ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
You get a vague sense that Mitch Barnhart had a much more "keep it in the family" mentality both in terms of the heat of Cal's seat and the coaching search than the big donors and media elites in #BBN.I'm honestly very curious about what happened with Kentucky. Did Cal just absolutely blindside them with the move?
Cal's always been tight with the big boosters who were getting increasingly sick of him and knew that situation had a strong likelihood of getting ugly. I think he felt he was on some level doing UK a favor by relieving them of the buyout.
And then in terms of the search process, one of three things happened:
1. Barnhart had a shortlist with Mark Pope on it (along with probably Donovan and Drew), and Mark Pope said yes and there wasn't much more analysis done than that.
2. Barnhart wasn't willing to consider candidates who he didn't have a preexisting sense that they would "get" what the UK job is and means.
3. After a couple days of losing control of the narrative Barnhart just totally panicked.
None of those speak very well of him.