My understanding of the modern game of basketball is superficial. I admit that.



As a player, I retired from competitive basketball before Chuck Daly's Fighting Laimbeers Pistons (and their enabler, David Stern) turned Naismith's game into what we used to call "Caveman" basketball. For me, this transformation was officially confirmed when Eddie Sutton and later Bill Self had their teams suit up for practice in pads borrowed from the football team.



But I digress. In assessing the landscape that Rick Barnes' successor will inherit, it occurs to me that the UT basketball program has a great deal in common with the basketball program at Florida.



Both are among the "Haves" in college athletics. Both are attractive destinations for coaches and players. Both are unquestionably football schools playing in football conferences.

Both of their respective conferences also feature a legendary basketball program that is a perennial Final Four contender. At present, both legendary programs are being coached by future Hall of Famers who are nevertheless young enough to coach for another 20 years.



Since 1996, Florida under Billy Donovan has managed to win two national championships, to go along with two other Final Four appearances, 4 SEC tournament championships and 6 regular season SEC championships.



Equally important from my perspective, it strikes me as anything but certain that Donovan will be outcoached when Florida plays Kentucky.



With that, these are my questions:



1. Is it reasonable to expect that the coach hired to replace Rick Barnes can achieve what Donovan has achieved at Florida?



2. Is it fair to expect the coach hired to replace Rick Barnes to achieve roughly what Donovan has accomplished at Florida?



3. If the answers to 1 and 2 are "Yes," what realistic candidates are the best bets to do so?

