Jay Williams calls on Kentucky, Mitch Barnhart to put 'full court press' on Dan Hurley to replace John Calipari
In the early stages of its coaching search, multiple names have been thrown around at Kentucky to replace an Arkansas-bound John Calipari. Some such as Jay Wright and Nate Oats have taken themselves out of consideration, but there are still plenty of others out there.
That includes Dan Hurley, who’s coaching UConn in Monday night’s national championship against Purdue. The Huskies are on the precipice of the first repeat since Billy Donovan’s Florida teams in 2006 and 2007, but there’s still some chatter about whether Hurley would be in the mix at UK.
To ESPN’s Jay Williams, it shouldn’t be much of a question. He thinks AD Mitch Barnhart shouldn’t wait long after Monday’s game to make the call and go get Hurley.
“If I were Mitch Barnhart, the first person I would call would be Dan Hurley,” Williams said on College GameDay. “I would wait for this game to be over tonight and I’m putting the full court press on him. I firmly believe this, and Cal lost a little bit of this later in his career with the fan base, but I think the Kentucky fan base will really resonate with a guy like Dan Hurley. I think they like that personality. That bravado. A little bit of that confidence that he has. So that would be my first call.”
Hurley has been at UConn since 2018 and helped take the Huskies all the way back to the mountaintop. The program went 16-17 overall and 6-12 in American Athletic Conference play during his first season, but Hurley kept building and took UConn to the NCAA Tournament in 2021 – the Huskies’ first year back in the Big East. Two years after that, they won it all for the first time since 2014, and they have a chance to repeat Monday night.
But if Hurley doesn’t take the job – it’s no sure thing – Williams pointed to another hot candidate as Kentucky’s next call. Baylor’s Scott Drew is viewed as a potential favorite to replace Calipari given his relationship with Barnhart.
Given the way he built Baylor during his time in Waco, Williams said Drew would be a strong choice to continue what Calipari did in Lexington.
“I think the relationship between Scott Drew and Mitch is something that you cannot overlook,” Williams said. “I think Mitch is a legacy guy with some of the guys he goes after and the job that Scott Drew has done at Baylor has been phenomenal. For somebody to bring Kentucky back in this next iteration of who they are, I think Scott Drew could be great at that if he chooses to do that.”