I Wish These Trees Would Get Out of My Way So I Could See The Damned Forest

As a fan of UK athletics myself, is it wrong of me to be having so much fun laughing at my fellow blue-bleeders?

The fear and panic and general hysteria is additively amusing.

I'm a fan of the Cats. I want the basketball team to be successful. I want a good coach, too. But golly.

Fans' wish lists for potential new coaches seem awfully restrictive. They seem to believe if Billy Donovan, Tom Izzo, and John Calipari say no, it will be a disaster. Then if Thad Motta, Jay Wright, and Rick Barnes say no, too, we'll be completely out of choices and have to hope a parent volunteers. (Hey, maybe Kim will do it!) **

There are hundreds of college basketball coaches, and dozens of very good ones. Mitch Barnhart will in all probability hire one of the very good ones. It probably will not be someone who's been to the Final Four in the last 3 years or so; those guys are generally already in a pretty good situation (as evidenced by Final Four trips) and aren't in a hurry to leave. But it's likely to be someone from the 'very good' list.
And if they don't work out, UK will dump them for a few more millions of dollars and hire someone else. It's not the end of the world.

Personally, I think it would be much more fun to have a coach become great while with UK than to hire one who has already punched his Hall of Fame ticket.

**You may have noticed I left Travis Ford off the list. That's because I think he's an A--h-le. But if he's hired, that's not the end of the world, either. Lots of great coaches seem to have the same personality trait.