Scott Drew has officially pulled himself out of the race for the vacant Kentucky head coaching position. The Baylor coach was the first and top priority target for Mitch Barnhart in his search for a new coach at the prestigious program.
There’s been lots of speculation of whether he would turn to Nate Oats, Dan Hurley or Billy Donovan next but Oats’ $20 million buyout is a non-starter, Hurley is not leaving UConn after winning back-to-back titles at the perfect place for him Donovan, currently with the Chicago Bulls, is a risky hire in a college hoops landscape that has been tripping up NBA coaches left and right.
So where else could Barnhart turn to? Bluegrass Revival, anybody?
On Thursday morning, shortly before news broke of Scott Drew’s decision to stay at Baylor, Kentucky’s mega-booster Joe Craft sent his plane east and then took a sharp turn north ultimately, landing in the concrete jungle of New York City. He was ostensibly on his way to Storrs to try for a conversation with Hurley, but you can’t help but wonder, while in the area, if Craft and his Big Blue Superboosters didn’t entertain the idea of bringing home Rick Pitino, who just finished his first year at St. John’s in Queens.
A short-term coaching hire isn’t ideal for Kentucky, but we’re also talking about Rick Pitino here. The man who had quickly built Kentucky up in the 1990s to becoming one of the more dominant college dynasties we would have ever seen before cutting it off short to coach the Boston Celtics. It’s hard to blame someone for taking a job with the Boston Celtics but when he made his return to Louisville things obviously got complicated. Without getting too much into the history of the rivalry, the last time Pitino was in Rupp Arena he exited the court telling the fans they’re No. 1 in his own way.
The years after were derailed by a cockamamie FBI investigation that came up with hardly anything of substance, let alone anything worth destroying the careers of many. That investigation forced Pitino out of Louisville, sending him on path of redemption overseas, then at Iona, then to St. John’s. Now 71-years-old, he has had no issue reminding everybody of his force of personality: Sharp as a tack, no steps lost, the dust shaken off the white suit. He’s still Rick-freaking-Pitino.
In his first year at St. John’s, Pitino navigate the portal and NIL landscape with the best of them and had his team playing their best basketball heading into March. A weekend of bid stealers and a Big East-hating selection committee kept the Red Storm out of the dance.
There’s not a candidate out there more perfectly suited for the Kentucky job. There’s plenty in Pitino’s tank for the next four to five years until another long-term coach is trained or emerges.
The case against hiring Pitino is obvious due to the age and complicated history since he left Kentucky but there’s a lot to like about what he’d bring Kentucky. With the unlimited resources waiting to be poured into the program, Pitino could immediately hit the ground running to build a roster even better than he was able to do at St. John’s. His tabbing as an all-timer coupled with the Kentucky brand would make for a monstrous duo that would be able to reel in the top transfer and top high school talent. Mix that in with his coaching and his wiring to run Kentucky basketball, it would be lightning in a bottle for half a decade, until he’s either successfully groomed the next head coach in his tree or a new name nationally emerges. In this current era of collegiate sports, those four-to-five years feel like an eternity.
The circumstances of this search with the navigation of large buyouts and the lack of sure-fire long-term candidates, it could make sense to reunite the once extraordinarily promising relationship between Pitino and Kentucky. He’d revive the donors, fans, the alumni relations and ultimately revive the Final Four flatline Kentucky has experienced the last decade.
Would the fans be on board with it? I can confidently say yes.
Would Barnhart be comfortable making the call? Who else is out there?
And finally, would Pitino really go back to Lexington he Pitino can answer that but a recent interview with Pardon My Take gives a clue into his answer — if asked.
“If I had to do it all over again, ” Pitino said. “I’d probably never leave Kentucky.”
