In case there was once any lingering hesitancy, John Calipari will go back as Kentucky’s basketball tutor.
Kentucky athletic director Mitch Barnhart posted to social media Tuesday night time that Calipari would go back for a sixteenth season in Lexington. The Wildcats lost to Oakland in the first round of the 2024 NCAA tournament last week.
As we usually do on the finish of each and every season, Trainer Calipari and I’ve had conversations in regards to the route of our males’s basketball program and I will ascertain that he’ll go back for his sixteenth season as our head tutor.
— Mitch Barnhart (@UKMitchBarnhart) March 27, 2024
The defeat to the Grizzlies was once the second one day in 3 seasons that Kentucky had misplaced within the first spherical of the match. In 2022, the Wildcats had been a Negative. 2 seed and misplaced to Negative. 15 seed Saint Peter’s. This moment, Kentucky was once a Negative. 3 seed and misplaced to a Negative. 14 seed.
It gave the impression Calipari would go back as Kentucky’s tutor on Monday night time next he seemed on his radio display. The longtime coach said he was committed to getting Kentucky back to the top of college basketball.
“That may be a constancy that I give to the enthusiasts,” Calipari said on his radio show. “Now let’s come together and let’s go do something special. We can do it. We’ve done it. Let’s do it again.”
Kentucky is just 1-4 in its past five NCAA tournament games. After reaching the Elite Eight in 2019, the Wildcats failed to make the tournament in 2021 and lost in the second round as a No. 6 seed in 2023.
UK won a national title in 2012 and was back in the Final Four in 2014 and 2015. Since then, the Wildcats haven’t been back to the Final Four, though they’ve lost in two Elite Eight appearances as a No. 2 seed.
If — if — Barnhart wanted to make a change at the top of the Kentucky men’s basketball program, there were two major obstacles to overcome. Calipari’s contract has a buyout of $33 million. If he was fired, the buyout would be the most money ever owed to a basketball coach.
There’s also the question of who would replace him. With Florida Atlantic’s Dusty May now the new coach at Michigan, the crop of coaches ready to move up into bigger jobs is thin. It’s hard to come up with an obvious candidate or three if Kentucky had a vacancy.
At Kentucky, Calipari has relied heavily on highly touted freshmen in the one-and-done era, and this year’s team will likely lose at least two first-year players to the NBA Draft. Guards Rob Dillingham and Reed Sheppard may just each be lottery alternatives.
There might be extra of the similar coming in 2024-25. Kentucky’s class of 2024 currently ranks second in Rivals’ rankings and includes four five-star recruits. Center Jayden Quaintance and guard Boogie Fland have already signed with the Wildcats, while forwards Karter Knox and Billy Richmond are verbally committed.
However, Calipari has signaled that he’s willing to adapt. The leading scorer on this year’s team was senior Antonio Reeves, and Calipari has said he wants to have teams that continue to have a mix of veterans along with highly touted freshmen. Kentucky should be a major player in the transfer portal in the coming weeks and months.
