Barnhart: Kentucky moved "efficiently" in search to quickly construct a roster

When the sun rose on Thursday, many Kentucky fans expected Scott Drew to be named the Wildcats head coach. A few hours after sunset, Mark Pope agreed to take the reins at his alma mater.

It was a dizzying day for Kentucky basketball fans. In between Drew’s denial and Pope’s hiring, the Cats put the fullcourt press on Dan Hurley. Once the UConn coach publicly shared he would be staying in Storrs, we expected the search to reset. After all, Billy Donovan’s name was under consideration, but his season with the Chicago Bulls was still a week away from ending.

Even for the fans who have bought into Mark Pope as the next Kentucky head basketball coach, there’s still one loud criticism of Mitch Barnhart. Did he really need to move so quickly? Weren’t there other potential candidates to vet and talk to besides the guy who played here? The UK Athletic director answered those questions on Kentucky Sports Radio.

Were there more candidates for the job?

Aside from Drew and Hurley, there have been conflicting reports about which candidates Kentucky considered in this coaching search. It appears that Billy Donovan had some interest and there was some communication with the university, but he was not aggressively pursued. Names like Bruce Pearl, Shaka Smart, and Sean Miller were also thrown around. Barnhart did not get into specifics with other players in the process, but he did have some insight into how the field was narrowing.

“You’re always prepared in terms of things of people that you might want to talk to and the conversations you might want to have,” Barnhart said. “But at the end of the day, I think people have this notion that the pool is massively big and it’s really more like a puddle of names. Because the folks that would, could, want to do a job like the University of Kentucky is smaller than you would surmise.”

Barnhart wanted to waste no time

Recruiting has always been the lifeblood of college athletic programs. With the advent of the transfer portal, it’s now more commonly referred to as roster construction. As we speak, players are making moves around the country and Barnhart wasn’t willing to let Kentucky basketball sit on the sideline much longer.

“The process has to move really quickly because the dead period ends. It’s all of a sudden now everybody’s out and recruiting. That was critical mass as we move forward,” said Barnhart.

“You can’t wait long in this process because a lot of things happen. All of a sudden you got people making decisions in the transfer world and that kind of stuff that are critical to rosters. ‘Just give us time’ and no one’s willing to give you time. I mean, that’s not — they don’t care who you are in that deal. It’s moving quickly.”

The recruiting dead period actually ended today, April 12. The transfer portal remains open to new entrants up until May 1. The NBA early entry deadline is April 27. Kentucky only has five players on its current roster and three commits. Mitch Barnhart was ready to give Pope the keys to heavy machinery and begin building next season’s roster.

“We’re not crazy. This notion that no one’s ‘tampering’ with your roster: that’s gone. The NCAA says, ‘Please call us if you hear that happening.’ I don’t know that they could handle the number of phone calls. It happens on a daily basis from sport to sport. It’s not even something they can track,” said the Kentucky athletic director.

“You got to jump in the middle of this pretty heavily and get to your roster and manage that and (Pope’s) doing it. That’s job number one, position number one, role number one, whatever you want to talk about. That’s the first thing on his list, amongst other things about connecting with our fanbase.”