John Calipari

[YourKock'sReallyGreat 0]

And is going to take the Kentucky job. Pretty stupid move in my opinion and others have stated. Memphis and Conf. Usa would have been a better choice and alot easier than Kentucky. I guess he wanted more of the spotlight, pressure and be more of Pitino.

 

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/news/story?id=4031573

 

8 years 35 million.

[Rendclaw 0]

It was far from stupid. He is going to get better players, and he has a much better platform on which to build than Memphis. The knock against him (unfairly, by the way) was that sure he got 28, 29, even 30 wins a year and went deep into the tournament, but he coached in a weak conference and got rapped because of it.

 

His ego is such that it would have been stupid to *not* take the job. He wants to be the best at what he does (just like any other coach worth a damn), and he wants to win. I think that things just got a whole lot more interesting. And by the way, from everything I have heard, Pitino and Calipari do not like each other very much, so those Kentucky-Louisville games they play every year are going to be knockdown drag-out brawls.

 

And Kentucky *had* to make this move. They screwed the pooch with Gillespie, from some accounts one of the reasons that they got rid of him is because he was a self-serving douchebag who never signed his contract with the university, and acted like a total asshole with the media, especially an ESPN sideline reporter who asked him what adjustments he was going to make because the opposing team had locked down their star player in the first half. I heard his answer and I could not believe it.

 

It may take a couple of years but Kentucky is going to be just fine, and college basketball will be better for it.

[Danville_Wrestling 0]

I'm very excited for this hire. Two years ago after Tubby left I argued on this board that UK needed to look at Calipari and some inside of the university admitted during the process that they made a major error in not pursuing him a couple of years ago. I think two years ago the university panicked when Donovan turned them down (followed by Rick Barnes) so they pulled the trigger on a "reach" pick for head coach which turned out to be very flawed.

 

One thing Calipari won't have to worry about is justifying a high spot in the NCAA tournament. The knock on Memphis always was that they played in a weak conference so despite 30+ win seasons the question always arose as to whether they were deserving of a #1 seed. If you put up that kind of mark at UK no one is going to doubt your seeding in the tournament and I agree with the previous poster that it will enhance his recruiting to be @ UK.

 

I do feel bad for Memphis basketball fans, though, because that program definitely will not be the same after this.

[cabbageboy 0]

Actually if someone went 16-0 in the SEC this year I would have questioned that team being a #1 seed, the same as with Memphis.

 

It's funny but I thought that there was no way any notable big time coach would take the UK job at this point. But I guess throwing absurd amounts of money will lure the smarmy likes of Calipari after all. Calipari now has the most pressure on him of anyone in sports. He literally has to win the national title now, maybe even multiple titles. Can you imagine the nightmare his life would become if a UK team did what his Memphis team did in the title game last year vs. Kansas? He would be run out of Lexington on a rail.

 

I hope UK fans will enjoy winning at the cost of the program's post probation era legitimacy. Because that's where Calipari will likely lead them....NCAA probation, Final 4 vacancies, off the court thuggery, and the like.

 

One thing is for sure. With this move UK can say good bye to any crossover appeal they had with U of L fans. Believe me, during the Pitino era at UK there were a lot of U of L fans who liked UK a lot. That support in Louisville has waned over the past decade with Tubby's dreary teams and the hideous Gillispie hire. But now? They can forget it. Every U of L fan loathes John Calipari with a passion reserved for few other coaches, though I doubt Barnhart and Co. care about that.

[Danville_Wrestling 0]

Good point about the U of L and UK crossover. I still root for U of L when they aren't playing UK, especially because I like to watch Pitino coached teams play, but I can see how the other perspective is different. Barring Pitino leaving for Arizona, near year's Louisville-UK matchup is going to be explosive.

 

To my knowledge, wasn't Calipari acquitted of any wrongdoing with what occurred at UMass? Other than that all there have been are rumors of improper recruiting, but one can imagine if he had done anything terribly bad the NCAA would have caught on. Although I know some people say the NCAA didn't care because Memphis was hardly a powerhouse program. Some think UConn is going to get nailed to the wall (maybe even a one year postseason ban) due to the recent recruiting scandal there.