John Calipari needed an off-ramp for a fresh start.
Arkansas needed boldness and the excitement that came with it.
Kentucky needed a way out of the program's stale coaching contract.
College basketball coaching appointments rarely satisfy all parties, but Calipari's move from Lexington to Fayetteville may have satisfied that in some way.
win. win. win.
Now, Coach Cal better go win. The same goes for the guy chasing him in Big Blue, especially in March (and April).
Let's start with this. Why did John Calipari leave his vaunted Kentucky for Arkansas? Traditionally speaking, this is a demotion, a reversal of fortune. In fact, this went the other way in 1985, when Kentucky not only hired Arkansas coach Eddie Sutton, but Sutton declared, “I would have crawled all the way to Lexington,” making two The hierarchy of programs has been clarified.
But it's no longer 1985, and Calipari is no longer an up-and-coming company. After 15 seasons in England, his future was limited despite a “lifetime” contract with a $33 million buyout.
Calipari was once the perfect coach for Kentucky, but he's not for the faint of heart. Rick Pitino (no, he's not a candidate for the former job) once called it the “Roman Empire of college basketball,” offering both the size and passion of the fan base as evidence of that.
It's not just that the Wildcats have won eight national titles in their storied history. It's also because five different coaches got them there: Adolph Rupp (1948, 1949, 1951, 1958), Joe B. Hall (1978), Pitino (1996), Tubby Smith (1998), and of course Cull (2012). Kentucky is bigger than any human being.
Cal gave it a try. He attracted attention. He congratulated his fan base. He spoke with bravado. When there were floods or tornadoes somewhere in the state, he organized telethons and charity games on short notice. He knew what this place meant to many people.
And of course, he introduced top-ranked recruiting class after class and not only won games, but did it with style and flair. The final score is always important, but he also had a lot of fun witnessing John Wall, Anthony Davis, and Devin Booker.
They have advanced to the Final Four four times, but only won the national title once, in 2012. This imbalance suggested Calipari wasn't making the most of all his future lottery picks. He celebrated draft night like it was a national title and declared his goal to have Kentucky players make up half of the starters in the NBA All-Star Game.
English fans could argue that this was an advantage in recruitment, but only if a deep tournament followed. In 2015, Cal went 38-0 and led the team to the national semifinals, losing badly to Wisconsin, but it was never quite the same. Since 2019, the Cats have won only one game in the NCAA Tournament.
Kentucky demands more. That's the deal. They give everything to their coach and rightfully expect better than their NCAA losses to St. Peter's and Oakland.
For Calipari, there was no easy solution. The program was idle and nothing mattered outside of March. If it weren't for his ridiculous contract, the school probably would have fired him. His support, both internal and external, was lost. The late, great Billy Tubbs once theorized that college basketball coaches should change jobs every seven or eight years. Because after so much time, you will no longer have friends at school, only enemies.
Cal was long past its expiration date in Kentucky.
McDonald's All-American promise no longer moves the needle. Pointing to regular season wins wasn't enough. Draft night served as a reminder of missed opportunities.
However, there was no clear solution. The NBA stopped making calls. There were no high-profile job offers like Texas or UCLA. Cal He is 65 years old, but he does not want to retire. He needed a viable opportunity.
Enter the Hogs. And enter a new era of college basketball.
No, Arkansas isn't Kentucky, but it's a must-see for fans. Among SEC teams, it ranks second only to Kentucky in interest in the sport. Sutton made it a national program in his 1970s. Nolan Richardson won the title in 1994. Eric Musselman reached the Elite 8 in consecutive years in 2021 and 2022.
Musselman transferred to the University of Southern California this spring, and the University of Arkansas needed a replacement. They called Cal, who might provide an entryway to a new level of recruits who could make a breakthrough. Northwest Arkansas is a rapidly growing business community. The people at Tyson Chicken are motivated. A reported $6 million has been pledged for the NIL deal.
The question now is: How many of California's best recruits will jump out of their Kentucky contracts and head to Arkansas? How many cats will follow him now? Will he be able to make good use of the portal? Will he be hired less in the future? In this day and age, are NIL contracts and NBA development more important than “tradition”?
Now that teams are being built via the NIL and transfer portal, being a blue blood may not be as valuable as it once was. Anyone can buy players, not just shoe companies and long-established behind-the-scenes recruiting efforts.
Simply put, Kentucky is still Kentucky with or without Calipari, but with or without Kentucky, Calipari can be a big problem. After all, Kentucky hired him in part because they wanted him to bring talent to Memphis.
As for the Cats, they should be able to hire a quality coach who can help them do better in the postseason. (He rarely does much more than that.) That doesn't mean following Cal is easy. It has become the norm to have three or four All-Americans each season, but that doesn't mean it's easy.
And now the expectation is for the Final Four or even better. and so on.
No one knows what will happen next, but Kentucky has a chance to move forward with a new savior and possibly a sixth coach to bring a title to Lexington. Meanwhile, Calipari has a new mission for a fired-up school that will be happy to be important again.
Everyone can win here.
