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John Calipari is the new University of Kentucky basketball coach! It's Finally Official!!
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After over a day of deliberation, John Calipari is apparently headed to Kentucky.
The coach accepted an offer to leave Memphis to resurrect the Wildcats' program on Tuesday, ESPN's Dick Vitale has confirmed. The move was first reported by the Memphis Commercial Appeal.
ESPN.com's Andy Katz reported on Monday that the deal would be for eight years and approximately $35 million dollars, making Calipari the highest-paid coach in the college ranks.
John Calipari has decided to leave Memphis to jump-start Kentucky's program.
Sources told ESPN.com that Kentucky began planning for a Wednesday announcement earlier Tuesday. The Lexington television affiliate that has the school's athletic broadcast contract was told to prepare for an announcement in the late morning or early afternoon, and plans were made to transport Calipari by private plane to an airport near Lexington.
Earlier Tuesday, former Kentucky coach Joe B. Hall said Calipari was having "difficulty" making up his mind about accepting the Wildcats offer and was trying to get as much information as he can before deciding.
Hall said he and Calipari talked for about 15 to 20 minutes on Tuesday.
"He talked about the difficulty in making the decision and wanted to establish a relationship in case he came to Kentucky, somebody he could bounce things off of," Hall said. "He had not made up his mind. He was trying to get all the info he could."
Kentucky president Lee Todd told reporters before a scheduled meeting with UK students on campus that the school was "working on it" when asked about the coaching search. He then cut short any speculation during his remarks.
"I won't be talking about playing styles or coaching or things of that nature," Todd said. "We have a process in place. It's active, I would say."
Calipari stopped by a Memphis doughnut shop he frequents on Tuesday, where he told some of the regulars that he needed to make a decision by the afternoon.
Calipari certainly seemed to be Kentucky's choice to succeed Billy Gillispie.
The school received permission to talk to Calipari on Monday, though Memphis athletic director R.C. Johnson said the program would do whatever it takes to keep the coach who has spent the last nine years turning the Tigers into a national power.
The Commercial Appeal reported that after meeting with his players Monday night, Calipari met with a number of influential Memphis boosters. While the meeting was at first said to be a last-ditch effort to persuade Calipari to stay, another source told the newspaper that Calipari was lobbying for Tony Barbee, the current coach at UTEP, to succeed him in Memphis. Barbee played for Calipari at Massachusetts and was previously his assistant at Memphis.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
March 31st: Former Memphis basketball coach John Calipari called former UK coach Joe B. Hall this afternoon to tell him he was coming to Kentucky and that he intended to start the job by connecting with former UK coaches out of respect for the school's basketball tradition.
"That was awfully nice of him," said Hall, who coached UK to the 1978 NCAA title.
Calipari replaces Billy Gillispie, who was fired Friday after two years on the job.
"Coach Cal is a hot item." Hall said. "He's a great coach as well as a superior recruiter. His track record speaks for itself. I think Kentucky was looking to do something dramatic in the face of all that has gone down."
Calipari also intends to speak with several other former Kentucky coaches, including Eddie Sutton and Tubby Smith. No word on whether his phone call list with include Rick Pitino or Billy Gillispie.
"I can't wait until next year when we host Louisville," Hall said. "That will be one hot ticket. Rick and Calipari wil go at it. They're too much alike."
By LARRY VAUGHT
larry@amnews.com
Sources have confirmed that the University of Kentucky has reached a deal with John Calipari to be the Wildcats' new basketball coach. No official announcement is scheduled today according to UK officials, but sources indicated Calipari will sign a $4 million per year contract anywhere in length from seven to 10 years. "It looks like eight years is going to be the magic number," said the source. Kentucky recruit Daniel Orton of Oklahoma has not heard from anyone at UK today about who will replace Billy Gillispie, who was fired Friday. However, his father, Larry, understands that Calipari is the likely choice. "Right now Daniel is still going to Kentucky until we get a chance to talk to Calipari," Larry Orton said based on the assumption that Calipari will be UK's next coach. Another source in Memphis indicated that Calipari had resigned and The Commercial Appeal, a Memphis newspaper, said Memphis guard C.J. Henry referred to Kentucky as the Notre Dame of basketball when he met with the team this morning. Kentucky acknowledged this afternoon that it had been given permission to talk to Calipari, who took Memphis to the Final Four last year and lost to Kansas in the title game. Carol Dennis, the mother of Memphis recruit Nolan Dennis, told The Commercial Appeal that the letter-of-intent her son signed last fall contained an addendum that would allow him to follow Calipari to another school. Two other highly-touted Memphis recruits, guard John Wall and center DeMarcus Cousins - have not yet signed with the Tigers and could also follow Calipari to Kentucky. "Imagine the bigs you could have with Patrick Patterson, Daniel, Matt Pilgrim and Perry Stevenson along with Cousins coming in. What an offense that would be," Larry Orton said. "Then you would have Jodie Meeks and maybe throw in John Wall and Nolan Dennis, who is as good as Wall. You are talking about automatic Final Four."
A Kentucky / Calipari Update
March 30th
Barring a breakdown in negotiations, the Kentucky job is John Calipari's to take, and the Memphis coach could verbally accept an informal offer in the next 24 hours, a source close to Calipari has told CBSSports.com. Meantime, The Commercial Appeal is reporting that Calipari met with the Memphis players Monday morning, and that "the players left the meeting convinced Calipari would take the job."
As of Monday morning, Kentucky still had not officially asked permission to speak with Calipari, but that's probably moot. The only reason to request permission is if an administrator wants to speak with another schools' coach, and sources have told CBSSports.com that Calipari is dealing with a third party representative working on behalf of Kentucky in an informal capacity, not necessarily UK "officials".
Sources added that Calipari spent Saturday night in Chicago visiting former Tiger and current Chicago Bull Derrick Rose. One of those sources said a meeting with a third party representative of UK could've taken place that night, or early Sunday morning.
Kentucky is searching for a replacement for Billy Gillispie.
He was fired last Friday after two seasons.
Coach John Calipari planned to spend Monday meeting with Memphis officials and contemplating what is expected to be a multiyear, multimillion-dollar offer to coach Kentucky, a source close to the situation said.
Jay Bilas tells Mike Greenberg and Doug Gottlieb that if he were John Calipari, he would definitely leave Memphis for Kentucky.
Calipari had a morning meeting with his players to discuss his interest in the Kentucky opening, and players came away convinced their coach would leave for Lexington, the Memphis Commercial Appeal reported, citing a source close to the situation.
Calipari met with Kentucky officials on Sunday at an undisclosed location, at which time he was given an outline on the length of a deal and contract dollars to succeed Billy Gillispie, the source said.
Kentucky acknowledged Monday that it had asked for, and received, permission from Memphis to speak to Calipari.
According to The Associated Press, Memphis athletic director R.C. Johnson said in a statement that the university will do whatever it can to retain Calipari, who has four years left on his contract paying him $2.35 million annually.
But more than money, Calipari has to decide if he wants to leave a program that he has transformed into a national championship contender for Kentucky, one of the most tradition-rich programs in the sport that has recently fallen upon hard times.
Calipari's top recruit, DeMarcus Cousins, has made an oral commitment to Memphis, but because national letters of intent do not have to be signed until next month, Cousins could easily follow Calipari to Kentucky if he were to become the Wildcats' coach.
Calipari has a longstanding rivalry with Louisville coach Rick Pitino, who coached Kentucky to a national championship in 1996, and would have the opportunity to go head-to-head with him within the borders of a state that considers college basketball to be the national pastime.
John Calipari has a big decision to make: carry on the good things he's done at Memphis or jump-start Kentucky's program.
Gillispie was fired on Friday after two seasons as coach of the Wildcats and a 40-27 record. Kentucky this year missed the NCAA tournament for the first time since 1991.
Kentucky athletic director Mitch Barnhart has said the search to replace Gillispie will focus on finding someone who can match the passion of the school's rabid fan base.
Calipari and Memphis advanced to the Sweet 16 this season despite losing three key pieces to 2008's national runner-up squad in Derrick Rose, Chris Douglas-Roberts and Joey Dorsey.
The Tigers lost 102-91 to Missouri on Thursday to end a 27-game winning streak, finishing 33-4 for their fourth straight 30-win campaign. Memphis is also the nation's only team with a No. 1 or No. 2 seed in the NCAA tournament the past four years.
Calipari, 252-69 in nine seasons at Memphis and 445-140 overall, was named the Sports Illustrated coach of the year before the start of the NCAA tournament, the first time he received SI's award. Calipari was the Naismith coach of the year last season, joining Duke's Mike Krzyzewski as the only coaches to be named twice to the award since its inception in 1987.
Calipari went 193-71 in eight seasons at Massachusetts from 1988 to 1996, culminating with an Elite Eight appearance in '95 and a trip to the Final Four in '96.
Calipari, a graduate of Clarion State (Pa.) in 1982, also coached the NBA's New Jersey Nets from 1996 to '98, going 72-112 before his ouster early in the 1998-99 season.
Andy Katz is a senior writer for ESPN.com. Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
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How freakin awesome is John Calipari going to be at Kentucky? My goodness, John Calipari has already brought in the #1 recruiting class in the country and UK will be ranked in the top 3. If John Wall commits to UK they will be #1 and will dominate! John Calipari rocks!