By LARRY VAUGHT
It’s admirable for Kentucky athletics director Mitch Barnhart to want to extend John Calipari’s contract at Kentukcky “to ensure that he has a long tenure” at UK as Barnhart wrote on Twitter last week.
There’s little doubt Barnhart, who had his contract extended by outgoing president Lee Todd, will work out a contract extension with Calipari.
But should he and what does it really matter.
Calipari was give an eight-year, $31.65 million deal when he left Memphis to take over at UK in 2009 and four straight 30-win seasons. He’s won 65 games in two years at UK and made the Elite Eight and Final Four. He had five first-round draft picks last year, including Patrick Patterson, and will have two more this year if you count Enes Kanter as a Wildcat. And he has the nation’s No. 1 recruiting class again and could have five potential first-round picks in 2012.
However, no matter how much more money UK guarantees Calipari or how many years he has on contract, if he wants to leave for the NBA, he’ll leave. Either Calipari or a NBA team will buy out the contract and he’ll walk away.
It works the other way if his contract is not extended. He’s still making plenty of money and with his track record, there’s no way Kentucky would let him walk away. He can coach at UK for as long as he wants.
So while it might sound good for Calipari’s long-term security at UK if the contract is extended, it really means nothing. If Calipari wants to be at Kentucky, he’ll be here. If he wants to leave, he’ll leave.
Myself, I still don’t see him leaving, especially since would want a high-level NBA job this time where he could win immediately and the few teams that good with openings likely would never have the nerve to turn their team over to a college coach like Calipari. And the bad teams who might be willing to give Calipari a second chance likely would not appeal to the coach nearly enough to make him leave the Bluegrass.
9 Responses to Calipari contract extension really not that big a deal
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John Calipari had an unsuccessful tenure as coach and GM of the New Jersey Nets in the 1990s. I’m sure he is very well aware that Pitino failed miserably in that same role with the Boston Celtics. I don’t think it’s a cinch that Calipari won’t leave UK under any circumstances. He might, but I’m sure he would be very choosy and careful about it. He knows he has a great job in Lexington. As a practical matter, I think it’s unlikely he will bolt anytime soon.
Let me start this comment by saying that I foresee Calipari retiring at UK. I think he tried the NBA and knows what a good thing he has with the Cats. However, what will interest me about the contract extension is how Barnhart structures the compensation, especially salary versus incentives based on performance. I would hope that the contact is salary heavy that way if another team does come calling, they will esstenailly be paying the salary of the new coach we would have to hire.
Its only a big deal in that rival schools could potentially use a lack of a contract extension as evidence that Cal doesn’t intend on sticking around. But yea, it definitely doesn’t bind Cal to staying at UK, no doubt about that. And he will leave eventually, everyone needs to prepare for that, but hopefully we will get a few more years out of Cal. But Cal has stated repeatedly that UK is not a long term job, due to the immense stress and pressure that accompanies the job. He will be year around 5 years is my guess, then he is off to the NBA, to try and right the only failure of his career.
I don’t know House. I think he retires here
Glad for the extension and since there aren’t any other blogs I can fit my seething anger into, this one will have to do. When I read the following my cork just blew…I’m ticked:
Earlier this month, the chairman of the NCAA’s Committee on Infractions sent University of Kentucky President Lee T. Todd Jr. a letter asking the school to publicly acknowledge it was wrong to recognize John Calipari’s 500th coaching victory this past season. Chairman Dennis E. Thomas, the commissioner of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference, also told Todd that the wording of UK’s statement “must be approved by the office of the Committee on Infractions prior to its release.”
With all the problems that the NCAA has before it, then either Mr. Thomas has an agenda or he has entirely too much time on his hands. If not an “agenda”, then someone needs to send this guy a coloring book and a bag of marbles and remind him that the casting department of the upcoming movie, “JackAss 4″ has a role for him. There, I said it and I’m going to bed-just too dam much!
Way to go Barker!
A big AMEN to that!
It was an 8 page letter too, and supposedly the letter to Ohio St was only 5 pages! The NCAA is a joke right now. Personal vendettas are obvious…I don’t necessarily think the NCAA has it out for UK, but its pretty clear that there is an agenda against Cal.
I hope Cal does stay until he retires. We need another legacy.
@PBarker, ColoradoWildCat & House, I have been waiting for Larry to post something about botox mark and his band of merry men and their insane, idiotic and absurd letter to UK and Pres. Todd. They have not found Coach Cal guilty of anything, not one iota of an infraction, therefore, in my book he does have 500 wins. You can’t be almost pregnant so it can’t be almost with the wins. Maybe not official wins but if the nuts who played for him had not broken the rules then it would be recognize. Face it, botox mark and his band of merry men are out to shoot UK however they can, in the back, in the cahoonas(sic, I don’t have any so not sure how it is spelled) and in the head if they get a chance. UMASS still has the nc2a banner hanging, puke has still not had to answer for the Magette scenario in the 90′s. This really ticks me off. Doesn’t the nc2a have more important matters to worry about? I heard there were hundreds of infractions against Ohio but they aren’t doing anything about those. Go Cats
Linda, I hate to even dignify the NCAA’s idiotic stance. But guest columnist Mack Perkins has a column coming Wednesday you will like