I saw this idea on John Clay’s blog yesterday and I figured I’d run with it, like I’ve seen a lot of other people doing.

The thought is this: Who is Mitch Barnhart’s Best Hire?

Clay gives a good list too: Rich Brooks, John Cohen, Mickie DeMoss, Craig Skinner and Billy Gillispie.

But if you want to know the best hire of them all, that’s easy. It’s John Cohen. Second place is a three-way tie between Brooks, DeMoss and Skinner. Gillispie gets last almost as a default, even though he worked a magical conference season.

But I think Cohen steals the show. Before Cohen showed up, you could have taken the top 10 high school teams in the state and beat the UK team. No joke. Cohen has openly said that one of their biggest problems in that first year was relaying signals because the players were too busy chatting up opponents. Wow.

And look at UK baseball now - SEC champion in 2006, regional host in 2006, a return to a regional this year, the expectation of winning a regional, and pretty soon a new baseball stadium.

And that’s what puts Cohen for UK baseball on top as the best hire. Yes, Rich Brooks has navigated from NCAA sanctions to back-to-back bowls and competitive seasons, but not too far before Brooks came Hal Mumme and Guy Morriss had the hopes of UK fans high as well. Good players were coming in and UK was winning games.

Mickie DeMoss immediately turned around the UK women’s basketball team, but left too early to actually grab a top spot, sorry.

Skinner, the volleyball coach, can challenge the top spot the most. He took the doormat of the SEC and has them contending for SEC titles. Back-to-back-to-back NCAA tournaments is a new standard for the volleyball program. Consider Skinner as the Cohen of the women’s side of UK Athletics.

And Gillispie has the potential, but I’m working with the present here. Cohen wins against all. And tonight, when UK baseball takes the field in Ann Arbor against Michigan at 7 p.m., hopefully John Cohen doesn’t make me look like a fool.

But when it comes down to it, Mitch Barnhart has a hiring touch. People in this state use to comment about Louisville AD Tom Jurich as a great hiring AD. I think Mitch Barnhart is telling Jurich to take some notes.