Cult of Calipari #NCAA Hoops

By Brian Beckner:

Can someone that understands John Calipari’s cult of personality please take a moment to explain it to everyone else? Is there anyone in history that has made more money despite being so overtly greasy? Two Final Four appearances, both vacated? How do the people that hire coaches constantly get snowed by this dude? Now it looks like Coach Carpetbagger is starting to blow smoke that he could be on the move again, this time to the NBA.

From Adrian Wojnarowski, Yahoo! Sports:

Kentucky coach John Calipari is intrigued with the Chicago Bulls’ coaching job and would be willing to listen to a pitch from management, NBA and NCAA sources told Yahoo! Sports on Tuesday.

So it’s just the old “I might go to the NBA” trick? No problem, all UK needs to do is call his bluff. They have to realize that nobody in the NBA is going break to the bank for a used car salesman with no NBA pedigree. Surely they know that a relationship with Derrick Rose is not reason enough to hire a guy whose primary coaching ability is the loaded handshake? Conversely the Bulls know that LeBron James isn’t coming over just because Coach Cal will have some dork team manager take his SATs for him. And really what other benefit does John Calipari provide for a team? No one confuses him with any kind of a strategic coach. Anyone that saw the Memphis Tigers choke away, errr, lose in overtime in the NCAA Championship game knows that. But Kentucky knows all this, right? A big time basketball powerhouse knows how to negotiate with a coach and there’s no chance they’re getting hoodwinked by Coach Snake Oil, right?

Wrong.

From SI.com:

Kentucky coach John Calipari could be in line for a raise.

Athletic director Mitch Barnhart said Tuesday night the university and Calipari have started talks on a new deal that would keep the coach with the Wildcats for the rest of his career.

"We have begun initial discussions on restructuring his contract so that he's the coach at Kentucky until he retires," Barnhart said in a statement.

Barnhart's comments came just hours after reports surfaced linking Calipari and the coaching vacancy with the NBA's Chicago Bulls, who fired Vinny Del Negro on Tuesday.

Calipari, already the highest paid coach in men's college basketball, just completed the first year of an eight-year deal that averages nearly $4 million a season.

Kentucky, worried that its coach could jump ship is going to open up the purse to keep him in town. As if that wasn’t the point all along? Is there a greasier coach in college basketball? Is there a dirtier guy in all of coaching? One need not be Hans Christian Andersen to realize that this guy has the imaginary wool pulled over everyone’s eyes.

If UK wants to ante up for Greasipari, more power to them. Eventually somebody will come along and lure him away anyway. And as soon as he’s gone, the NCAA will show up in Lexington with a briefcase full of sanctions.

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