Why Billy Donovan was not the coaching hire for Kentucky

Billy Donovan was a target in the Kentucky basketball coaching search before the Wildcats settled on BYU’s Mark Pope as the new head coach.

Kentucky Sports Radio’s Matt Jones explained why Donovan ended up not being the guy. Donovan hasn’t coached in college since he was with Florida in 2014-15, coaching the Oklahoma City Thunder and Chicago Bulls.

Essentially, Jones explained how Kentucky kept swinging for the fences on the top guys but kept going down the list.

“Yeah, it is chaotic,” Jones said on McElroy and Cubelic. “I mean, it was. It’s finally settled on they have a coach with Mark Pope but it how they got there, they had, I think six or seven top choices. A handful of them don’t want to coach, period. I mean, they went for — swung for the fences on some of it. 

“Then it kind of settled into three people: Scott Dew, Danny Hurley and Billy Donovan. Drew and Hurley said no. I don’t — they were not surprised about Hurley, I think they were a little surprised about Drew. And then the question was, do you wait on Billy Donovan until after his NBA Playoff play-in game because he would not engage until then.” 

Basically, the longer the Kentucky search went, the worse it could get for the team. Jones noted the importance on building a roster under the new coach as quickly as possibly.

“And I think there was just a worry amongst the people making the decision that they didn’t know he would say yes, and they got to build a roster,” Jones said. “So they decided not to wait. They got into the second tier of candidates. And I think some folks maybe in the administration wouldn’t sign off on talking to some people with background issues, and then it became a smaller pool and I think Mark Pope won them over amongst the pool of people that ended up being the final group. 

“So basically, once they decided not to wait on Billy, they believed that Mark Pope was the best decision of the people they had talked to.”

If it’s worth anything to Kentucky fans, former Wildcats coach Rick Pitino actually endorsed Pope as the new coach. Donovan was someone, probably, higher on the fan’s wishlist, but Pope is the right guy for the job.

“Mark Pope, offensively? No one does it better,” Pitino said. “The way his teams move, the way his teams shoot the three, the ball movement, the player movement is outstanding.“What some of you don’t realize is how good a basketball mind he has, how much a relentless recruiter he will be. Now, recruiting is different today. We’re now coaching all pros. The NIL has taken away amateur basketball and has made them professional athletes. I’m sure Kentucky is going to have strong NIL.”