Once Mike Krzyzewski decided to exit as Duke head man after the 2021-22 season, the Blue Devils search appeared to be limited to Coach K’s coaching tree. Ultimately, Duke elevated assistant Jon Scheyer to the top spot.

Rather than star chasing, could Kentucky seek to develop its own replacement for Calipari?

Among the dwindling number of ex-UK players in major college head coaching jobs, BYU’s Mark Pope is the most successful. But Pope, who has two NCAA Tournament trips and no Big Dance wins, needs more postseason success to be a viable candidate at Kentucky.

The justly maligned Calipari coaching tree has yielded only one sustained success — Morehead State’s Preston Spradlin. In theory, the former UK aide would need to make an intervening head coaching move to a larger school and continue to succeed to be worthy of Kentucky consideration.

However, what if UK brought Spradlin back as, say, associate head coach and put him in charge of “fixing” Kentucky’s struggling defense? Could he earn his way into UK head-coaching consideration by succeeding at that?

Finally, at age 28, Tyler Ulis has spent the past two seasons on the Kentucky bench as a student assistant while the former NBA point guard finishes his college degree.

Beloved by UK fans from his Wildcats playing days and a person with immense leadership qualities, could Ulis, after first becoming a full-time Kentucky assistant, then emerge with further experience as a home-grown Wildcats head-coaching candidate like Davis at UNC and Scheyer at Duke?

“Developing a head man” would be a radical departure from how UK has historically filled its men’s basketball coaching position.

What seems certain is that the task of hiring the next men’s basketball coach at Kentucky is coming soon. UK needs to have a well-thought-out plan for that day now.

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