-
Myron Medcalf, ESPN Workers Author
Regardless of one other early exit from the NCAA match, Kentucky males’s basketball coach John Calipari will return for his sixteenth season in 2024-25, in response to athletic director Mitch Barnhart.
Calipari’s future appeared cloudy following the Wildcats’ first-round loss to Oakland, a 14-seed, within the NCAA match final week. It was the most recent upset on this system’s résumé; two years in the past, Kentucky was a 2-seed when it misplaced to 15-seed Saint Peter’s within the opening spherical of the 2022 match.
“As we usually do on the finish of each season, Coach Calipari and I’ve had conversations concerning the route of our males’s basketball program and I can affirm that he’ll return for his sixteenth season as our head coach,” Barnhart wrote Tuesday on X, previously Twitter.
As we usually do on the finish of each season, Coach Calipari and I’ve had conversations concerning the route of our males’s basketball program and I can affirm that he’ll return for his sixteenth season as our head coach.
— Mitch Barnhart (@UKMitchBarnhart) March 27, 2024
Calipari, talking Monday on his season-ending radio present, mentioned he understood that the usual at Kentucky — the winningest program in males’s faculty basketball historical past and an eight-time nationwide champion — is to chop down the nets within the closing sport of the 12 months, and acknowledged that his staff had fallen wanting that objective.
“I talked once more about the usual … that I imagine in, that I believe we are able to do,” Calipari mentioned. “However that commonplace of nationwide titles has been right here from Coach [Adolph] Rupp on, and the one factor I am saying to all our followers is you already know I will work — work in our state, work on this program, this college. … That is my dedication. I am not altering, 24/7, let’s go — whether or not it is recruiting, all of the stuff that now we have to do.”
Calipari has one nationwide title (2012) and his most up-to-date Last 4 look was in 2015. The previous few years had been tough for the Wildcats’ devoted followers, as Kentucky completed 9-16 in 2020-21, this system’s worst document in 100 years, and suffered early postseason exits in 2022 and 2023.
However the emergence of Reed Sheppard and Rob Dillingham, projected top-10 picks within the NBA draft, and the return of veteran Antonio Reeves prompt this season could possibly be totally different for the Wildcats. Then, Oakland reserve Jack Gohlke hit 10 3-pointers in an 80-76 upset win over Kentucky, a outcome that prompted buzz about Calipari’s future.
It appears clear to all that Calipari — who would have been owed a $33 million buyout if the college elected to fireside him now — will face intense stress to make a deep run within the NCAA match subsequent season and rebuild a staff that completed 111th in adjusted defensive effectivity, per KenPom.
Kentucky’s 2024 recruiting class contains three of the highest 25 prospects in ESPN’s rankings, together with four-star recruit Karter Knox and a pair of five-star abilities in Jayden Quaintance and Johnuel Fland.
Calipari has confronted criticism for relying too closely on youth when most groups are getting older by the switch portal. However he mentioned Monday on his radio present that he’ll proceed to recruit freshman expertise and stability his staff with veterans from the portal.
“That is like sporting a coat: It by no means goes away,” Calipari mentioned. “However I adore it. That is what I would like. That is what I wished. This is the reason I by no means left. That is it. And now it is let’s come collectively and let’s do one thing. Let’s do one thing particular. We have performed it. Let’s do it once more.”