After 15 years at the helm of one of the blue bloods of the sport, John Calipari is departing his post as the Kentucky Wildcats basketball coach and heading to the Arkansas Razorbacks. Calipari is coming off a first-round March Madness exit and is a dozen years removed from his lone NCAA Tournament championship in Lexington. Calipari, a four-time SEC Coach of the Year, leaves the Wildcats with the second-most coaching wins in program history and will replace Eric Musselman at Arkansas, who recently departed for USC.
Now, Big Blue Nation is turning its attention on to who will fill Calipari’s shoes, and the Kentucky coaching search is on. Five of the last seven Kentucky basketball coaches have won national championships, and no school has more NCAA Tournament appearances than the Cats. Kentucky routinely has among the best college basketball recruiting classes year after year, so who will get to lead these prospects for the foreseeable future? If you love the Wildcats, or just want to know if your coach is the next target, be sure to see what the proven team of insiders are saying at CatsPause, the 247Sports affiliate that covers Kentucky.
The team of insiders at CatsPause.com are providing on-the-ground updates on every development in the basketball coaching search, including insights from Chris Fisher and Travis Branham, who have years of experience covering the Wildcats.
CatsPause has collectively put together a list of coaches to watch as the Wildcats are in the thick of their search. And right now, CatsPause is offering 50% off the first year of an annual subscriptions*, so now is the time to sign up.
The team at CatsPause already has a list out of 12 potential candidates and there are some surprising names on the list. Head to CatsPause now to see them all.
Top Kentucky head coaching candidates
One name the staff has identified as a potential candidate is Alabama head coach Nate Oats. He’s coming off a Final Four appearance and has made at least the Sweet 16 in three of his last four seasons. His teams have also claimed both the SEC regular season and SEC tournament championships twice over that span, marking a turnaround for a program that had just one NCAA Tournament appearance over the seven years prior to Oats taking over.
Prior to joining Alabama in 2019, Oats spent four years as the head coach at Buffalo, where he went to three NCAA Tournaments and was a two-time MAC Coach of the Year. Prior to that stint, he spent 18 years coaching either at the high school level or as a college assistant, so Oats having just five years of head coaching experience with a power program could scare off some Kentucky basketball fans.
Another name on the list is Chicago Bulls head coach Billy Donovan. Not only does he have SEC experience as a two-time national championship-winning head coach at the University of Florida, but Donovan is one of the few Kentucky coaching candidates with actual history in Lexington. Donovan was an assistant at Kentucky under Rick Pitino from 1989-94 before embarking on a head coaching career now in its 31st year.
Apart from his two national titles, Donovan had another pair of Final Four appearances at Florida, and he made the Western Conference Finals in the NBA with the Oklahoma City Thunder. However, Donovan hasn’t won an NBA playoff series since 2016, and his Bulls are headed to the NBA play-in tournament this year. Donovan is also nine years removed from coaching in college basketball, so he’d have to navigate a much different landscape with the era of NIL and the transfer portal taking center stage in recent years. See more candidates at CatsPause.
How to get insider Kentucky coaching search updates
The rest of the list of 10 names to know includes several other current SEC head coaches, and a shocking name who is already in the Hall of Fame. See who it is at CatsPause
Who are the top names in the Kentucky coaching search as the Wildcats look to replace John Calipari, and what Hall of Fame coach could be on the move? Go to CatsPause to see their hot board and more, all from a team of reporters with years of experience covering the Wildcats, and find out. And reminder, CatsPause is offering 50% off the first year of an annual VIP membership* as a coaching search special, so subscribe now before it’s too late.
*Terms: This offer is only available for new members who sign up for a CatsPause annual subscription. After the first year, subscription will re-bill on an annual basis at the regular rate. 247Sports.com reserves the right to alter or cancel this promotion at any time. Please write support@247sports.com with any questions you may have.
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