John Calipari addresses how close he came to leaving Kentucky

Appearing on the “Dan Patrick Show” on Thursday, Kentucky head men’s basketball coach John Calipari was asked how close he was to potentially leaving the Wildcats. His answer: Not very.

Despite the supposed turmoil or discomfort on the sidelines the past two seasons in Lexington, Calipari is committed to staying with Kentucky for at least the duration of his current contract. He has big goals for the future on his mind.

“Well, I’ve got six years on the contract. And I’m like saying, ‘Alright, let’s make this run and let’s do some things, let’s get this back where we were.’ And again, we haven’t been that far off — two years ago we were the fifth overall seed. Like, you know what I mean?” Calipari said.

He continued: “And a couple of us lost to St. Pete’s. I was just somewhere last night — when I was at the Knicks games, somebody came up and said, ‘I’m a St. Peter’s graduate. Thank you, you made us.’ I said, ‘Yeah, well you’re really happy.’ I wasn’t really happy. And neither were the other schools that lost to them after we lost to them. I mean, how about they could’ve been in the Final Four? But anyway, that’s behind. Look, you know me. I don’t have a rearview mirror. My stuff is always looking ahead. What’s next? How are we first at it?”

Calipari also pointed out that despite backsliding some in the past few seasons, it’s not like Kentucky has been bad outside of a 9-16 Covid season. In both the past two seasons, the Wildcats rebounded and made the NCAA Tournament both years. One featured the upset loss to St. Peter’s and in 2023 they were bounced in the second round.

And the 2019-20 team, that didn’t get to play an NCAA Tournament, was rolling. Featuring Tyrese Maxey, Nick Richards, Immanuel Quickley and Ashton Hagans, Calipari thought that team could’ve competed for a national championship. They had a 25-6 record when the season ended.

With the top recruiting class for the 2023 cycle coming in, Calipari has plenty of reason to stick around Kentucky for the foreseeable future.

“Last year, and the year before, we win 47, 48 games in two years. Two NCAA Tournaments, all that. In a normal place, that’s ‘Wow, we got this rolling.’ At Kentucky, there’s something different about ‘Kentucky good.’ And ‘Kentucky good,’ we’ve been there,” Calipari said. “I mean it was only — the season ended with Maxey, Quickley, Asthon, Nick, the guys we had on that group, where we could’ve won a national title that year. We won the league by three. That was only a few years ago. Then you have the Covid year. Then the last two years. But, you know what, we’ve got a good group coming in.”