Good news for UK Wildcat basketball- Calipari

This is old news by now, but the LCJ has this on John Calipari's hiring by UK:


Calipari hired to hang banners
New UK coach eager to accept challenge
By Brett Dawson • bdawson@courier-journal.com • April 2, 2009

LEXINGTON, Ky. -- John Calipari yesterday was placed in charge of the University of Kentucky's basketball future. It didn't take long for him to give a nod to its past.



During his opening statement at his introductory news conference, the Wildcats' new coach mentioned four former UK coaches, four former players and longtime equipment manager Bill Keightley, who died a year ago this week.

And just before he took questions from the media at the Joe Craft Center, Calipari gestured toward the wall where banners hang commemorating the Cats' seven NCAA championships.

"Can you imagine -- they don't put banners up here for anything else except national champions?" he said. "That's why you want to coach here. We want to compete every year and hopefully add to this wall."

Calipari, 50, replaces Billy Gillispie, who was fired last week not only for his 40-27 record after two seasons but for being -- in the words of UK athletic director Mitch Barnhart and university President Lee Todd -- a bad fit for the program.

Gillispie didn't understand the scope of the position, they said. He didn't deal well with the public nature of the job.

The hope at UK is that Calipari -- who was 252-69 in nine seasons at Memphis -- is more suited to the job.

"There's a variety of characteristics I think you've got to have to have to be successful at Kentucky, and he's got a lot of them," Barnhart said. "He's got the courage. He's not afraid of it. He's passionate. I think he's got a very good sense of humor. He has the ability to relate to people. He's a giver and not a taker."

Hiring that mix of characteristics didn't come cheap. Calipari signed an eight-year contract worth $31.65 million, plus possible incentives, over the life of the deal. It is believed to make him college basketball's highest-paid coach, according to UK.

In return, Calipari will be expected to do for college basketball's all-time winningest program what he did for Massachusetts and Memphis: lift it into national championship contention -- and in short order.

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Calipari took UMass to a Final Four in 1996 -- it was later vacated when the NCAA ruled that star Marcus Camby had accepted benefits from a sports agent -- and built Memphis into a national powerhouse that lost in last season's NCAA title game.



He inherits a UK program that hasn't advanced to the Sweet 16 since 2005 and hasn't been to a Final Four since 1998, when it last won the NCAA championship.

But Calipari sounded yesterday as if he's ready for the challenge. To hear him tell it, he's been preparing for it for more than 17 years.

"This is pretty heady stuff for me," he said. "But this is a dream I had since we brought our (Massachusetts) team down here (to play UK) in 1992. … I couldn't believe the environment. At that point I said, 'I would love to coach there someday.' "

He didn't get the chance two years ago, when UK hired Gillispie to replace Tubby Smith.

Barnhart said yesterday that not pursuing Calipari then was "my mistake."

This time around he targeted Calipari from the start, but he had to make sure he was finding the right fit.

Barnhart said he and Sandy Bell, UK's head of compliance, worked with the NCAA in a thorough examination of Calipari's background, and they came away satisfied.

"Our commitment at the University of Kentucky to compliance and discipline has always been strong, and that will not change," Barnhart said. "John's commitment to compliance and discipline has always been strong, and that will not change."

Further, Barnhart said, he believes he found a coach who "understands the demands of the job and the expectations of our fans and supporters."

Calipari addressed those demands and expectations yesterday, both with humor and with a more serious tone.

Asked about the second-guessing that's sure to come with the job, he joked, "Do they question coaches here?"

But he added that he and his wife, Ellen, will be involved in the community and that "there will be no bigger cheerleader for this place than me."

Calipari also sounded keenly aware that being the right fit means winning, early and often. Still he cautioned that fans shouldn't expect miracles.

The Cats' two best players -- sophomore Patrick Patterson and junior Jodie Meeks -- are candidates to enter the NBA draft, and though Calipari is a standout recruiter who could bring impact players with him immediately, UK already has more eligible players for next season, including three 2009 recruits signed under Gillispie, than it has available scholarships.

"I'm a regular guy, folks," Calipari said. "I do not walk on water. I do not have a magic wand. I'm day-to-day. I told Dr. Todd and Mitch, 'If you want something to happen in a year, do not hire me.' That's not how I do things. But when we get it right, you notice we're No. 1 in the country, we're No. 1 seeds (in the NCAA Tournament), we're playing in Final Fours -- when you get it right."

Brett Dawson can be reached at (859) 523-0706.