Kentucky head coach search: Chances rise for Billy Donovan accepting, per report

It seems to be becoming more likely that Chicago Bulls coach Billy Donovan could return to the college level at Kentucky.

College basketball analyst Jeff Goodman said Thursday morning that the odds of Donovan being hired at Kentucky have increased over the past several days.

“I’ve talked to people close to him in the last day,” Goodman said of Billy Donovan on The Field of 68. “A couple of days ago, I would’ve said the odds were like 0-10 percent. Now I would say the odds are 25 percent. And if I’m Mitch Barnhart, that 25 percent is enough to wait on.”

Donovan was the head coach at Florida from 1996-2015, reaching the Final Four on four occasions and winning a pair of national titles.

He left for the NBA ahead of the 2015-16 season and is currently with the Bulls, after starting off with the Thunder.

Billy Donovan has proven that he is an excellent college head coach. Goodman explained why the move might make sense for him.

“What [the people close to Donovan] say is the one reason why he might do it is because what you don’t have in the NBA is control of your roster,” Goodman shared. “What you do have in college is control of the roster. And his roster obviously hasn’t been good enough the last few years.

“The other thing is, you’re not going to get another shot at a job like Kentucky. This is it for you, because whoever gets the job now is going to be there at least five years, maybe more. So this is your only shot if you’re going to do it.”

It will be interesting to see if Kentucky does indeed go all-in on Billy Donovan and if he does seriously consider the job.

For what it’s worth, Goodman isn’t the only college basketball expert who believes landing Donovan would be a big-time hire.

ESPN insider Pete Thamel described the potential hire as a “home run hire” earlier this week.

“He obviously dominated the SEC in the mid-2000s and has been a generally successful NBA coach. It’ll be interesting in the courtship of Billy Donovan, the Bulls are in the NBA play-in game, which is on April 17,” Thamel said. “I don’t think Billy Donovan could leave before the NBA playoffs. So if we start to see this search drag out towards that date, I think it would be an increased indication that someone was interested.

“You remember the Nick Saban search. What did that take, 38 days at Alabama for him to leave the Dolphins and come. … I think if Billy Donovan happens, there would have to be a little bit of a wait and that would be a tell.”