Conspiracy or not, Lee Todd should call a press conference and announce the firing of Barnhart and start a search for a Bball coach & athletic director. I believe Mitch has known about Tubby leaving for months...And still don't have a coach.

More ridiculous conspiracy theories. If anything, Donovan used UK to get even more money from UF, where he wanted to stay all along, IMHO. And I don't have a problem with someone finding their worth in the market place, and getting it.

I agree with you on this, Donovan imo knew a few weeks ago that he was staying at UF and could had put an end to all speculation and talk by just coming out and saying it. I do not believe Billy D. when he said that the job offer and money were never discussed, if Donovan himself didn't discuss it with MB imo you can bet that his agent an attorneys did. Donovan held the leverage on UF and UK all along and was driving up the price of an unsigned contract that he had waiting for him at UF. MB imo dropped the ball on this, maybe not - I just do not completely trust his word on it.

 

JMO.

 

If Donovan doesn't want us then I don't want him, forget him and move on.

Seems to me that everyone is assuming that Donovan was available and Barnhart blew it. WHAT MAKES ANYONE THINK THAT BILLY WAS AVAILABLE? Maybe he was never even an option. Maybe he told UK he wasn't an option, and unfortunately, UK had to wait and go through the motions just to ensure the UK faithful that "We offered and he's not an option." All the while they have actually been working on "REAL" candidates for the job, and will soon announce who the new coach is. and no matter what.......

 

GO BIG BLUE!!!

This may be off topic of the thread but I have heard through espn and wkyt that the choices now are: R. Barnes, Gillispie, Crean, Izzo and D' Antoni (spelling?)

 

I have to say that I loved the comment/name for MB that a poster named him earlier" Mitch Brainfart". Classic :lol: Imo Brainfart wants everyone to know that he is running his own "self promotion" - I am great. I agree and really compliment him on the Cohen and DeMoss hires and that is it. Complete failure imo in all other areas including the 2 main money makers in Football and Mens Basketball.

 

My complaints and frustrations in no way change my loyalty:

 

GO BIG BLUE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Conspiracy or not, Lee Todd should call a press conference and announce the firing of Barnhart and start a search for a Bball coach & athletic director. I believe Mitch has known about Tubby leaving for months...And still don't have a coach.

 

Why is someone always to blame? You can believe what you want. But that and $1.49 will buy you a large coffee at Starbucks.

Probably.

Then prove it wrong! You can't nobody can. Just like no one can prove what you say is wrong, that if anything Donovan uded UK and Barnhart. No one will ever know. Donovan has too much class to reveal anything as well, no matter what it was.

 

Prove it true! You can't, nobody can. We are at a stalemate on this one my friend!

 

My point was that we have WAY too many conspiracy theorists on here who look for any angle to trash someone (Mitch, Tubby, Billy D, etc). But I have to give you credit, .. I have never seen you say 'Write it down' because of inside sources! We have had far too much of that as well.

 

The bottom line is that we don't have a coach yet. Hopefully, we will soon. But 2 weeks is not a long period of time to be without a coach. I would rather have the right guy then a quick hire! If Barnhart was just going for a quick hire to calm the Big Blue Nation, he could have offered the job to other coaches who would have jumped at the opportunity. Now Mitch is being trashed because we went 14 days without a coach. 14 days! It took 2 & 1/2 months to find Pitino after Sutton resigned. I figure that if Mitch finds the right coach in 1/2 that time (given that the situation is much different now), I am cool with that. But if it goes another week or two, ... many in the UK fanbase are likely to have a massive group coronary!

This may be off topic of the thread but I have heard through espn and wkyt that the choices now are: R. Barnes, Gillispie, Crean, Izzo and D' Antoni (spelling?)

 

I have to say that I loved the comment/name for MB that a poster named him earlier" Mitch Brainfart". Classic :lol: Imo Brainfart wants everyone to know that he is running his own "self promotion" - I am great. I agree and really compliment him on the Cohen and DeMoss hires and that is it. Complete failure imo in all other areas including the 2 main money makers in Football and Mens Basketball.

 

My complaints and frustrations in no way change my loyalty:

 

GO BIG BLUE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

I add Brooks to the Barnhart hires that have turned out pretty well. I wondered about it at the time, but have seen him do it the RIGHT way, so all is right with the football program in my book. Brooks' recruiting has been solid, especially considering where he was recruiting to and what restrictions he had to deal with. I am okay with Mitch and hope that he gets Billy G!

How can you possiblt say "Official, the UK job was never offered" and " we don't know what really happened and probably never will" in the same paragraph. Aren't you contradicting yourself?

Typo, I meant to say officially, Donavon said himself, there was no offer, he just told them he wasn't interested in leaving UF.

Typo, I meant to say officially, Donavon said himself, there was no offer, he just told them he wasn't interested in leaving UF.

 

That is what I heard Donovan say as well. His comments were that he looked in his heart and decided that he is happy where he is at (and who wouldn't be with his run the past few years). I will take Billy D at his word on this one.

Was "Plan B" actually plan A? Did Barnhart somehow lead everyone to believe that Donovan was the coach we were going after just to satisfy the UK fan base? Now Barnhart can say "I tried but he just didn't want to leave where he is at". Now Barnhart can go after the person he wanted anyway and hoping that the fans would jump on board.

 

Donovan's part in this? A favor to Barnhart in some way and BD just went along with it, which I still believe he is telling the truth that he loves the area and the program, as well as a sweeter deal from Florida. Then again, Donovan may not have had a clue what Barnhart was up to.

 

This all could have been Barnhart's plan all along.

 

Thoughts?

 

I mentioned this exact thing in another thread. I think it's a distinct possibility that Billy G was his man the whole time...

Prove it true! You can't, nobody can. We are at a stalemate on this one my friend!

 

My point was that we have WAY too many conspiracy theorists on here who look for any angle to trash someone (Mitch, Tubby, Billy D, etc). But I have to give you credit, .. I have never seen you say 'Write it down' because of inside sources! We have had far too much of that as well.

 

The bottom line is that we don't have a coach yet. Hopefully, we will soon. But 2 weeks is not a long period of time to be without a coach. I would rather have the right guy then a quick hire! If Barnhart was just going for a quick hire to calm the Big Blue Nation, he could have offered the job to other coaches who would have jumped at the opportunity. Now Mitch is being trashed because we went 14 days without a coach. 14 days! It took 2 & 1/2 months to find Pitino after Sutton resigned. I figure that if Mitch finds the right coach in 1/2 that time (given that the situation is much different now), I am cool with that. But if it goes another week or two, ... many in the UK fanbase are likely to have a massive group coronary!

 

 

Ok. :thumb: The reason for this thread wasn't to trash anyone, just looking for POSSIBLE reasons. Everyone and their brother who follows basketball all over the country knew that Donovan would have been the choice of the majority of the UK fans, based on his ties to UK from being here under Pitino and the compliments he has made about KY and UK. He was my choice as well, but for some reason his heart is in Florida, at least for now. His family is there, he is spending his own money to help build a school and or church, he obviously likes it there, can't force a guy to come like you can to show a guy the door. I do believe that it's possible it was a done deal, that he may have said that at one point, but decided he really didn't want to leave. Heck, a coach did that this week, went to another college and after what? A day? said he didn't want the job, Things change.

 

I sorta had some sources, but they really never told me too much, nothing worth putting down, but if they would have told me it was a done deal I would have ran with it too. Only thing they told me is that I will be happy, not that I will be happy and get who I want. As you mentioned about Pitino, it took UK awhile to end up with him, #3 choice I recall? Aren't we all glad #1 and #2 didn't work out then? So I guess he was right, I'll end up happy about the outcome. As he and others have said, UK is bigger than one man/coach.

 

Now about Mitch, no one knows for sure what is going on, but he has to expect to take some heat for not landing Donovan, even if Donovan was on TV ready to sign, then said he couldn't do it, Barnhart would have still taken heat that he blew in somehow.

 

As far as Tubby? I thought it was time to part, that it would be good for both sides. He is a very nice guy and all, he can relax now and not be under so much pressure, that pressure wasn't anyone's fault, it just comes with the job at UK. As was said at the time UK hired Tubby, it was going to be hard on him or whoever took over for Pitino, as you don't want to follow a legend, you want to be the second coach after a legend.

 

Only source I reported on was a possible recruit.

 

But in closing, as has been stated before, once we got a new coach the divided fan base will merge once again as we have a new leader, well some will still find sowemthing wrong but that is how it is in this business.

That is what I heard Donovan say as well. His comments were that he looked in his heart and decided that he is happy where he is at (and who wouldn't be with his run the past few years). I will take Billy D at his word on this one.

Great, you changed your avatar so we can't find you now, LOL.

 

As I said before, I hope the UK fans can understand him not leaving, and that he could have made UK look bad by saying "UK offered and I told them NO!" Donovan didn't diss UK, he has high respect for the program and the state, I just hope most of the fans act this way and show the same respect for him when we meet up, as one day he may want to come, when the time is right.

 

I am happy for one other person though, as I know they are happy Donovan is staying in Florida.

I do not know if Mitch Barnhart had any more options. I do remember Doug Williams' name being mentioned late. I feel certain that would not have proven fruitful. I think Mitch learned a lot from the wild goose chase that Bill Parcells put him on. At least I hope so!

 

Just as you say, the Kentucky football team had two great years in the late seventies......1976 Peach Bowl and the 1977 (10-1) probation Cats. The cupboard was beginning to get bare after that and the program descended from there.

 

Barnhart most certainly had "more options". Keep Guy Morris by giving him the money he wanted to pay his assistants instead Morris moved on and UK was ended up paying more for Grandpa who has produced a below average team every year.

 

We'll see what Barnhart does this time because his job is on the line with this hire. You can hire a "big" name that does sub par with Football and get away with it at Kentucky right now but you WILL NOT hire a sub par Basketball coach and hope to keep your job.

Yea, Guy is lighting it up at Baylor!