team enough money to be competitive enough to win a title. Alabama’s NIL money will always prioritize football.
According to CBS, Alabama is spending an estimated $12m-$15m in NIL. With the SEC average NIL spending in basketball being around $17m, Alabama is underspending compared to the average.
College basketball's NIL arms race, from $5M to $25M+: Breaking down roster values, spending tiers for 2026-27
CBS Sports contacted more than 100 sources to discover how much each power-conference hoops program invested this season
www.cbssports.com
But maybe Oats prioritizes family? I don’t really know. That’s fine if he does, but he has to know that he’s gonna have to accept that he’s already hit his ceiling at Alabama.
List starts and ends with Nate Oats. Unless Batt could pull Hurley. The next hire has to be a sure thing. It can’t be another guy who may or may not work. No Lucas, no TJ or any other of the smaller names being thrown around.
UK evidently likes paying buyouts. Buyout Nate’s contract and make it happen.
UK evidently likes paying buyouts. Buyout Nate’s contract and make it happen.
He would come and was interested in the job after Cal left.
Less nil and still dominates pope who spends 5 to 7 million moreIf Oats wants a shot at winning a title, he’ll take the job if offered. Alabama will never offer the basketball team enough money to be competitive enough to win a title. Alabama’s NIL money will always prioritize football.
According to CBS, Alabama is spending an estimated $12m-$15m in NIL. With the SEC average NIL spending in basketball being around $17m, Alabama is underspending compared to the average.
College basketball's NIL arms race, from $5M to $25M+: Breaking down roster values, spending tiers for 2026-27
CBS Sports contacted more than 100 sources to discover how much each power-conference hoops program invested this season
But maybe Oats prioritizes family? I don’t really know. That’s fine if he does, but he has to know that he’s gonna have to accept that he’s already hit his ceiling at Alabama.
Im just saying hes not gonna take the hardest job chasing high school kids around and hoping to keep a team more then 1 year. BD isn't taking the UK job at 61 65 or 80. If so all he has to do is call Lexington and ask if there's a opening and Mark would be removed from his office as soon as he loses SEC Tournament on a Wednesday.
What? There are a lot of great candidates on that list. Who would be a "sure thing"? Hurley ain't coming. Donovan and Pitino are ready to put out to pasture. We need a straight up good X's and O's basketball coach who has a style NBA talent would want to play and preaches defense. No more retreats, former UK players and for goodness sake not Cal or Rick
Said it before Pope was hired, you combine UK's NIL budget with Pearls style of play and personality and every kid in the country would want to play here
I would be extremely disappointed if Rondo is the pick because I can name 20 better candidates off the top of my head
Rondo, while he may make an excellent coach may have too much baggage to get serious consideration.
Total yuk. Oats is a POS. Dont want him anywhere near our program.
Who will accept the job? Is the more appropriate question.
Most of the wish list names will just use the opening to get a bump from their current gig.
Billy D wasn’t interested post Tubby, BCG, or Cal. Same goes for Jay Wright.
Pearl is interesting. Not sure how he is with all the NIL, roster turnover, new era stuff. He’s getting older.
Pope may just have to tweak staff. I like having Mo Williams. Would love to have Rondo on board. Having two dudes who played in the league and have coached sons in modern game would be great.
Rondo is known for being a basketball savant.
They can probably recruit and connect better than Pope.
Maybe should’ve kept Antigua. Dude was a solid recruiter who players liked. Same goes for Kenny Payne. Not a head coach but a great dude to have on staff.
J Batt most likely not going to make a major move on basketball off the rip.
Said last spring as the athletic department was transitioning. His priority is football and moving more to build that and support it on par with upper echelon SEC. Got the momentum to do so earlier than expected with Stein.
Folks, get ready. I said it before and I’ll say it again. J Batt and new regime are going all in with football.
Paying another buyout is not at the top of anybody’s list right now. That’s money that can be spent on a top tier DE and LT.
Most of the wish list names will just use the opening to get a bump from their current gig.
Billy D wasn’t interested post Tubby, BCG, or Cal. Same goes for Jay Wright.
Pearl is interesting. Not sure how he is with all the NIL, roster turnover, new era stuff. He’s getting older.
Pope may just have to tweak staff. I like having Mo Williams. Would love to have Rondo on board. Having two dudes who played in the league and have coached sons in modern game would be great.
Rondo is known for being a basketball savant.
They can probably recruit and connect better than Pope.
Maybe should’ve kept Antigua. Dude was a solid recruiter who players liked. Same goes for Kenny Payne. Not a head coach but a great dude to have on staff.
J Batt most likely not going to make a major move on basketball off the rip.
Said last spring as the athletic department was transitioning. His priority is football and moving more to build that and support it on par with upper echelon SEC. Got the momentum to do so earlier than expected with Stein.
Folks, get ready. I said it before and I’ll say it again. J Batt and new regime are going all in with football.
Paying another buyout is not at the top of anybody’s list right now. That’s money that can be spent on a top tier DE and LT.
Pearl is the perfect stopgap coach
Great idea. It's like how many times would you ask a girl to marry you, save some pride.
Most successful coaches are not nice people, some pretend to be. I think the things it takes to be a top level coach precludes it. Of course that does not mean all jackasses are good coaches.
- Somewhat Manageable" Buyout. According to college basketball insider Jack Godar on X, sources described the buyout in Schertz's new contract as "somewhat manageable." While the extension increased his exit fee to protect Saint Louis, it was structured to preserve flexibility for a true blue-blood or top-tier job rather than locking him in with a prohibitive, multi-eight-figure wall. [1, 2]
- Total Contract Value. Schertz agreed to a 6-year, $22 million extension (averaging roughly $3.67 million per year) in March 2026, turning down overtures from schools like Kansas State, Syracuse, and Providence. [1, 2]
- The Real Hurdle is NIL, Not the Buyout. For a program with Kentucky's financial resources, paying off a mid-major buyout—even a raised one—would not be an obstacle. The bigger factor is that Saint Louis significantly boosted its basketball infrastructure and doubled its NIL roster budget (which previously sat around $3–$3.5 million) to keep him. One point of agreement among users on Reddit is that Schertz stayed because Saint Louis offers an ideal setup to wait specifically for a top-tier "blue blood" opening rather than jumping at a middle-of-the-pack power conference job. [1, 2, 3]
Arrogance, sarcasm, energy, confidence, toughness, bball IQ, I’ll add young and proven… Todd Golden.
As much as I would like to see uk become a power house again, I can't stand Hurley
Just believe pope is beyond hope.
Regardless of who the assistants are, he won't listen and continue to do things his way
No existing clones of Pitino who continues to win
He got 3 very good players from the portal. The guy from baylor that would not consider uk, the guy from auburn that Pope did not take, and freeman that Pope wanted. His team would have been very strong if freeman was not hurt
Abso****inglutely.
Abso****ingLUTEly we want to get rid of Pope and hire Pitino. Saint John’s is a piddly little 15k enrollment school that hadn’t been to the Sweet Sixteen since 1999 when Pitino took over in 2023. Now that he got them there he has generated a $h1ht ton of hype that made the boosters raise his NIL budget to somewhere in the rough neighborhood of what we’ve had all along and Arkansas has had all along. But we’ll have to let this season play out to see what he does with that budget. He’s certainly got his Red Storm ranked well above both Kentucky and Arkansas so far this season with still less budget than either now that he’s finally in the neighborhood. The Sweet Sixteen he brought that piddly little school though, Rick did that with less than half of what Cal or Pope were working with at bigger basketball schools to get comparable results. And Pitino at Kentucky would not be just the successful Saint John’s coach at a bigger school. Pitino at Kentucky means something that every high school coach in America is going to recognize and communicate to their kids. The NIL money he would have here would go a loooooooooooooooooooooooooong way whatever it was, not to mention if Rick supercharged the Saint John’s boosters that’s not even a little patch on what he would do to the Kentucky boosters. It’s okay if some people don’t understand all that or don’t understand any of it.
As far as whoever wants to ridicule Cal at Arky, not my problem. (But he probably deserves it.)
In no specific order
Otzelberger
McCollum
Pearl
Golden
McCasland
Schertz
Lucas
Byington
Odom
Hodgson
Sampson
Siddle
Hoiberg
Lloyd
Valentine
Murray(Luke)
Holtmann
Calhoun
Skinn
Oats
That's 20, and I left off the folks that have left, are impossible to get, or rejected us like Cal, Rick, Hurley, Donovan, May, though, I would take all five of them as well before I would ever have called Rondo, Drew or Pope
Rondo (or another assistant in the pros of similar high caliber quality who knows how to coach and wouldn't tolerate lackadaisical attitudes) could be brought in mid-year.
And that would be the best thing.
Waiting until end of year on a current head coach, means starting over trying to keep whichever current players wanted for next year, as well as hopefully keeping the two HS recruits (and maybe giving us a chance for others Pope couldn't get).
Plus, Batt could get him (or someone like) for a two or three year contract, vs. having to offer 5 to 7 years to an established head coach after the season ends.
Someone like Rondo should be able to keep the two assistant coaches now who have value for recruiting and player development, while getting rid of dead weight like Mark Fox right away.
We don't want people in the program who talks about being a "Swiftie" and how wonderful everything is and is going to be. We need a kick *** and get the hell out of here if you don't want to give 100% on defense coach.
All these other candidates mentioned in this X post, AS head coaches, would need to be hired after the season. And that means starting from scratch once again for getting players. Bringing a rising assistant in mid-year, gives the chance of keeping the best players who will respond well to actually being challenged by a coach who doesn't want to be their best friend.
This is Kentucky. Don’t just hire one. We should hire six of them and get rid of one each year over six years until one coach remains. Heck, make a reality TV show out of it to pay for NIL. LesGO!!
Latest
-
01
KSR Football
Turnover-Happy Kentucky Suddenly Losing Takeaway Battle
-
02
KSR Football
Jon Sumrall is 'grateful' for Kentucky but Florida's win was not about him
-
03
KSR Football
A Bad Week for Big Blue Nation Got Worse Tonight. Now Comes a Pivotal Week.
-
04
KSR+ Football
PHOTO GALLERY: UK vs. Florida
-
05
KSR Football
Kentucky's worst rushing performance of the season occurred against Florida