Mitch Barnhart laughed as he watched Coach Matthew Mitchell dance with his players on the Memorial Coliseum floor Sunday night.

The Kentucky athletics director couldn't help himself.

"This has been a great journey with him," Barnhart said of Mitchell, who on Sunday guided UK to its first Southeastern Conference regular-season title in 30 years.

Barnhart doesn't want that journey to end any time soon, so he's already working to renegotiate the coach's contract.

"We're well down that road," Barnhart said. "I want Matthew to be here a long, long time."

Mitchell's name likely will come up for several openings around the country. Two years ago, UK gave the coach a significant pay raise and a rolling five-year deal worth more than $600,000 a season plus incentives.

Barnhart said he's changed his mind on the rolling contract and indicated he'd like to lock in Mitchell for something more long-term.

"Hopefully we'll have a chance to finalize that fairly quickly," Barnhart said. "We've had some good conversations. It's just a matter of working out the rest of the details and getting it done."

Those discussions likely will include UK's assistant coaches.

"He and his staff have done a remarkable job," Barnhart said. "We've got a good group and we want to keep them together."

When Mitchell met with the media after Sunday's net-cutting ceremony, he sounded like a coach who would like to be at UK for a long time.

"There are things that happen here with the fans and the opportunities we receive that always make me stop and feel real fortunate to be coaching here," he said. "I hope we can continue to build a program here that everyone can be proud of and that it's something that's built to last."