Turning down Kentucky was not easy for Scott Drew

The 2024-25 college basketball season begins Monday night and all eyes in the Bluegrass will be on what happens at Rupp Arena as the Mark Pope era officially begins when Kentucky hosts Wright State. There is real buzz within the Big Blue Nation and excitement about this new era is off the charts with a neutral-site game against Duke looming next week. Everyone feels all-in on the new direction of Kentucky basketball.

However, Pope nearly never got the call from Mitch Barnhart he always wanted. Kentucky’s first target in the coaching search was Baylor head coach Scott Drew and there were a lot of nervous people in Waco when that was going on in April.

Ahead of Baylor’s big matchup against Gonzaga to open up the season, The Athletic’s CJ Moore sat down with Drew to go over the wild week when he was pursued by Kentucky. In this longform feature, Moore spoke with Drew and Baylor athletic director Mack Rhoades about Drew’s decision to stay home. Rhoades knew there was a very good chance that Drew could leave.

[Inside the week Scott Drew turned down Kentucky to keep building at Baylor]

“Here we go,” Rhoades remembers thinking when he found out that John Calipari was leaving Kentucky for Arkansas. “Because I knew. Scott and I have a relationship that we’ve talked about, hey, if there was a job out there, this would be the job. That’s one we had talked about in the past, so I knew.”

“The conversations that Scott and I had on Kentucky were about life. Not about the job. Not about the resources. I knew it was real. I knew he was deeply, deeply considering it.”

Scott Drew had a strong relationship with Mitch Barnhart and admits one of his favorite Christmas gifts of all-time was Rick Pitino‘s book “Full-Court Pressure: A Year in Kentucky Basketball” that was given to him with Pitino’s face cut out and a picture of Drew on it instead. Drew’s wife, Kelly, even had dreams about living in Lexington.

Despite all of that, Scott Drew elected to remain in Waco. Moore’s feature says that “Drew is uncomfortable talking about the Kentucky week” and that his decision was family and faith-driven. The pieces also goes into how the Mi Casita restaurant in Waco handled all of the attention during the time his family took a private plane for a one-day visit in Lexington when Drew attempted to create a diversion on social media.

Great lunch spot in Waco on a rainy day. No better friend and supporter than Eric Shero and Alliance Bank!💯 pic.twitter.com/OP2OfYNhnZ

— Scott Drew (@BUDREW) April 10, 2024

After strong work in the transfer portal and via high school recruiting this offseason, Baylor enters this season ranked No. 8 in the AP Top 25 and projects to be a top contender in the Big 12. Kentucky supporters believe Pope has the SEC program positioned to go on a run as the early returns on transfer and high school recruiting are positive.

Both programs are happy where they stand now, but things nearly looked a lot different seven months ago.