A blue-blood program like Kentucky needs a proven winner as its head coach. The Wildcats tried to get an up-and-comer with Billy Gillespie and that experiment only lasted two years.
There are only seven head active head coaches in college basketball with national titles to their name and one just left, so Kentucky’s pool of candidates is fairly limited. Dan Hurley is staying put at UConn after back-to-back titles and Nate Oats, Alabama’s rising star head coach, has already announced he’s not interested in taking the Kentucky job, so now, all signs point to Baylor’s Scott Drew.
Since leading the Bears to the 2021 National Championship, Drew has often been mentioned as a potential successor to John Calipari at Kentucky and it appears that premonition will come true. The 53-year-old has been the head coach of Baylor since 2003 and when he took over, the program had only been to the NCAA Tournament once since reaching a Regional Final in 1950.
Over his 21 years in Waco, Drew created a perennial Big 12 contender that became a mainstay in March Madness. He has the track record of success to appease Big Blue Nation and is still young enough to embark on a new chapter in his career.
While he was a candidate to take the Louisville job that ultimately went to Charleston’s Pat Kelsey, Drew said no to the Cardinals, not the other way around. He may have been keeping his options open with the tenuous situation that was unfolding in Lexington.
Drew has been connected to Mitch Barnhart for a while and the latest reports say that Drew is meeting with Barnhart to discuss the position on Wednesday afternoon. Kentucky could have its next head coach, just one day after Calipari finalized his deal with Arkansas.