John Calipari: Ending of tenure at Kentucky 'sucks'

John Calipari made arguably the biggest splash of the college basketball season — or offseason — when he left his perch atop the Kentucky men’s basketball program to take the head coaching job at Arkansas. But Calipari wasn’t filled with glee as he moved south from Lexington to Fayetteville.

Discussing the move in a recent CBS Sports story, Calipari shared how much the 2023-24 Kentucky team he coach had rejuvenated him. And for it to all unravel so quickly in the NCAA Tournament at a time when Calipari thought he had a group to get back to the top of the mountain didn’t leave him feeling good, both in the immediate aftermath and as he made the decision to move on.

“Last year revived me. I had so much fun with those kids and they celebrated each other,” Calipari said. “The way it ended … I’ll just say, sucks.”

And while Kentucky fans will surely have a range of responses to Calipari’s assessment of the end of the season and his departure — many wanted him gone after 15 seasons and seemingly diminishing returns while plenty would’ve been content to retain Calipari even longer — the head coach was blunt in assessing his track record there.

“I think some people were happy,” Calipari said, letting some sarcasm bleed in and only slightly exaggerating his 410 wins while in Lexington. “‘We’ve had this guy 15 years and we’ve only won 500 games. We only won one national title and four Final Fours and eight Elite Eights? What the hell is going on here?'”

And he made clear that he felt the 2023-24 team, as loaded as any he’s had at Kentucky since winning a national title, could’ve led the Wildcats to another.

“I enjoyed coaching last year. I had a ball, but that was hard. Then Reed Sheppard decides to become Freshman of the Year. I asked him after the season, ‘How much did you expect to play?’ He said, ‘Ah, I thought I’d be carrying water.’ ‘Did you expect to leave here after the season?’ He said, ‘Coach, I expected to be here all four years,'” Calipari said. “My thought was, ‘We’re going to get this,’ and we had a good group coming in … It wasn’t like we were 15-15. But there’s an expectation where it’s only winning championships and winning that ‘ship.”

Ultimately, in a move that shook up men’s college basketball as much as any in recent years, Calipari felt pulled to the Razorbacks. There were plenty of known and reported reasons: New scenery, a lucrative NIL warchest, the backing of his friend and Tyson Chicken magnate John Tyson.

But beyond the expected, Calipari shared there was an underlying pull to go somewhere new.

“Something nudges you and you don’t know what it is,” Calipari said, alluding to a spiritual pull to his new job. “But I’ve been there 15 years. Maybe it’s ‘You’ve done what I needed you to do there for the kids, for the state. Now I need you to do something down there.'”