Report says John Calipari regrets not leaving Kentucky 5 years ago for another major college basketball job
The biggest college basketball news of the week wasn't that UConn won a second straight national championship on Monday night. Instead, it was the news that longtime Kentucky Wildcats coach John Calipari is leaving Lexington to take over as the new head coach of the Arkansas Razorbacks. Calipari, who won a national championship at Kentucky […]
The biggest college basketball news of the week wasn't that UConn won a second straight national championship on Monday night.
Instead, it was the news that longtime Kentucky Wildcats coach John Calipari is leaving Lexington to take over as the new head coach of the Arkansas Razorbacks.
Calipari, who won a national championship at Kentucky in 2012, said in a video prior to officially being introduced at Arkansas that it's time for a new voice to lead the Wildcats' program.
It's not a total surprise that Calipari isn't returning to Kentucky — there was speculation that UK might fire the longtime coach due to his lack of success in the NCAA Tournament in recent years.
The surprising part is that Calipari is staying in the SEC and taking over at Arkansas. That's not a scenario that anyone was predicting a month ago (the Arkansas job came open when Eric Musselman left Fayetteville for the USC job).
Calipari has apparently flirted with the idea of leaving Kentucky for several years.
In fact, according to a report from The Athletic, Calipari regrets turning down the UCLA job in 2019 (a job that Tennessee Vols head coach Rick Barnes also turned down).
Calipari turned UCLA down after Kentucky agreed to give him a new 10-year deal worth $86 million.
Mick Cronin, previously the head coach at Cincinnati, ended up landing the UCLA job in 2019 after Calipari and Barnes turned it down.
From The Athletic: Sources close to Calipari say he still regrets turning down the UCLA job in 2019. That was the time to bolt, he now admits privately. But Kentucky ponied up a 10-year, $86 million contract to keep him in Lexington, and the Bruins couldn’t match.
If Calipari had taken the UCLA job in 2019, there's no telling what kind of wild domino effect it would've created across college basketball.
Jauan Jennings explains where his extreme dislike of Vanderbilt comes from while taking a shot at the Commodores
Jauan Jennings’ dislike of Vanderbilt goes back to his pre Tennessee days
