Evaluating potential big-name replacements if Kentucky moves on from John Calipari

It has officially become uncomfortable in Lexington following Kentucky’s loss to Oakland in the NCAA Tournament. After 15 seasons in the bluegrass, John Calipari finds himself on the hot seat this morning with no postseason pulse to show for the last half decade.

Now, with this being the case, the question now is what could eventually be next for the Wildcats? Well, the day after another shocking, early tournament exit for them, On3’s Andy Staples and James Fletcher III dove into that thought on Friday.

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To Staples, the fact of the matter is that, at the very least, the school has to have a proposal in place if this is indeed the route that they want to go.

“Here’s the deal. If you do fire Cal, you’ve got to have a plan,” said Staples. “You’ve got to know who you want.”

With that said, Staples and Fletcher got to the good part and started naming names. They began in the same state where they considered both Alabama’s Nate Oats and Auburn’s Bruce Pearl for the position. Each have worked wonders at their respective programs in the Southeastern Conference. Now, both could use that to justify their candidacy for one of the top jobs in the sport.

“I will say – state of Alabama? We’ll just move to Spokane, Washington, which is the state of Alabama for NCAA Tournament purposes right now. Alabama and Auburn in Spokane right now,” said Staples. “I got to say that Nate Oats or Bruce Pearl would be at the top of my list if I were Kentucky looking for a new coach.”

“I think Nate Oats, certainly, is in that conversation. Bruce Pearl is somebody who gets thrown in when these blue-blood type of jobs come open,” Fletcher said. “People wonder would he actually leave Auburn? To this point, he has always said no. He loves the culture he has built there on The Plains. He has really enjoyed being able to take that program from what it was to what he has built it into. Feels like he kind of accomplished something with that. Nate Oats? Similar there at Alabama. He’s very comfortable where he is.”

“This is the Kentucky job that we are talking about and it is a little bit different. Now, both of them have very high buyouts. So I think the most likely situation in which Kentucky was able to land one of those two would probably be in some kind of offset situation where Calipari, maybe, looks to save some face, maybe he walks away from that Kentucky job rather than them listing it as a firing or a parting of ways.”

If it were up to the Big Blue Nation, Oats would be the more popular option between him and Pearl. However, the likelihood of it took a significant hit last week, a time when this wasn’t yet a genuine conversation for Kentucky, when Oats signed an extension in Tuscaloosa.

That complicates him to a point where they think Oats may not be a possibility for the Wildcats. That would be unless they’re willing to pay up for his services.

“Nate Oats, by the way? $12 million buyout. I don’t think he’s leaving Alabama,” said Staples. “Like, that’s very similar to the Dan Lanning–football situation at Oregon where he has got a $20 million buyout. And, every time a job comes open, he’s, like, not going anywhere.”

“Nate Oats’ buyout kind of puts him in a different conversation. It is, according to Greg Byrne as that buyout was just now updated with his new contract, the highest buyout in college basketball. So, if you were going to go invest in that, it would already be an unprecedented amount to spend on a college basketball coach, regardless of the buyout that you’re paying your own coach to get out of that situation,” Fletcher said. “So, yeah, any kind of interest in Nate Oats would get extremely pricey really quick. But his name is going to come up because he is one of the best young coaches in college basketball.”

From there, the pair turned their attention from the collegiate level to the professional ranks. One name has come up for some time now in Billy Donovan, the former coach at Florida, who currently coaches the Chicago Bulls. Fletcher also named Brad Stevens, the former Butler coach, who is now in a front-office role with the Boston Celtics.

Still, at this point, they aren’t necessarily sure how likely either of them are for Kentucky now either.

“If he were to want to come back to college basketball? Obviously, I covered Billy for a long time, know a lot of people in his orbit. Have been told he’s not really interested in a return to college basketball. He likes the NBA a lot better,” said Staples. “But, if something were to go sideways with the Bulls or if he felt like the writing was on the wall and he wasn’t going to be with the Bulls anymore, would he go back to the place where he started his career as an assistant? I mean it’s entirely possible. I do think that’s a place that he always considered very special.”

“You mention Billy Donovan? Like, probably would prefer to stay in the NBA. But, if things with the Bulls don’t look like they’re heading in an upward situation? It’s the Kentucky job. What are you going to do? You’re not going to say no if that opportunity arises,” said Fletcher. “I think it’s similar with Brad Stevens. We know that he has kind of stepped into a front-office role with the Boston Celtics. Say that the Boston Celtics win a title. He’s looking around and he says now I can do this at a really high level there. I don’t know how easy it would be to say no to that opportunity either.”

As of this moment today, Kentucky has yet to fire John Calipari. John Calipari also has yet to step away from the job either. That means, for now, this isn’t even truly up for debate yet, at least until either of those decisions come down.

Still, based on the big picture for the Wildcats, that kind of break up could now at least be on the table. If that’s the case, what is arguably college basketball’s top job would be up for grabs with more than one candidate wanting to take it. It would then be up to the program to decide which would be in their best interest to move them into the future and past what was the Calipari era.

“I think this Kentucky job is going to get names mentioned that probably wouldn’t take any other job in college basketball,” Fletcher said. “A lot of names are going to get thrown around here in the coming days. We’ll find out if we need to talk about even more names because everyone is going to put their hat in the race here if this job does come open.”