John Calipari plans to coach out remainder of Kentucky contract: "I want to do some special things here"

John Calipari isn’t planning on packing up his bags and leaving Kentucky anytime soon. In fact, the hope is to stick around the remainder of his contract — all six years of it.

The UK head coach discussed his future in Lexington in one-on-one interviews with John Fanta and Dan Patrick, stressing he’s in no rush to leave. A common theme in both appearances? His desire to do “special things” to close out his career at Kentucky.

“I’ve got six years on a contract. Will I stay longer? I don’t know. But I want to be here,” Calipari told Fanta. “It hasn’t changed. The best players still want to come here. I don’t blame those who don’t want to come here, I don’t make it personal. I’m at Kentucky, which is an unbelievable stage. Every year we are here, we have a shot to win a national title.

“I look at this run and say, ‘let’s do some special things.’ The families, my appreciation for them is they trust me with their child. If it was the drudgery of this, I wouldn’t be doing this.”

Dan Patrick asked Calipari straight up if he was ever close to leaving Kentucky, or it got to the point where Kentucky made it clear he was no longer wanted in Lexington. The UK head coach quickly denied both scenarios.

“No. No,” he said. “We’ve been at a high level. Last year and the year before. We win 47 or 48 games in two years, two NCAA Tournaments. All that at a normal place? ‘Wow, we got this rolling.’ At Kentucky? There’s something different about Kentucky good. And Kentucky good? We’ve been there.”

That’s when he brought up the 2019-20 Wildcats led by Immanuel Quickley, Tyrese Maxey, Ashton Hagans and Nick Richards. “We could have won a national title that year,” he said. “We won the league by three games, and that was only a few years ago.”

Then there was the COVID year before two disappointing finishes in each of the past two seasons.

But his expectations remain high going into 2023-24 — and beyond.

“We’ve got a good group coming in. The landscape has changed, this transfer stuff has changed stuff. The name, image and likeness has changed stuff. But no, I think we’re on a good path,” Calipari said. “I want to do some special things here. We’ve got six years left to do some really good stuff.”

Patrick asked Calipari to clarify what he meant by that, why six years specifically.

“Well, I’ve got six years on my contract,” he said. “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. We haven’t been that far off. Two years ago we were the fifth overall seed, you know what I mean?”

"You talk about name, imagine and likeness.. I don't like to get into that with players because you don't come to #Kentucky, I call that tripping over nickels to try to get to an #NBA max contract. We probably have 12-13 guys right now that have max deals"

-John Calipari on NIL pic.twitter.com/zrNCl7GQq1

— Dan Patrick Show (@dpshow) May 4, 2023

Six more years would keep him in Lexington through the 2028-29 season, with Calipari set to make $8.5 million over the next two years, followed by $9 million each in the final four. There is an out in his contract at the conclusion of this upcoming 2023-24 campaign, one that would allow him to step down as head coach and take over an ambassador role within the program with a payout of $1 million per season.

If you ask Calipari, though, the plan is to stick around for the long haul.