Don Johnson

When Cal had been a coach for 8 years, he'd been to a Sweet 16, an Elite 8 and a Final 4 and had 5 conference titles. By the time he was 51, he'd won 28 tournament games, 2 S16, 3 Elite 8, 1 FF, 1 Runner up and had 11 conference titles. Only counting regular season. In 9 years, at age 51, Pope has 0 tournament wins. He's been twice and both times got upset in the first round by an 11 seed. Clearly Cal is 65 now, and who knows what he has in the tank. But UK fans woke up yesterday thinking they'd landed Scott Drew. Then thinking they'd money whip Danny Hurley. Then figured they'd just have to settle for Billy Donovan. Instead they got a guy who isn't really that young and has never won anything. But UK fans are thrilled Cal is gone. Definitely better off this week than they were last week.

Feel like Pearl is the floor here, and would be a pretty damn good hire. But they would melt.

Donovan sounded interested but no way they can wait on him. They need someone in place in the next few days, not in weeks.

Smells Like Teen Spirit

Reportedly, Wright, Oats, Hurley, and Drew have now turned them down. IMO, Donovan sounded interested in that video, but no way they can wait him out if he's refusing to do anything until Bulls season over. They will move into Pearl/Beard territory soon.

Officially official

Parody account.

lol. Currently there are 0 players on the Arkansas roster.

It won't die, but I'm not sure about there being too much money. Athletic departments can't survive off basketball money, especially if they are having to pay their coaches top 10 money.

Jay Wright and Billy Donovan probably unrealistic. That means Drew gonna become a very rich man whether he takes it not.

Oats out

I posted that above. Since NIL, he has not done well in the NCAAT but has still won at a very high level in regular season and earned high seed in NCAAT. Clearly hasn’t had recent success in single elimination setting.

Agree kinda. Except most of the historical blue bloods will be the ones willing to spend the most on this business. UNC, Kentucky, Kansas. Also - Purdue and UConn are about to tip off tonight, and I seriously doubt they have top payrolls.

He's made it to the Sweet 16 or further 15 times.

During NIL era: Calipari's UK teams are 71-30 past 3 seasons. For example, Chris Beard was 67-31 his final three years at TT before Texas hired him. They have been 3 seed, 6 seed and 2 seed. All three of those teams have been upset the first weekend of the NCAAT. Cal clearly had talent and he clearly coached that talent. They were very good teams that lost early in a single elimination tournament. It happens. All you can do is put yourself in the best position you can. Its going to be very interesting to watch. IMO, it worked out for all parties. Cal could've gone to a Final 4 next year and UK fans would've wanted him out. Plus, he will have NIL backing

There's absolutely nothing to indicate that Dannyelle or Mariah Musselman had bad experiences in Fayetteville. They had tons of friends and were very active in the community. With her daughter entering HS, Dannyelle does want to get back into media, and LA is one million times better for that than Fayetteville. As an Arkansas fan, I loved Muss. But he did what he does. He burned out over 5 years. I wish he would've stayed, but I did have doubts about him having similar success at Arkansas in the future. 5 years ago, he was cutting edge when it came to the portal. Now, everyone does it. The group he brought in this year was the worst collection of personalities and mismatched talent I've seen in 5 years. He also absolutely burned through assistant coaches. I'll be interested to see who he can bring in at USC as an assistant. But USC just made sense for him. We always knew he wanted to end up back in California. And he was never a small college town kind of guy. He gets to start over with a new contract and live where he wants to live. He's older than you think. About to turn 60. Arkansas was really the first time he made "real coaching money." We weren't going to extend his current deal and now he gets what may be his last big lick at USC. He will do good things there. May or may not last long, but I think he will be happy.

He's probably getting the USC job (although he has zero leverage with his contract with this leaking). But if he didn't, it would be a wild situation. Interviewing for another job surely isn't breach of contract. If it is, hundred of coaches breach their contract all the time. If Arkansas wanted to dire him, they would have to pay $11-12 million to buyout his contract.

I don't know if y'all have followed the hilarity of the Arkansas situation. Obviously Muss's name has been mentioned for a number of jobs and fans have wondered why the rumors haven't been addressed by Muss or Arkansas. Well, Hunter Yurachek tweets this out last Thursday And at first, everyone assumes its their way of announcing Muss is staying, extension, etc. They announced his extension in 2021 in a similar fashion (see below). Then it starts to come out that Muss had no idea that Yurachek was going to tweet that. And you realize he just took the old video and added 3 seconds to the end. Then Yurachek goes on some rinky dink podcast yesterday and confirms that it was just a joke and he filmed it on his own. You can read into it multiple ways. Yurachek is just a meathead with a dumb sense of humor who pushed a coach out the door. Or he just sped up an inevitable exit and has a plan for his replacement.