Full time UK / part-time Baylor fan here. As someone who lives in Lexington, bleeds blue, and tracks all things UK men's bball, while simultaneously cheering for Baylor every chance I get, here's my take on a few things from "our side". Sorry it's so long, I'm on vacation in FL and have nothing else to do
TLDR: UK bball is a machine that's gotten rusty because Cal no longer cares about maintenance. Drew would at least grease the gears consistently. At best, he'd get rid of the machine completely and we'd all love Jesus together and forget about this silly game.
- To understand my perspective on Cal/Drew, you need some background. Lexington is a predominantly college-educated, liberal, artsy, horseracing and bourbon cash-rich city full of gen-x / millennial / gen z opinions. Those voices probably don't see Drew as a great fit because he isn't making what they'd consider a lateral or downward move to us. Outside of Lexington though, the state is largely Bible-believing, down-to-earth, hard-working, Republicans who recognize Drew's success and like what he personally stands for. That said, the booster money at UK is largely boomers. They are successful businessmen and horse industry giants who understand that building something great takes time and generally, lots of money. UK basketball is a business to them, so they won't be swayed by message boards and Twitter posts. That's who Mitch Barnhart listens to.
- UK fans take on Coach Cal: When Cal was first hired, most fans held him at arm's length, given that he was a used car salesman with sketchy situations at UMass and Memphis, as well as failed stints in the NBA. They didn't trust his freshman-heavy, one-and-done philosophy, but most eventually softened to it/him. From 2010-2019, he was VERY accessible to fans and media, and seemed to mesh well with admin. Post-Covid however, something changed. He was slow to embrace the transfer portal, and seemed progressively further away from media and fans. Much of his communication was generic coach-speak. Since '20-'21, we'd have a decent season, look promising, and then bomb out of the tournament. Each year, Cal would recycle the same excuses, citing some unique challenge or issue or freak performance from an opposing team, but after this year's quick exit, Cal was at odds with EVERYONE - fans, Mitch, media, boosters, and UK people related to the program. It was toxic all around and once again, instead of being humble and attempting to rectify things or even acknowledging that he needed help figuring it out, he doubled down on his coach-speak and Cal-isms. For most of us, we didn't want him gone solely because of the losses, it just felt like he was bored and apathetic and unwilling to change. Cal's philosophy of "We're developing players for the NBA, winning games is a natural by-product..." was great while those players were winning, but when you're losing repeatedly and your coach looks like he's always on his way to or from the golf course (both physically and mentally), it sounds more like, "Getting players to the NBA to make a bunch of money and drive fancy cars is more important than this program..." which is a really hard pill to swallow, while also losing games.
- UK fans take on Scott Drew: The above perspective on Coach Cal has given many fans a reason to like all that Scott Drew is about. I've read tons of posts on this board about how Drew's culture of joy wouldn't translate to UK. I disagree. I think it's exactly what we're looking for. Cal has created a distrustful, strenuous relationship with everyone, and I think Drew's positivity would be, quite literally, a God-send.
Scott Drew's pitch (as I understand it) is, "I develop the man over the program." If the team isn't winning, as a fan, it's much easier to be patient when you genuinely trust the coach's motives, and like the guy. Contrary to what many believe, most UK fans just want and expect to be competitive. We expect to enjoy games and be proud of the type of men, and players, our university is developing. And we want to make it out of the first weekend of the tourney more often than not! For the past few years, we've had some regular season successes, some big wins, and have pushed some pretty good players into the NBA. But those things feel pretty hollow when we have like 1 post-season win, and the roster is almost brand-new each season with very few proven, dependable pieces. There's nothing that offers confidence that each year won't just be the same pattern repeated.
On top of that, one of the biggest complaints about Cal is his inability or lack of desire to implement actual technical and strategic disciplines. Scripted inbounds plays? Yeah right! Zone defense? Ha! Never. Our players rarely adjust effectively to different strategies thrown at them mid-game, and we usually look completely unprepared for complex off/def movement. Cal's philosophy has always been, "If you have real athletes, high-quality basketball players, and give them the tools to win, they'll make enough of the right decisions at the end of games." Unfortunately, it just hasn't worked out like that. We need a coach that will coach.
- Professionally, I really like Scott Drew for all of the reasons listed above. As a Christian however, I'm more hopeful for what I believe is a necessary reminder to our university and state that life is more than basketball, and these players are just kids who need direction and love, they're not a business. I'm hopeful that Scott Drew would see this as an opportunity to share his joy on the biggest stage possible (while maybe winning some games). And hopefully, that culture would allow for the growth of high-quality young men who make great decisions in life, not just at the end of games.
