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Scott Drew will not be the next head coach of Kentucky Basketball.
According to Matt Norlander, Drew has passed on the Wildcats.
Kentucky had targeted Drew to replace John Calipari, who is leaving to become the next head coach of the Arkansas Razorbacks.
Drew began his coaching career as an assistant for Valparaiso under his father, Homer Drew. Following his father’s retirement in 2002, Drew became the head coach of Valparaiso for one season before leaving for the Baylor Bears.
Drew has been in Waco since 2003, taking over the program in August of that year due to a scandal within the program before he arrived, which led to the firing of Dave Bliss. It was a scandal so deep that it led to the program being put on probation until 2010 and lost a year of non-conference play in the 2005-06 season, among other punishments.
It was as close to the death penalty as a school can get, and it made for one of the biggest rebuilding jobs ever seen in a Power Five conference.
Oh, and even before the scandal, Baylor had just four NCAA Tournament appearances all time and one since 1950.
After four losing seasons to start off his career in Waco, Drew led Baylor to a breakthrough in the 2007-08 season, guiding the Bears to a 21-11 finish and an NCAA Tournament berth. Baylor would go 24-15 the following season as the NIT runner-up.
The 2009-10 season was when Drew really rose to national prominence, as he led the Bears to a 28-8 finish before losing to Duke in the Elite Eight. It was the first time in program history that Baylor even made a Sweet 16.
Two years later, Drew led Baylor to a 30-8 record while losing to Anthony Davis-led Kentucky in the Elite Eight. That’s two losses to the eventual national champions.
Drew would lead Baylor to the NCAA Tournament in five of the next six seasons. They were well on their way to doing it again in the 2019-20 season, finishing 26-4 before COVID-19 nixed the NCAA Tournament.
The following year was when Drew finally broke through to his first Final Four, and he made the most of it, as the Bears went on to beat previously unbeaten Gonzaga for the NCAA Championship.
For his career, Drew has a 466–255 coaching record (64.6%).
On to the next one for Kentucky.
The Kentucky program is one of the gold standards in all of men’s college basketball, but its coaching search is not exactly going according to plan after John Calipari departed for the Arkansas Razorbacks.
Basketball insider Adam Zagoria relayed a text message from another college basketball coach on Thursday, which said, “It’s getting embarrassing, Danny no, Nate no, Scott no !!! People understand how difficult that job is and they don’t want to follow CAL !!!!”
The text referenced UConn’s Dan Hurley, Alabama’s Nate Oats and Baylor’s Scott Drew all turning down the job. It also came after Jon Rothstein of CBS Sports reported Drew elected to stay with the Bears.
Hurley seemed like the best candidate after leading UConn to back-to-back national titles, but he told Colin Cowherd of FS1 he was solely focused on going for a three-peat:
“I’ve come a long way since being a high school coach 15 years ago,” he also said. “I’ve got a long career of turning down jobs or more money to stay in places where I was happy or fit me.”
As for Oats, he said he is “fully committed” to Alabama and has no plans on leaving:
Drew was the latest domino and now leaves the Wildcats in something of an uncomfortable position as they search for their next head coach.
While things didn’t go particularly well for Calipari during the latter portion of his tenure at Kentucky with first-round NCAA tournament losses to 15th-seeded Saint Peter’s in 2022 and 14th-seeded Oakland in 2024, he still found plenty of success as a national champion who reached four Final Fours and won six SEC regular-season titles and six SEC tournament crowns.
This is also a Kentucky program with eight national championships and 17 Final Four appearances that consistently sends players to the NBA level.
It would seemingly be a dream job for many coaches, but the high-profile ones the Wildcats have targeted have not jumped at the opportunity to take it.
It is still early in the process with seemingly other candidates to sort through, but at least one college basketball coach believes the process has already turned into a problem for the SEC powerhouse.
Here are two things Kentucky fans aren’t used to hearing:
One, that their coach would leave the blue-blood school for SEC rival Arkansas.
And two, that the head coach at Baylor would rather stay put than head to Lexington.
In the second massive shunning of the Wildcats, Baylor coach Scott Drew has passed on becoming the next Kentucky coach in light of John Calipari’s exit.
“In our program, we strive to put Jesus first, then others, then ourselves,” Drew tweeted late Thursday morning. “We truly believe God has called my family and I to continue our work here at Baylor, surrounded by the best people and community anyone could be blessed to have. We are grateful for the support of Mack Rhoades, President [Linda] Livingstone and the entire Baylor Family, and we look forward to working together to bring more championships to Waco.”
That Drew is foregoing the chance to lead the Wildcats is an absolutely stunning development with wide-range ramifications for college basketball.
Drew had emerged as the Wildcats’ top option, according to ESPN, while other top candidates had publicly said they would not be headed to Kentucky, and he seemed like a natural fit.
The 53-year-old is one of seven active head coaches to have won a national title, turning Baylor from afterthought into one of the best programs in the sport.
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