Kentucky needed buy-in from their fans. Kentucky fans are ruthless and when Calipari left, they had hopes for some BIG names. They thought they could steal Dan Hurley from Uconn. They thought they could get Scott Drew from Baylor. Their top choices did not work out. Then ended up getting a great coach in Pope, but although he's an alumnus, his resume doesn't pop like the others. So, they needed to get buy-in. How do you get buy-in? Let people see how energetic, emotional, and fun he can be! He does great in front of a crowd, so get him a crowd! Absolutely no knock on Pope, he's a great coach and I hope he does well, but at the time of the press conference, a packed arena is what they needed. His presence there had palpable energy. They needed a packed house so the fanbase could buy-in for the hire.

BYU lost Pope. It sucked. They were down. How in the world could they replace him? Well, they ended up with a home-run hire of THE top assistant coach in the NBA. Is there fan concern about the hire? No. There is excitement. How is the national media reacting? Nothing . . . But . . . PRAISE. See tweets by Jeff Goodman, Suns personnel and beat writers, Adrian Wojnarowski, Fran Fraschilla, Jon Rothstein, and a myriad of others. Everyone knows it's a great hire and huge for BYU! I still can't believe it. And then, when the salary got leaked, it floored me even more! BYU is showing up! They are serious about being competitive! No need to get buy-in. It's here across the industry.

This is exciting times! I'm very much looking forward to basketball season!