By Dan Wolken
Memphis Commercial Appeal
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
After nearly a full day of reflection and struggle, John Calipari decided today to accept the head coaching job at Kentucky and leave the University of Memphis, according to a source close to Calipari.
The Louisville Courier-Journal and Lexington Herald-Leader reported that Calipari called former Kentucky coach Joe B. Hall to discuss the program and its tradition.
Calipari leaves Memphis after nine seasons, the last four of which elevated the Tigers’ program to heights never before seen in school history, including an appearance in the 2008 NCAA championship game.
Calipari’s deal at Kentucky is expected to be in the range of $5 million per year. Despite those mega-numbers, which will make Calipari the highest-paid coach in college basketball by a wide margin, Memphis had indeed offered a better deal, according to sources close to the process.
On Monday afternoon, just when it appeared certain Calipari would accept Kentucky’s deal, he met with influential Memphians including William B. Dunavant, John Stokes and Paul Tudor Jones, according to a source. Later in the night, Fred Smith went to Calipari’s house for a meeting.
Their last-ditch efforts to get Calipari to stay included a lucrative retirement package and incentives that one Memphis booster described as unique.
Late into Monday evening, a source closely connected to Calipari described the situation as “intense” and said Calipari was divided about whether to leave. He showed up at Gibson’s Donuts in East Memphis on Tuesday morning and indicated he would make a decision in the afternoon.
The program will now move to its first coaching search since 2000, when the program was in deep turmoil following the departure of Tic Price. Among the names at the top of the list should be Missouri coach Mike Anderson, Southern California coach Tim Floyd and perhaps Ole Miss coach Andy Kennedy.
There could also be massive fallout from the current recruiting class and roster.
“I could get out of my letter of intent if he wasn’t there for any reason,” top recruit Xavier Henry told reporters at the McDonald’s All-American game in Miami on Tuesday. “It re-opens my whole recruitment to everybody and anybody.”
Calipari by the numbers
445-140: Record in 20 years as coach at Massachusetts, New Jersey Nets, Memphis
252-69: Record in nine years at Memphis
130: Number of Memphis victories in nine previous years before Calipari
117-25: Conference USA record under Calipari
137: Number of victories under Calipari the past four years, an NCAA record
7: Number of Tigers taken in NBA Draft after coaching by Calipari (Dajuan Wagner, Antonio Burks, Rodney Carney, Shawne Williams, Derrick Rose, Joey Dorsey, Chris Douglas-Roberts)
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© 2009 Scripps Newspaper Group — Online
Reports: Calipari To Leave Memphis For Kentucky
Nikki Boertman/The Commercial Appeal
University of Memphis basketball coach John Calipari resigned and will take the head coaching position at the University of Kentucky.
By WILL GRAVES, AP Sports
LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP)—John Calipari has accepted an offer to leave Memphis to coach the tradition-rich Kentucky basketball program, according to reports.
The coach sent a text message to ESPN.com’s Andy Katz on Tuesday evening saying, “I am accepting the UK job! Go Big Blue, coach Cal.”
Calipari spent the day considering the Wildcats’ lucrative offer and calling former Kentucky coaches, including Joe B. Hall.
Hall said the informal chat centered on what it takes to survive one of college basketball’s most prestigious, most scrutinized and most lucrative jobs. Kentucky fired Billy Gillispie last Friday after two disappointing seasons.
The Commercial Appeal of Memphis, Tenn., first reported the hiring.
The deal Calipari is expected to sign could reach eight years and pay more than $4 million per season, an unidentified source told SI.com.
Tigers walk-on Preston Laird said Calipari met with the team Tuesday afternoon, first as a group and then with individual players, including Laird. The freshman guard described the meeting as very quiet, “Nobody really said anything.”
“He started off by telling us it was the hardest day of his life,” Laird said.
But the guard said Calipari wasn’t very specific.
“He can’t say that he’s taking it, but he said he was probably going to sign the contract,” Laird told a reporter.
Kentucky spokesman DeWayne Peevy would not confirm a deal had been reached.
“I’m waiting on my boss to tell me it’s a done deal,” he said.
University of Memphis spokesman Bob Winn confirmed athletic director R.C. Johnson had spoken with Calipari. Asked if Calipari had told Johnson he was taking the Kentucky job, Winn declined to comment.
“I can confirm that he has told R.C. (Johnson) that he is headed to Lexington, Ky., this evening,” Winn told The Associated Press.
Memphis has scheduled a news conference for noon Wednesday where Johnson will discuss the future of the Memphis basketball program.
Hoping to make a big splash after Gillispie’s tenure, Kentucky is expected to go deep into its pockets to land one of the nation’s most high-profile coaches.
The deal likely would make Calipari the highest-paid coach in the country, eclipsing the $3.5 million average salary of Florida’s Billy Donovan and dwarf those of Calipari’s predecessors Rick Pitino, Tubby Smith and Gillispie.
Pitino never made more than $2 million a season during his remarkably successful eight-year run at the school. Smith’s compensation neared $2.1 million at the end of his decade with the program and Gillispie received a base salary of $2.3 million with another $750,000 available in incentives.
The salary nearly triples the $1.6 million salary of Kentucky football coach Rich Brooks, a rarity in a conference where football reigns.
Calipari already was one of the highest-paid coaches in the country, signing an extension with Memphis last year that paid him $2.35 million annually.
Memphis had promised to match whatever Kentucky offers, but the Wildcats have one thing Memphis doesn’t: the opportunity to coach in a top-flight conference at the home of college basketball’s winningest program.
It’ll be seen as money well spent if Calipari can duplicate the success that’s followed him throughout his collegiate coaching career.
He put together turnarounds at Massachusetts and Memphis, winning over 440 games in 17 seasons and leading both schools to a Final Four.
Putting the pieces together at Kentucky might not take long, though the program has plenty of question marks.
The Wildcats went 22-14 this year, missing the NCAA tournament for the first time since 1991 despite having two of the SEC’s best players in guard Jodie Meeks and forward Patrick Patterson.
Patterson said after the season he’d likely return for his junior year, while Meeks—named a second-team All-American on Monday—was going to take his time on a decision.
Hiring Calipari might be all the incentive they need to return. He won over fans and made over the program at Memphis behind an electrifying style of play that has churned out a handful of NBA players, including Derrick Rose, Shawnae Williams, DaJuan Wagner and Joey Dorsey.
Calipari’s ability to lure some of the nation’s best high school players— regardless of how long they plan on sticking around—has made him an attractive candidate for years.
He’s been able to fight off temptation for nearly a decade, but the chance to makeover one of college basketball’s elite programs proved to be too much.
Mitch Barnhart stressed the need to find a coach who can handle everything that comes along with coaching the Wildcats. Calipari has never met a camera he didn’t like and certainly doesn’t lack confidence: two things Gillispie struggled with during his tenure.
Calipari became the focus after Florida coach Billy Donovan took his name out of the running.
Kentucky received permission to speak to Calipari on Monday, less than 72 hours after Gillispie was fired. Sensing the need to make a home-run hire after the Gillispie debacle, Calipari certainly has the resume and the charm to sate a rabid fan base.
But he also has some baggage. He led Massachusetts to the Final Four in 1996 only to have the school vacate the honor when star Marcus Camby admitted to receiving gifts from a sports agent.
Though Calipari has never been found of wrongdoing by the NCAA, he’s been unable to shed the Camby mess from his reputation and his hire could raise some eyebrows from fans still sensitive over the recruiting violations during the Eddie Sutton era 20 years ago that nearly wrecked the program.
Rick Pitino swooped in to save Kentucky after Sutton left, taking the Wildcats to three Final Fours and a national title in eight years on the sideline.
Neither Gillispie or Tubby Smith have been able to duplicate that success, but neither had the charisma or swagger of Calipari, who now finds himself working an hour east of Pitino.
The two have a long history dating back to when Pitino recommended Calipari for the head coaching job at UMass in 1988. Pitino’s Kentucky team beat Calipari’s UMass squad in the ’96 Final Four and the two have had a testy—at least on the floor—relationship ever since.
The rivalry really began when Pitino took over at Louisville in 2001 as the Cardinals and the Tigers fought with Cincinnati and Marquette for C-USA supremacy. Those three programs left for the Big East in 2005, and Memphis has dominated the conference ever since.
Memphis hasn’t lost a C-USA game since 2006, and the Tigers are the only program in the country to receive either a No. 1 or No. 2 seed in the NCAA tournament in each of the last four years.
Despite their perceived differences, Pitino has little doubt Calipari will be a great fit at Kentucky.
“He’s done a great job at UMass. He’s done a great job at Memphis and he would do a great job at Kentucky if that’s their pick,” Pitino said Tuesday. Press Writers Woody Baird and Beth Rucker in Memphis contributed to this report.
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