John Calipari said goodbye to Kentucky fans via a post on X, formerly Twitter, on Tuesday afternoon.
Calipari, inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2015, is still expected to become the University of Arkansas men's coach by all accounts, but there was no official announcement at the time of his post and he did not mention Arkansas.
There are still details of an agreement between Calipari and Arkansas to be finalized, sources said, including approval of his contract by the UA Board of Trustees.
A source has confirmed the Board of Trustees is meeting Wednesday morning, instead of the originally-reported Tuesday afternoon.
A message to #BBN: pic.twitter.com/TG344ipTfZ
— John Calipari (@UKCoachCalipari) April 9, 2024
5:56 a.m.: Holding pattern: Calipari deal awaits Board of Trustees’ OK
FAYETTEVILLE -- While speculation in the college basketball world Monday focused on who will be Kentucky's next coach -- and there was a national championship game played as well -- John Calipari technically remained on the job in Lexington, Ky.
Calipari, inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2015, is still expected to become the University of Arkansas men's coach by all accounts, but there was no official announcement Monday.
There are still details of an agreement between Calipari and Arkansas to be finalized, sources said, including approval of his contract by the UA Board of Trustees.
A source confirmed the Board of Trustees is meeting Tuesday afternoon.
Calipari was seen in Lexington walking his elderly dog in his neighborhood Monday afternoon and had a brief exchange with a reporter from television station WKYT. Video of the encounter went viral on social media.
Calipari, wearing a blue top, declined comment when asked if he had a message for Kentucky fans.
"No, I don't," Calipari said as he continued walking. "I'm walking my dog right now."
Asked again for a comment, Calipari replied, "Nah, I'm good. I'm good."
Calipari and Arkansas officials have been in talks since last Friday, sources told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette on Sunday.
By Sunday night, there were wide-spread reports an agreement for Calipari to take the Arkansas job was in the works.
ESPN's Pete Thamel reported Calipari, 65, was in negotiations for a five-year contract that would pay him a base salary in the $8.5 million range.
Arkansas is looking to replace Eric Musselman, who resigned Thursday after five seasons as the Razorbacks' coach to take the Southern Cal job.
Calipari is expected to leave Kentucky after 15 seasons as coach in which he led the Wildcats to a 410-122 record, highlighted by the 2012 national championship and three other Final Four appearances in 2011, 2014 and 2015.
The Razorbacks won their lone national championship in basketball in 1994 in Nolan Richardson's ninth season as their coach after he came to Arkansas from Tulsa.
Calipari would be the fourth coach in any sport Arkansas has hired who won a national championship at his previous stop, along with Danny Ford, Dave Van Horn and Lance Harter.
Ford, hired as the Razorbacks' football coach in 1993, won a national title at Clemson in 1980.
Van Horn, in his 22nd season as Arkansas' baseball coach, won an NCAA Division II championship at Central Missouri in 1994.
Harter, who last summer retired as coach of the Arkansas women's cross country and track teams, won a combined 14 NCAA Division II titles at Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo from 1982-90. He then won seven national championships at Arkansas.
Arkansas wouldn't owe Kentucky a buyout for Calipari's decision to switch jobs according to terms of a 10-year contract extension he signed with Kentucky in 2019.
Calipari was the second-highest paid college coach in the country this season, according to USA Today's database, with an annual salary of $8.5 million behind Kansas Coach Bill Self's $9.6 million deal.
Musselman was paid $4.2 million at Arkansas, but Calipari's salary salary will be similar to what he was paid at Kentucky according to reports citing the involvement of John Tyson, chairman of Tyson Foods and a long-time friend of Calipari's.
"What got this deal done? Calipari's close relationship with John Tyson of the Tyson Family, who are among the top athletic donors to the University of Arkansas," Thamel reported for ESPN. "According to sources, Calipari recently played golf with Tyson when rumors picked up about Musselman potentially leaving for the West Coast and Kentucky's fan base growing sour on Calipari."
When Kentucky played at Arkansas in previous seasons, Calipari often posted photos of himself and Tyson having dinner at Herman's Ribhouse in Fayetteville.
Calipari led Kentucky to a 33-12 NCAA Tournament record, but the Wildcats are 1-3 in their three most recent appearances and haven't advanced past the round of 32 since an Elite Eight run in 2018-19 when they lost to Auburn.
Kentucky suffered first-round NCAA Tournament losses as a No. 2 seed to No. 15 seed Saint Peter's 85-79 in overtime in 2022 and as a No. 3 seed to No. 14 seed Oakland 80-76 on March 21 to finish this season 23-10.
The Wilcats also missed the NCAA Tournament in 2021 when they were 9-16.
Calipari has led Kentucky to six SEC Tournament titles, but the last of those was in 2017.
The lack of postseason success put the heat on Calipari at Kentucky, creating speculation he could be fired despite having a buyout of more than $34 million.
A few days after the Wildcats lost to Oakland, Kentucky Athletic Director Mitch Barnhart announced Calipari would be back for a 16th season. Barnhart and Calipari also did a joint television interview on WLEX and the "BBN Tonight" show in which they downplayed rumors they had a poor working relationship.
"[Calipari] was in a tenuous state with the fan base and what he did was run with open arms to Arkansas," ESPN's Thamel said on SportsCenter. "Arkansas needed a reboot. Arkansas needed an adrenaline jolt. John Calipari is going to give them that. His big recruits will follow and winning will follow.
"I think Kentucky had made it clear to John Calipari that they enjoyed the winning, but they were kind of stuck in the upper-middle class cul-de-sac and they wanted to be back in the penthouse hanging banners. It's a great reboot for both sides."
Matt Norlander of CBS Sports reported Monday that Calipari expressed interest in the Ohio State job after Chris Holtmann was fired in February.
"John Calipari leaving Kentucky has been on the table going back to February, sources tell CBS Sports," Norlander said in a social media post. "He privately expressed significant/serious interest in the Ohio State job but the timing wasn't right, per source.
"Arkansas coming available was a dream shot out of Lexington."
Ohio State hired Jake Diebler, who had been the Buckeyes' interim coach after Holtmann's firing, to be the full-time coach.
Calipari has an 813-260 record in 32 seasons as a college head coach according to NCAA stats, which exclude 42 vacated victories from his time at Massachusetts and Memphis because of rules violations. The violations were not tied directly to Calipari and he received no sanctions from the NCAA.
Counting on-court games, Calipari's overall record is 855-261 as a college coach. He also led Massachusetts (1996) and Memphis (2008) to Final Four appearances.