A portion of our fanbase will never like anyone. It's not always the same people, but we still have a bunch of idiots who are seriously butthurt over Self leaving for Kansas 20 years ago. And others upset that we hired Bruce Weber instead of Thad Matta. Every fanbase has these people, but I think we have more vocal "perpetual malcontents" than many.
But you're not wrong - we have lost a lot of games this season in ways that are very disappointing and troubling, and which do not inspire a ton of confidence in how things are going. We might just have a shitty/uncoachable roster somehow, and our lack of depth at PG is a real problem, but the fact that we could beat anyone or lose to anyone on any given night doesn't elicit a ton of faith in the leadership.
I don't think our AD would let him go without a big fight, and while I count myself among the concerned and annoyed based on how this team has fizzled, and how all of our tournament exits under BU have gone down, I think it would be nuts to let him get away right now.
But if he did, my first call would be to Dennis Gates at MizNoz.
For what little it's worth, some of "insiders" at Illinois seem to think that Calipari is the most likely to end up at Texas due to interest on both sides, with Jerome Tang (reportedly not interested), Eric Musselman, and Underwood as the next tier of targets. Allegedly, CDC personally dislikes Sean Miller. No idea how reliable this is though...