DeWayne Peevy a finalist for DePaul AD job

Kentucky just lost assistant coach Kenny Payne to the Knicks, and they could be losing DeWayne Peevy as well.

Peevy, who is Kentucky's deputy director of athletics, is one of two finalists for the athletic director opening at DePaul, according to The Chicago Tribune.

DePaul has narrowed its search for a new athletic director, and sources say the leading candidates are DeWayne Peevy, the deputy athletic director at Kentucky, and Northwestern’s Mike Polisky.

While one insider believes Peevy will be offered the job, another source said no decision has been made.

Peevy and Payne have been major players for Kentucky basketball, so losing them both in the same week would be a tough blow for the program. Peevy is well-known and greatly respected within the school, as well as the SEC.

AL.com recently labeled Peevy as one of the SEC’s “Behind-the-Scenes Power Players.”

It is only a matter of time before the man who has John Calipari’s complete trust becomes an athletic director. The Birmingham native has worked his way up through the PR ranks, from the Gulf South Conference to his alma mater Montevallo to the SEC and, finally, to Kentucky. Peevy spent four years as Kentucky’s basketball SID, where he famously got Calipari to embrace Twitter (he now has 1.6 million followers), before transitioning to deputy AD in 2013. He currently handles a lot of the department’s day-to-day operations and oversees men’s basketball, among other duties. With relationships at every level of the conference, AL.com’s sources paint Peevy as well-liked as one can be in SEC circles. Kentucky AD Mitch Barnhart has a terrific track record of developing future ADs — Alabama’s Greg Byrne, Florida’s Scott Stricklin and Oregon’s Rob Mullens, to name a few — and Peevy will be the next one to make the jump.

Now we wait.