FAYETTEVILLE — The University of Arkansas has its new men’s basketball coach.
The Razorbacks announced the hire of Kentucky coach John Calipari on Wednesday, a move that sent shockwaves through the college athletics landscape when news broke that a deal was being finalized late Sunday evening. The UA Board of Trustees approved Calipari’s contract at a special session Wednesday morning.
Calipari, 65, will be introduced Wednesday at 6 p.m. at Bud Walton Arena. The public is invited to attend.
Calipari, one of college athletics’ most transcendent figures, replaces former coach Eric Musselman, who departed for Southern Cal last Thursday.
“By all accounts, John Calipari is one of the premier coaches in college basketball,” Arkansas athletics director Hunter Yurachek said. “A national championship coach, a four-time national coach of the year and one of the nation’s top recruiters, Coach Cal has consistently demonstrated his ability to attract outstanding talent and build championship teams within the Southeastern Conference and position his programs among the best in the nation.
“As I visited with Coach Calipari during this process, he acknowledged the tremendous opportunity we have at the University of Arkansas to attract and retain top players and compete for championships. He understands the deep passion of the Razorback Nation and has experienced the tremendous home court advantage of Bud Walton Arena. I have no doubt that under Coach Calipari’s leadership and with the collective support of all those who love the Hogs, Razorback Basketball will continue to maintain its national prominence within college basketball.”
Calipari joins Arkansas after 15 years at Kentucky. In 32 seasons as a college coach, Calipari has a 855-261 on-court record accumulated from his time at Massachusetts, Memphis and Kentucky. He also spent time as an assistant at Kansas and Pittsburgh and coached the New Jersey Nets in the NBA.
He has been to 6 Final Fours and won the 2012 national championship with Kentucky and has a 57-22 NCAA Tournament record. Calipari was named to the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame in 2015, the sport’s highest individual honor.
Calipari led Kentucky to a 410-122 record. The Wildcats won 6 regular-season SEC championships and 6 SEC Tournament championships, and advanced to the Final Four 4 times between 2011-15. In addition to the 2012 championship, Kentucky was national runner-up in 2014.
Josh Pastner, a former assistant to Calipari at Memphis, said Calipari has “always known about how great that job was. We talked about it many times while we were at Memphis.”
Calipari’s future at Kentucky has come into question in recent years as his teams failed to achieve postseason success. After missing the NCAA Tournament with a losing record in 2021, Kentucky had two first-round exits and one second-round exit the past three seasons.
The Wildcats were upset in overtime by 15th-seeded St. Peter’s in 2022 and lost 80-76 to 14th-seeded Oakland in the first round this year to conclude a 23-10 campaign.
He posted a video on social media Tuesday afternoon thanking Kentucky, its fans and administration for his time there. He did not address Arkansas in the video.
“We’ve realized that this program probably needs to hear another voice, that the university as a whole has to have another voice giving guidance about this program that they hear,” he said in the video. “We’ve loved it here, but we think it’s time to step away and step away completely from the program.”
Kentucky athletics director Mitch Barnhart confirmed Calipari was resigning.
“We're appreciative of John Calipari leading our program for the last 15 years, adding to the legacy of championship success at Kentucky,” Barnhart wrote. “We're grateful to John for his many contributions to the University, and our state, both on and off the court.”
NCAA investigations into star players clouded Calipari’s tenures at UMass and Memphis, but he was never punished individually in either case.
The 1996 UMass team vacated four victories and its Final Four appearance after Marcus Camby admitted to accepting impermissible gifts from agents.
The 2008 Memphis team was forced to vacate 38 victories and a Final Four. According to ESPN, Derrick Rose had a fraudulent SAT score and his brother received $1,700 in impermissible travel expenses.
Kentucky has been a recruiting juggernaut under Calipari. The Wildcats have the No. 2-ranked overall class for 2024 behind Duke and had the top overall class last year, according to 247 Sports.
Kentucky has never had a class outside of 247 Sports' top five under Calipari, with the lowest ranked fifth in 2022.
Some have criticized Calipari for relying on younger teams when the trend in men’s basketball has moved more toward older, more experienced teams.
Calipari has recruited several high-level NBA talents, including Anthony Davis, Devin Booker, Jamal Murray, Tyrese Maxey, Shai Gilgeuos-Alexander, Karl-Anthony Towns and more. He had 35 first-round NBA Draft picks as of last year's draft.
Seven former Wildcats participated in this season’s NBA All-Star Game. Rob Dillingham and Reed Sheppard are both projected NBA Draft Lottery picks from this season’s Kentucky team.
Kentucky has 28 players on NBA rosters, the most of any college program. Duke is next closest with 24 and no other school has more than 16.
Calipari will need to heavily recruit in order to have success in Year 1 at Arkansas. The Razorbacks have lost all of their scholarship players — 5 exhausted their eligibility, 7 entered the NCAA transfer portal and Trevon Brazile declared for the NBA Draft.
Walk-on Lawson Blake is the only player from this season’s team still on the roster.
Calipari could potentially bring some of his Kentucky players with him to Fayetteville, along with some of his top-ranked 2024 recruiting class.
Joseph Pinion is the only Arkansas player to have entered the portal and committed elsewhere — to Arkansas State — so Calipari could potentially recruit some of the Razorbacks who are testing those waters.
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