I still can’t believe it and know I’m not alone.

John Calipari leaving Kentucky for Arkansas felt like a message board fantasy that a couple of fake blue checks would tweet out with zero credibility behind it. As my guy Nick Roush of Kentucky Sports Radio pointed out, imagine telling an Arkansas fan that within 4 months, AD Hunter Yurachek would bring back Bobby Petrino and hire Calipari to replace USC-bound Eric Musselman.

What a time to be alive.

If I’m a Kentucky fan, this day is not bittersweet. It’s sweet. The Cats won’t be on the hook for that reported $33 million that it would’ve taken to fire Calipari, who is still sitting on 1 SEC Tournament game win and 1 NCAA Tournament game win in the 2020s. The 4th consecutive disappointing end to a season that included neither an SEC crown (regular season or conference tournament) nor a trip to the Sweet 16 was the sign that Calipari’s time in Lexington had run its course.

You know this. What you/all of us don’t know is what’s next.

If I’m Kentucky athletic director Mitch Barnhart, my primary target to replace Calipari is Nate Oats.

But what about the $18 million buyout following Oats’ latest extension, which was announced during the SEC Tournament? Couldn’t that prevent a team from poaching the Alabama coach?

Sure. But there’s no world in that should even be a speed bump for Kentucky, much less a roadblock.

Last I checked, UK didn’t get stuck with that $33 million buyout for Calipari, so paying $18 million is still $15 million cheaper than what this could’ve been to turn the page.

Well before Oats signed that March extension to make him 1 of the 5 highest-paid coaches in the sport — that move also came before he led Alabama to its first Final Four in program history — he discussed that buyout as it relates to his desire to stay in Tuscaloosa.

“The buyout is big for a reason,” Oats said in February 2023 (H/T Tuscaloosa News). “I don’t plan on leaving for anywhere. I was a high school teacher not long ago. I’m not paying a $12 million buyout.”

Oats is right … but also wrong. He wouldn’t be asked to pay a $12 million (that’s what it was pre-2024 extension). Kentucky would. Kentucky should.

In this adapt-or-die world, Oats did what Calipari couldn’t. His 3-point heavy, up-tempo offense would thrive with the elite talent he’d pull in. The “can he pull in talent” question is the least relevant when you consider he already did that at Alabama. And when Oats had to bring in 9 new players after leading the Tide to the No. 1 overall seed in the 2023 NCAA Tournament, what did he do? He found ideal system fits in the transfer portal like Grant Nelson (North Dakota State), Aaron Estrada (Hofstra) and Latrell Wrightsell Jr. (Cal State Fullerton).

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If you’ve been following the sport, you know that Oats didn’t climb to the top of it just for the 2023-24 season. He’s 1 of 6 coaches who led a school to 3 trips to the Sweet 16 during the 2020s. Oats’ proof-of-concept success even predates his 2021 and 2023 sweeps of the SEC regular season and conference tournament titles. In consecutive years, he won an NCAA Tournament game at Buffalo. Like, a program that had never won an NCAA Tournament game before he arrived.

The system works. It would work at Kentucky because we just saw it work in the SEC. The question could be whether Oats would ever be willing to leave.

Did he really want that buyout to be big because he truly intends to stay at Alabama for the rest of his career? Or did he want to make that buyout big so that only the Kentuckys of the world could possibly poach him? Time will tell.

If there’s one looming issue for Alabama, it’s not the compensation or Oats’ relationship with AD Greg Byrne. It’s the facility. Rupp Arena underwent a $310 million renovation that was completed in 2022. A much-needed renovation to Coleman Coliseum, meanwhile, is on hold because of rising construction costs. Maybe Oats feels that’s the last piece to a championship puzzle, or maybe he doesn’t. He’s still been able to sign McDonald’s All-Americans even without the luxury of having a premier venue.

One would think any part of a potential sell from Barnhart would include that. It has to. One would also think no matter who Barnhart pursues, he’ll relish the chance to brag about UK’s facilities instead of hearing from his head coach about the “unacceptable” practice facility.

Oats isn’t going to be the guy who’ll complain about facilities. He’s been a willing, patient soldier at Alabama. After all, as he said, he was a high school teacher not long ago. For now, he’s not the guy who talks about what’s holding him back. He’s not the guy who showed an ounce of jealousy toward the always-will-be-king football program in Tuscaloosa.

If that’s not music to Barnhart’s ears, I don’t know what is.

It’s not that this search should be Oats-or-bust. There are plenty of people who could be set up to lead Kentucky back to its 2010s self. Baylor’s Scott Drew would draw rave reviews, as would a certain St. John’s coach who did do great things at Kentucky in the 1990s. If Rick Pitino’s former UK assistant, Billy Donovan, decided that his NBA itch had been scratched and that he was ready to get back into the college game, he could probably work wonders in the conference that he dominated for nearly 2 decades.

Shoot, if Dan Hurley decided that Kentucky was … OK. Just kidding. We’ve gotta draw the line somewhere.

All of these are good, perhaps even great options. But Oats is 1-of-1 in the sport right now. He checks every box that a Calipari successor should check. The only box that’s left to check is obvious — does Oats want UK as much as UK should want him?

It’s up to Barnhart to turn that into a resounding “yes.”