Katz: Barnes Says No To Kentucky

Has Kentucky been spurned twice in one day?

Andy Katz is reporting that that Texas' Rick Barnes will reject Kentucky's offer to become the next head coach of Kentucky basketball.

Matt Jones at Kentucky Sports Radio responds with a blog entry entitled "Thank Goodness!!!!"

Andy Katz says Rick Barnes is out of the search.....please be correct!
Rob Bromley says that he was inside the huddle and that Mike D'antoni contacted UK....who knows

Pick Gillispie......

... which seems a reasonable indicator of the Big Blue Nation's reaction to the possibility of Barnes in the bluegrass. The problem: now that Donovan is out of the mix, there is no clear second choice for Kentucky's fans. It seems likely that "Coach ~~Second~~ Third Choice" will be somewhat embattled from the very start at the U of K, and that's a shame. If any of the big names being bandied about for the coaching position at Kentucky -- including Billy Gillespie, Tom Crean, Mark Few, and Tom Izzo -- say 'yes' to Mitch Barnhart, the Wildcats will find themselves in a position to be competitive again relatively quickly.

However, if one or two more coaches reject Kentucky, the Big Blue Nation will be forced to wonder whether the job which they think is the best coaching gig in the nation really is all that it once was. In addition to Donovan, John Calipari, Rick Pitino, Jim Boeheim and Jay Wright have all publicly stated they'd be uninterested in any overtures from Kentucky. (Not that Kentucky would be likely to offer Boeheim, but what the hell, he said any coach would be crazy to take the job. I'm pretty sure that means he'd say no.)