The constant rumors that UK basketball coach John Calipari is leaving to coach in NBA can be put to rest. He says he’s staying put until the end of his career.
John Calipari plans to be a Kentucky Wildcat until the day he retires and he has a ten-year plan in place. Today/Monday he wrote on his CoachCal.com website that he wants to help the men’s basketball program surpass UCLA’s record of 11 national championships and there are four more to go to reach that goal. He wrote “How long can I coach here? My plan is to coach here for the rest of my career. I want this to be my final coaching position. I hope you understand that it’s going to be very difficult. We’ve won eight titles since 1948, and now we’re going to try to win four more. This could take more than a decade, but so what? Let’s chase it. Can we do it? Sure, but it’s going to be really tough.”
Coach Cal’s post is titled ‘The Vision of the Program: What We’re Chasing’ and calls for life-time scholarships which allows players to leave for the NBA and return at any time to finish their degrees. He also wants more improvements to Rupp Arena and hints at the possibility of a new arena saying it would “further cement Kentucky basketball as the gold standard in all of collegiate athletics.”
Calipari is 57 and has been at UK for seven seasons. In that time he’s won one national championship. Statistically, he would have to coach until he was 85 to hit the goal of four more wins.
One aspect of leading the UK men’s basketball team, Coach Cal posted that something else has become very clear to him. “I’ve gone from the business of basketball to the business of helping families. That’s not just a fancy line used on a recruiting pitch. That’s the truth. That’s why I’m here and that’s what’s allowed me to do this. As long as I feel like I can continue to help families, why not keep going?”
And the accolades keep coming in for former Kentucky Wildcat stars. By a unanimous vote, Karl-Anthony Towns has been named the 2015-16 Rookie of the Year. Towns plays for the Minnesota Timberwolves and was the number one overall pick in last year’s draft.