Jay Bilas reveals three names he would target to become next Kentucky coach
The search for the next Kentucky basketball coach is in full swing with reports that John Calipari is moving on to Arkansas. As the Wildcats aim to find the next person to lead one of college basketball’s most prestigious program, ESPN Jay Bilas has a few suggestions.
Speaking on College GameDay ahead of Monday national title between Purdue and UConn, Bilas named Alabama coach Nate Oats, Baylor coach Scott Drew and Auburn coach Bruce Pearl as names he would call.
“If Mitch Barnhart didn’t have a list and hadn’t been working on this before now, then he’s not doing his job,” Bilas said. “So this shouldn’t have been a surprise to him given all that’s been going on there of late. I would hope he’s already down the road with representatives of people he’s targeted. …If I had a job opening, my first calls would be to Nate Oats at Alabama, to Scott Drew at Baylor and to Bruce Pearl at Auburn.”
Shortly after Bilas’ comments, Oats came out to say that he is completely committed to remaining with the Crimson Tide. However, both Drew and Pearl remain intriguing options.
Drew has been the coach of the Bears for the past 21 seasons to amass a a 446-244 record in that span. He won a national championship in the 2021 season and has taken Baylor to 12 NCAA Tournament appearances. He is already the winningest coach in program history with more than double the amount of victories as the person in second place.
Pearl has bounced around a bit more throughout his career. He’s found success in not only leading Auburn for the past decade, but also with Tennessee from 2005-11. Pearl directed the Tigers to their first Final Four in program history in 2019, so he certainly knows what it takes to build up programs.
However, Bilas also pointed out that both could turn down the Wildcats for bigger pay days at their currently positions. Regardless, UK at least has to give these names a call. It might not be where the search ends for Kentucky in pursuit of its next coach, but it’s a good start.
“All of those calls are just gonna make those guys a lot of money if they turn it down for their schools to come up to the plate and offer them to stay,” Bilsa said. “That’s sort of the difficulty of all of this and where it differs from the NBA or NFL. If you have a coaching opening, you can’t just go and take another team’s coach. In college you can. With players they call it coaching. With coaches, they just call it business.”