Its probably just going to be like Central Bank Court at Historic Memorial Coliseum or something like that. Every reporting has said they are keeping the "Memorial Coliseum" part of the name. Annoying it has to be commercialized, but its not taking away the whole history.
You know Netflix will be getting in on the action soon, and if I'm UK I would scramble like hell to find any alumni with connections in that world. Duke is ahead of the curve, but being second would still make a big difference.
Bench coach is just one part of it. Peak 2010-2015 Cal had a run like Pearl has never had. That doesn't mean you have to think Cal is the greatest and should still be here, but to say that we didn't have things rolling then is crazy.
Brands don't matter anymore. So long as you have money being at a blueblood doesn't matter. The odds of him compiling a team as talented as his last Auburn team are probably not high.
As for the Pitino thing, he is still a good coach but St Johns (despite being loaded with $) isn't exactly...
Pearl is a really good coach, but his record in march with his most talented teams is disappointing. I don't think the fan base could handle more great teams underperforming in march.
Pearls teams always were at risk to show up not ready to play for a big game, which lead to wasting some really good talent. I think part of it was that his teams were never very disciplined, as shown by his teams getting cocky with celebrations and the occasional nonsense decision making from...
He deserves credit for hiring Cal, Stoops, Skinner, Kenny, but also deserves blame for how Cal and Stoops ended, Billy G, Joker, Elzy. Part of being in charge for so long is you have duds, but he also got several second chances after bad hires.
At this point KY voters don't really affect the trajectory of his career. For his goals he has to focus on his image with voters in Arizona, Pennsylvania, Georgia, and a couple others. Either way, he did the right thing on Mitch.