The Kentucky Wildcats’ early exit again this season in the NCAA Tournament has led to Wildcats fans calling for the removal of longtime head coach John Calipari. But for a number of factors, that likely will not come to fruition.
Calipari’s current contract with Kentucky has a $33 million buyout clause, meaning that the program would need to pay him that amount in order to part ways with him before his contract runs out.
Another factor is while Calipari has not had much postseason success as of late, he has consistently been an excellent recruiter, which certainly is a very valuable skill in the current landscape of college sports.
As far as whether or not Calipari even wants to stay at Kentucky, he reassured Kentucky that he is “committed” to building a winner once again in the future.
“You know I talk again about the standard, that is the standard I believe in that I think we can do, that standard of national titles has been here from Coach Rupp on,” Calipari said in a recent radio appearance transcribed by 247 Sports. “The only thing I’m going to say to all of our fans is I’m going to work.
“Work in our state. Work for this program and for this university. Really work for these young people. That’s my commitment. I’m not changing. 24-7 let’s go. Whether it’s recruiting .. all the stuff we have to do. This is like wearing a coat, it never goes away. But I love it. This is what I want. This is why I never left. Now it’s come together, let’s go do something special. We’ve done it and let’s do it again.”
Calipari appears to be quite eager to turn this Kentucky program back into a winner. But the recent results do paint a very clear picture of the program. With first-round NCAA Tournament exits in back-to-back seasons, Calipari’s program is very much at a crossroads.
One positive factor for the Wildcats heading into next season is that yet again they have an excellent recruiting class coming into town. Kentucky ranks just behind Duke as the top recruiting class in the country, with four five-star recruits coming into town.
