Kentucky Basketball: 20 candidates to replace John Calipari as Head Coach

Mick Cronin

Kentucky is a major opening so we’re even looking at the head coach of a fellow Blue Blood program. Cronin has been head coach at UCLA for the last half decade but much of his success in his career came much closer to Lexington.

A Cincinnati native, he was an assistant for Bob Huggins at Cincinnati and Rick Pitino at Louisville before his first head coaching experience at Murray State. Cronin had a great 13-year run leading the Bearcats, making numerous NCAA Tournament appearances. He took that UCLA job in 2019 and had the Bruins in the Final Four in just his second season, though his team mightily struggled this past season.

Could Cronin desire a proactive move back to the Midwest? If struggles continue at UCLA, he might not have as much time left in Westwood, and he has an attractive enough resume to be seriously considered. Again, Cronin is not going to be high up on the initial list of candidates, but he’s shown to be a winner at Cincinnati and has experience coaching in the state of Kentucky. He’s a name to think about if Kentucky gets a few no’s right off the bat.