John Calipari is going to the Arkansas Razorbacks, the Kentucky Wildcats are in the market for a new men’s basketball head coach, and the college basketball world has been shaken to its core less than 24 hours before the national championship game between UConn and Purdue.
The Calipari bombshell dropped on late Sunday night with multiple reports confirming the legendary head coach is bound for Arkansas. The Arkansas job came open earlier this week when Eric Musselman accepted the top job at USC. The USC job became open when Andy Enfield went to SMU after the school fired Rob Lanier. The coaching carrousel is always spinning in college basketball, and this is the most explosive cycle yet with arguably the most high profile job in the sport suddenly becoming available.
Calipari was under immense pressure after Kentucky was upset in the first round of the 2024 NCAA tournament by No. 14 seed Oakland. Under Calipari’s watch, the Wildcats had not been out of the first weekend of the tournament since 2019. While the program was still very good in the regular season, there was a strong push to fire Calipari after the Oakland loss within the Wildcats fanbase. Instead, Kentucky gave coach Cal a vote of confidence, but clearly he wasn’t going to have a long leash.
Now the 65-year-old Calipari is going to Arkansas in the most stunning piece of college basketball coaching news in years. Kentucky is losing a head coach that led them to four Final Four berths and a 2012 national championship. There are so many layers to this move. To start to unpeel them, let’s grade it from every size.
Arkansas’ grade for John Calipari hire
Arkansas hoops was in danger of slipping into another dark period after Musselman bolted for southern California. That won’t happen with Calipari in charge.
The Razorbacks have a proud tradition that peaked with Nolan Richardson leading the program to three Final Four berths and one national championship in the ‘90s. The ensuring years were rough before Musselman came along and powered the team to two Elite Eight trips and one Sweet 16 appearance from 2021-2023. Arkansas had a down year this season missing the tournament, and Musselman bolted.
Arkansas tried to hire Chris Beard from Ole Miss and Jerome Tang from Kansas State, but struck out. It was looking at some uninspiring options, potentially headlined by Chris Jans at Mississippi State. Instead, Arkansas is breaking the bank and swinging for the fences with Calipari. This program immediately becomes must-see TV.
Calipari is the greatest recruiter of his generation. The list of future NBA stars who played for him is eternal, from Anthony Davis to Karl-Anthony Towns to Devin Booker to Shai Gilgeous-Alexander to Tyrese Maxey. We could go on all day. Calipari had another loaded class coming in at Kentucky, led by five-stars Boogie Fland and Jayden Quaintance. Will his 2024 class follow him to Arkansas? That remains to be seen, but the Razorbacks know they are getting an elite recruiter either way.
With reports of John Calipari set to take the head coaching job at Arkansas, here are the 2024 prospects currently committed to Kentucky:
-5⭐️ Jayden Quaintance
-5⭐️ Boogie Fland
-4⭐️ Karter Knox
-4⭐️ Bil
…. to be continued
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