Donovan to KY? (VERY Interesting-hopefully true)

[ManilaRose]

First of all let me preface this by saying I am simply passing along information I was given because some of you(especially KY and FLA fans) may be interested in it. I'm not pretending to be "in the know" or some big shot with inside information. I do have a friend from college who says his dad does know what's going on and I can say I feel very confident that his dad does know more about what's going on than the average fan. I say I'm very confident his dad knows inside info because of the following:

1.My friend told me 1 month ago Tubby was 100% for sure gone and that he would resign. TRUE
2.Three weeks ago while questioning my friend of the certainty of the first claim he told me not to worry it was for certain and in fact that Tubby had another job already lined up. TRUE
3. The day before(I know, only 1 day) Tubby going to Minnesota rumors became public he told me specifically Tubby would be in Minnesota within 24-48 hours. TRUE

These must be more than good guesses or coincidence. He then told me Donovan and Gillespie were the top 2 candidates and he would get back with me when he heard something else. I asked him of the possibility of Pitino and he said he would be interested if BD didn't come but Pitino was in fact helping BD in the process and pushing for BD to take the job. The next day he called me and said Donovan was 100% a done deal and that BD would be in Lexington within 48 hrs. of FLA's last game. Again, I'm not saying it's 100% done, just passing along the words that were spoken to me. I personally am hoping this is true and the things I've seen and heard the last few days make me feel better about this possibility. Calipari just signed an extension at Memphis and everyone in the media believes Cal would've crawled to Lexington if asked. Maybe he just wasn't even a candidate, but nonetheless that's one potential candidate down. Even more interesting is that I've heard for 3 days now that Stan Heath would be out at Arkansas and that Billy Gillespie would infact be the replacement. This is not from the same source, however the first part was confirmed today as Heath was fired. If Gillespie does indeed take the Arkansas job then I personally believe that makes the Donovan rumor even more likely. Why would Gillespie take the Arkansas job if he felt like he could get the KY job? Anyways, I've rambled long enough and as a KY fan hope this proves to be true. If it's not I apologize for the thread but I thought it would be interesting to discuss either way. Especially considering the track record this source has had in the past.

[pmayjr]

Donovan has it better in Florida. He's gonna get a massive raise too. He's not goin anywhere.

Don't count out Calipari. He may have an extension, but buyous can be made.

[Cajungator26]

Originally Posted by pmayjr

Donovan has it better in Florida. He's gonna get a massive raise too. He's not goin anywhere.

Don't count out Calipari. He may have an extension, but buyous can be made.

He's going to Kentucky. He just cancelled our seminar in April that our division was having with him as the speaker.

At UF, basketball will always be number 2 to football, but at Kentucky, basketball is number 1. Think about it... where would you want to be?

[Seattleallstar]

There's no way Donovan goes anywhere for at least 4 years, theres more of a chance Pitino will go back to KY instead of Dvan.

[pmayjr]

A place where your program is at a top-notch level, you can build a dynasty, and hopefully get comparable top-end $$$ if the Florida AD works fast to re-up his deal.

You might be right Cajun, but he's a fool to go back to his alma-mater at this point. The program NEEDS TO REBUILD to get back to elite status. Those are words any Kentucky fan doesn't wanna hear. They'll expect for them to go to final 4s right out of the gate again. Keep in mind when I say "needs to rebuild", I mean that to get back to ELITE status. They have good teams now, just they're not great anymore.

[Cajungator26]

Originally Posted by pmayjr

A place where your program is at a top-notch level, you can build a dynasty, and hopefully get comparable top-end $$$ if the Florida AD works fast to re-up his deal.

You might be right Cajun, but he's a fool to go back to his alma-mater at this point. The program NEEDS TO REBUILD to get back to elite status. Those are words any Kentucky fan doesn't wanna hear. They'll expect for them to go to final 4s right out of the gate again. Keep in mind when I say "needs to rebuild", I mean that to get back to ELITE status. They have good teams now, just they're not great anymore.

Well, I'm just telling you what I heard...

I don't know enough about basketball to really comment, but I know that Florida basketball will always be second to Florida football, and that's just not the case in Kentucky (regardless of how bad their current basketball team is.)

I only hope that we (UF) gets a coach that can keep the team at the top when Donovan leaves.

[pmayjr]

UF is in a unique situation where football and basketball can be #1 and #1A for years to come if UF works fast to pay Donovan and give him a proper extension. 2 yourng coaches, coahcing 2 good teams in a a recrutining hot-bed. DONOVAN COULD SERIOUSLY HAVE A DEAN SMITH-like run if he stays at Florida.

So it shouldn't be about footbal always being the #1 sport there. They can both co-exist, and be dominant at both. It looks like Ohio State is also on it's way to doing that (football team in National Championship, bball team in Final 4), so why shouldn't Florida too?

[KY_Sasquash]

Originally Posted by pmayjr

A place where your program is at a top-notch level, you can build a dynasty, and hopefully get comparable top-end $$$ if the Florida AD works fast to re-up his deal.

You might be right Cajun, but he's a fool to go back to his alma-mater at this point. The program NEEDS TO REBUILD to get back to elite status. Those are words any Kentucky fan doesn't wanna hear. They'll expect for them to go to final 4s right out of the gate again. Keep in mind when I say "needs to rebuild", I mean that to get back to ELITE status. They have good teams now, just they're not great anymore.

Uk is not Donovan's alma mater; he played at Providence for Pitino and led them to the final four. He got his first coaching gig at at UK under Pitino. Florida most likely will not be at a top notch level b/c they'll lose noah, horfold, and brewer to the nba as lottery picks, humphrey and backup forward chris richard are both seniors, so that leaves tauren green with walter hodge and a bunch of freshman and sophs with no experience. Green will likely bolt, too, and head to the NBA. He'd have his work cut out for him. UK would actually have better team coming into the year, plus his top recruit has already said that he'll follow donovon to UK and the only two top 2 recruits that are unsigned are looking at UK and Florida and Donovan would have a great shot a getting both to come to UK. All we need is top recuits and we'll be right back at the top and he knows he can do that and people here in lexington will worship him. It'll be difficult for him to build a dynasty at Florida like Cajun said b/c he'll always be 2nd fiddle. Think about college dynasties in bball (UK, UNC, UCLA, Duke, maybe IU) and football (NDame, Ohio St, Mich, USC) none of these schools have had another sport equally dominant in the other sport over a 15-20 year period-same reason why Bear Bryant left UK for Alabama.
For the opening round games in the NCAA tournament 500 florida fans travelled to support the defending champs, UK has 10-20,000 easily, every year no matter where we play. It doesnt seem like much on paper, but it's important.

[pmayjr]

KY,
Thanks for the clarification. I know they'll lose a lot to the NBA and to graduation after this season, but this will be 2 straight years where they've made the Final 4. I'm assuming the recruiting classes that he'd bring in in the next few years will more than make up for that.

There's only 3 instances in the last 15 years I can think of where teams went to the Final 4 two years in a row, and weren't able to maintain their success. 1st was UNLV- but that got messed up because of Tark and the sanctions.
2nd was Arkansas in the mid-90s. For whatever reason Nolan Richardson wasn't able to maintain that success
3rd was Tubby Smith at Kentucky- Although they keptwinning under Tubby, no more final 4s after his first season.

But seriously- Kentucky is rebuilding as much as Florida even if Florida loses all those players this year. There's less pressure at Florida, and Donovan should be able to build on his recent success with strong recruiting.

[satan's twin]

Originally Posted by ManilaRose

First of all let me preface this by saying I am simply passing along information I was given because some of you(especially KY and FLA fans) may be interested in it. I'm not pretending to be "in the know" or some big shot with inside information. I do have a friend from college who says his dad does know what's going on and I can say I feel very confident that his dad does know more about what's going on than the average fan. I say I'm very confident his dad knows inside info because of the following:

1.My friend told me 1 month ago Tubby was 100% for sure gone and that he would resign. TRUE
2.Three weeks ago while questioning my friend of the certainty of the first claim he told me not to worry it was for certain and in fact that Tubby had another job already lined up. TRUE
3. The day before(I know, only 1 day) Tubby going to Minnesota rumors became public he told me specifically Tubby would be in Minnesota within 24-48 hours. TRUE

These must be more than good guesses or coincidence. He then told me Donovan and Gillespie were the top 2 candidates and he would get back with me when he heard something else. I asked him of the possibility of Pitino and he said he would be interested if BD didn't come but Pitino was in fact helping BD in the process and pushing for BD to take the job. The next day he called me and said Donovan was 100% a done deal and that BD would be in Lexington within 48 hrs. of FLA's last game. Again, I'm not saying it's 100% done, just passing along the words that were spoken to me. I personally am hoping this is true and the things I've seen and heard the last few days make me feel better about this possibility. Calipari just signed an extension at Memphis and everyone in the media believes Cal would've crawled to Lexington if asked. Maybe he just wasn't even a candidate, but nonetheless that's one potential candidate down. Even more interesting is that I've heard for 3 days now that Stan Heath would be out at Arkansas and that Billy Gillespie would infact be the replacement. This is not from the same source, however the first part was confirmed today as Heath was fired. If Gillespie does indeed take the Arkansas job then I personally believe that makes the Donovan rumor even more likely. Why would Gillespie take the Arkansas job if he felt like he could get the KY job? Anyways, I've rambled long enough and as a KY fan hope this proves to be true. If it's not I apologize for the thread but I thought it would be interesting to discuss either way. Especially considering the track record this source has had in the past.

Wow. And here I thought the only gig Donovan would consider in Kentucky would be an oldies "Mellow Yellow" tour.