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.

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.

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.