FAYETTEVILLE โ Arkansas is finalizing a deal to hire Kentucky men's basketball coach John Calipari to replace Eric Musselman as Razorbacks head coach, ESPN first reported Sunday. .
ESPN reported that Calipari's contract will be for five years. Sources told Whole Hog Sports on Sunday that Calipari is in talks with Arkansas for a deal in the range of $7.5 million to $8 million.
Calipari's Kentucky contract paid him $8.1 million this season, according to a copy of the 10-year contract signed in 2019.
Musselman, who resigned Thursday to take a job at Southern California, was paid $4.2 million by the Razorbacks.
Calipari, 65, has an overall on-court record of 855-261 in 32 seasons as a college coach. He led the University of Massachusetts, the University of Memphis, and the University of Kentucky to a combined six of his Final Four appearances and won a national championship with Kentucky in 2012.
In 2015, Calipari was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as the sport's highest individual accomplishment.
Calipari spent 15 seasons at Kentucky, leading the program to a 410-122 record. Between 2011 and 2015, the Wildcats won the regular season SEC Championship six times, the SEC Tournament Championship six times, and advanced to the Final Four four times. did. In addition to winning in 2012, Kentucky was a national runner-up in 2014.
Calipari's future at Kentucky has been called into question after his teams' lack of postseason success in recent years. After losing in 2021 and missing the NCAA Tournament, Kentucky has had two first-round losses and one second-round loss in the past three seasons.
The Wildcats lost in overtime to No. 15 seed St. Peter's in 2022, and this year they lost to No. 14 seed Oakland, 80-76, in the first round, ending the season with a 23-10 record.
“As we always do at the end of every season, Coach Calipari and I discussed the direction of the men's basketball program and confirmed that he will be returning for his 16th season as head coach. “We did,” Kentucky athletics director Mitch Barnhart said. he wrote on social media on March 26th.
Calipari's NCAA Tournament record is 57-22. In addition to the six Final Four appearances, six teams finished the season in the Elite Eight and three teams finished the season in the Sweet 16.
Calipari has coached all three previous games against Arkansas and is 16-9 against the Razorbacks, 2-0 against Massachusetts, 1-2 against Memphis and 13-0 against Kentucky. The result was 7 wins and 7 losses. The Wildcats defeated the Razorbacks twice during the 2023-24 season.
John Tyson, chairman of Springdale-based Tyson Foods and a Razorback backer, is a longtime friend of Calipari's and was involved in the process of bringing him to Arkansas, ESPN reported. Ta.
Kentucky has become a recruiting giant under Calipari. According to 247Sports, the Wildcats are second in the 2024 overall class behind Duke and were the top overall class last year.
Kentucky has never had a class outside of the 247Sports top five under Calipari, with the lowest being No. 5 in the 2022 class.
Some have criticized Calipari for relying on a young team at a time when the trend in men's basketball is toward older, more experienced teams.
Calipari has acquired several high-level NBA talents, including Anthony Davis, Devin Booker, Jamal Murray, Tyrese Maxey, Shai Gilgios-Alexander and Karl-Anthony Towns. At the time of last year's draft, he had 35 first-round NBA Draft picks.
Seven former Wildcats played in this season's NBA All-Star Game. Rob Dillingham and Reed Shepard are both projected to be NBA draft lottery picks from Kentucky teams this season.
Kentucky has 28 players on NBA rosters, the most of any college program. Duke is next closest to him at 24, and no other school has him over 16.
Calipari is under contract with Kentucky through the 2028-29 season, but there appears to be no obligation to the university to take him elsewhere. According to the Louisville Courier-Journal, Calipari would be owed more than $34.9 million if Kentucky waives him.
Calipari grew up in Moon Township, Pennsylvania, and played college basketball at North Carolina Wilmington and Clarion. He served as an assistant coach at the University of Kansas and the University of Pittsburgh, and he took the job at the University of Massachusetts before the 1988-89 season.
He turned the Minutemen into a national contender. His 1995 team lost to Oklahoma State in the Elite Eight, and his 1996 team went 35-2 and won its first 26 games, including a Sweet 16 win over Arkansas, but lost to Kentucky in the Final Four. It ended.
The New Jersey Nets hired Calipari away from UMass after the 1996 tournament. He reached the NBA playoffs in his second season with the Nets, but was fired 20 games into his third season after starting 3-17.
After a year as an NBA assistant in Philadelphia, Calipari returned to the college game in 2000 as Memphis' head coach, building a strong mid-major program with several freshmen.
The Tigers were eliminated from the Elite Eight in 2006 and 2007, and lost to Kansas 75-68 in overtime in the 2008 National Championship game. Kansas' three buzzer-beaters prevented Memphis from winning the regulation title.
Kentucky made a big hire of Calipari after the 2008-09 season to revive a program that hadn't made the Final Four in more than a decade. Calipari's first Kentucky team went 35-3, losing badly to West Virginia in the Elite Eight, but the Wildcats reached the Final Four in his second year, losing 56-55 to Connecticut in the semifinals. Defeated.
Led by star center Anthony Davis, Calipari led Kentucky to a national championship in his third year, defeating Kansas State 67-59 in the title game and finishing the season 38-2.
After a disappointing 2013 season that saw the NIT lose in the first round to Robert Morris in Calipari's hometown, the Wildcats returned to the championship game in 2014, but lost 60-54 to UConn.
Kentucky reached the Final Four in 2015 with a 38-0 record, but lost to Wisconsin 71-64 in the national semifinals.
The Wildcats remained on the national stage, but never returned to the top of the sport. Kentucky lost in Elite Eight games to conference rivals South Carolina and Auburn in 2017 and 2019. The Wildcats were 25-6 overall when the 2020 season was canceled.
NCAA investigations into star players clouded Calipari's tenures at the University of Massachusetts and the University of Memphis, but he was never punished in either case.
The 1996 Massachusetts State University team gave up four wins after Marcus Camby admitted to receiving an improper gift from his agent.
The 2008 Memphis team was forced to surrender 38 wins. According to ESPN, Derrick Rose's SAT scores were fraudulent and his brother received $1,700 in unfair travel expenses.
Calipari is the third Naismith Hall of Fame coach to spend part of his career at Arkansas. Eddie Sutton coached the Razorbacks from 1974 to 1985, and Nolan Richardson coached them from 1985 to 2002. Richardson was enshrined in the Naismith Hall of Fame in 2014, and Sutton was enshrined posthumously in 2020.
Mr. Calipari was one of three presenters in Mr. Sutton's Hall of Fame induction.
Sutton's move to Arkansas marks the first time in 39 years since the week he left Arkansas for a job at Kentucky in April 1985. This departure opened the door for Richardson to be hired by Tulsa to coach the Razorbacks.
Sutton was the last coach at Arkansas to voluntarily leave for another job before Musselman.