Dining with a Purpose: Kentucky Fans Flood Waco Eatery with Positive Reviews to Attract Coach Drew”
Scott Drew, the head coach of Baylor, is supposedly on Kentucky’s short list to succeed John Calipari after the 2012 national champion turned down the Wildcats earlier this week in favor of SEC opponent Arkansas. It seems that Kentucky fans are also hoping for him.
A significant segment of the fervent supporters of the “blue-blood” college basketball team, referred to as “Big Blue Nation,” appears to be fully committed to signing Drew. Drew guided the Bears to a national championship in 2021, capping a nearly two-decade program overhaul that is considered among the greatest in college basketball history. Under Drew, Baylor has advanced to 12 NCAA tournaments and three Elite Eights, whereas in the contemporary era, they had only one tournament berth.
On X, the former Twitter platform, Drew shared a photo of himself having lunch with a Baylor contributor amid rumors that Kentucky was scheduled to meet with him on Wednesday afternoon. Although the restaurant’s name, Mi Casita, is not mentioned in the post, it is evident from the menu. This led a fan to give the eatery a call in an effort to speak with Drew and personally recruit him. The fan claimed in a subsequent message to longtime Wildcats writer and founder of KentuckySportsRadio.com Matt Jones that the call was successful.
Then, Kentucky fans flooded the restaurant’s Google page with glowing five-star ratings in appreciation for its amazing (non-)customer service. One review said it was the “perfect venue to spend one last lunch with a friend before traveling 968 miles for a new job.” Waco, Texas, and Lexington, Kentucky, are 968 miles apart.
“No better way to celebrate a 5 million a year raise than with a $10 burrito you’ll have digested before a flight to Lexington,” another review said.
However, it appears that some of Baylor’s most well-known supporters will not let Drew go without a fight. After seeing a tweet advising him and Joanna to avoid Drew for the next four days, Chip Gaines, the popular Waco-based house repair reality television show presenter with his wife Joanna, cracked jokes.
On Wednesday, the people who live in Baylor’s bear habitat also had a message for Drew.
It is unclear how serious Drew is about moving from Baylor to Kentucky. According to a rumor from Waco, Drew was seriously considering leaving Baylor, while another report from Lexington suggested he had received an offer to become the head coach of the Wildcats.
All three of Drew’s children were raised in Waco; two of them are Waco high school students and one attends Baylor. In a similar vein to UConn coach and reigning national champion Dan Hurley, who played down the likelihood that he would accept the Kentucky position this week, Drew has previously stated that his family will play a significant role in his choice regarding his future at Baylor.
[Related: Dan Hurley: Prospective three-peat for UConn is the only thing on everyone’s mind]
In relation to Hurley, Gaines also joked about him.
In any case, only one man can properly predict how Kentucky and Baylor’s future will unfold, and Scott Drew has not yet made his decision, if he has made one at all.
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