As the Elite Eight was winding down Sunday in his current hometown, Memphis coach John Calipari was busy entertaining the very likely possibility that before the Final Four tips off in Detroit, he will be the new coach at Kentucky.
The Memphis Commercial Appeal reported Monday that Calipari has already met with his current Memphis players about the matter, leaving some with the impression that he’s Lexington-bound.
Jerry Tipton reports from Lexington that Calipari’s current deal with Memphis is good for $3 million a year and hears Dick Vitale describe this likely hire as “an absolute grand slam.”
A Memphis television station is saying that Calipari-to-Kentucky is a done deal, and he’s taking two of his Memphis players with him.
If Cal hits the Blue Grass, it will be a great injection not just for Kentucky, but also for an SEC that was absolutely moribund last season and has very little in the way of great coaching personalities to reverse that course. The league may never enjoy the days when the likes of Wimp Sanderson, Hugh Durham, Sonny Smith, Richard Williams and Dale Brown lifted the SEC out of a football-only mindset with their humor and by recruiting top-flight players. But perhaps some kind of renaissance could be underway with Kentucky, naturally, leading the way.
I just wonder if the Commonwealth of Kentucky is big enough to contain both Calipari and Rick Pitino, their outsized egos and enormous ambitions at two basketball-made institutions.
Just another slice of intrigue, another great example of why I think college basketball is the most fascinating sport on the North American landscape.
But that’s just this woman’s perspective.
