Kentucky Offers John Calipari Six-Years, $40 Million

[Brass Knob]

It is being reported in Memphis that Memphis has matched the offer set forth by Kentucky.

[chortle]

It is being reported in Memphis that Memphis has matched the offer set forth by Kentucky.

Recession. What recession?!?!?!?

[The Hogfather]

Grant' team had defeated a higher ranked Duke team in the NCAA tournament, and had another appearance this season, in which he team, lost, but performed very well. 

With 90% of the players on that team being recruited by Capel.  It would be like you saying that John Pelphrey is a proven coach because he beat Indiana in the NCAAT last year, even though 90% of the players on that team were recruited (and coached for 3 years) by Stan Heath.

[The Hogfather]

I'm staying out of the whole "Pelphrey as coach" argument, but I think that a Jeff Long-led coaching search would turn out to be fruitful.  Just look at how we were all panicking after Grobe, Tubby, and Bowden turned tail on us, and Long was able to woo Petrino away from the Falcons (albeit it's not like he had to twist CBP's arm, seeing as how the Falcons were a bastion of thuggishness and disrespected him at every turn).

Laughing at the rewriting of history...

[Brass Knob]

Laughing at the rewriting of history...

haha they say history is always written by the winners...

[Overtheroadtruckdriver]

Calipari isn't going to kentucky. I guarantee it. I'm willing to stake my reputation on it.

[rzrbackrob]

I'm not completely confident in Long hitting a homerun if Pel does not work out. Like a lot of people, I will hope he can.

[rzrbackrob]

Calipari isn't going to Kentucky. I guarantee it. I'm willing to stake my reputation on it.

But are you willing to stake the right brain/left brain theory on it?

[Brass Knob]

The figure that is coming out for the Kentucky offer is 8 years $35 million dollars!

[Overtheroadtruckdriver]

He will not be at kentucky next year. This thread might as well go to the trash.

[Hot_Town_Hog]

Okay, let's assume we did offer Calipari 4 million and he declined us.  Great.  At least we tried.  But we end up hiring a search committee to sign a Sun Belt coach for 750K per year.  This means one of two things...

1.  We tried offering the job to a laundry list of coaches (longer than the one I provided earlier in this thread), offering them let's say 2 million a year to coach here, and they all turned us down until we ended up in the Sun Belt.

2.  We had two incompetents running our coaching search to the point where they didn't really have a laundry list of good candidates.  So they turn the search over to a search committee so they wouldn't have to worry about it, and we end up with someone that the SEARCH COMMITTEE THINKS is a good fit for us.  Broyles and White okay it just to get it over with.

Now, I know which option you will choose to fit your "no one in their right mind" would want to come here theory, but I can tell you which one of these is a thousand times more plausible.

I hope we didn't offer anyone $4 million to come here, and I am pretty sure we didn't nor has any other school. The money is probably available at most of the bigger schools if someone is dumb enough to dish it out.

Many of you will disagree, but it just doesn't sound right to go this far above the previous ceiling in place for college basketball coaching salaries. In a way they are also buying players, because my guess is many of his top recruits will follow suit.

Nothing would be sweeter than for this to blowup in KY's face. I am sure they will be very good the next couple of years with all the big name recruits. But, it is almost like they are desperate and resorting to Yankee like tactics in an attempt to buy Championships.

[3kgthog]

I ask you, why leave for UK's money when at Memphis he's got A) the easiest conference of any power team B) FedEx with an open wallet and C) not nearly the insane, shoot your son over a loss, fanbase like UK.

Memphis just needs to give Cal the raise he's trying for by playing with Kentucky. That setup is too sweet to give up simply for more money.

[Overtheroadtruckdriver]

Exactly right 3kgthog.

[sirhog]

That is an insane amount of money for any NCAA coach. I wonder what kind of trickle down effect it will have on the rest of the basketball programs across the country? Will other schools start paying that much money? Will ticket prices increase as a result? It will be interesting to see how it plays out in the future.

[jst01]

I ask you, why leave for UK's money when at Memphis he's got A) the easiest conference of any power team B) FedEx with an open wallet and C) not nearly the insane, shoot your son over a loss, fanbase like UK.

Memphis just needs to give Cal the raise he's trying for by playing with Kentucky. That setup is too sweet to give up simply for more money.

1. UK is a better job, period.
2. UK will spend more on Basketball, resources are much greater at UK.
3. UK will recruit itself more than Memphis. Cal has made Memphis what it is today. UK has made UK what it is, not one single person.
4. Cal may be tired of getting REAL close to winning it all and wants to actually win it all at UK. Like you said, Memphis plays weak teams all year and cant beat the really good teams when it counts. If Cal builds teams like that at UK, they will be able to play up to the competition when it matters.

just my opinion on those.

[ironside]

I think there is a good chance he is just trying to set up one hell of a bidding war.  Cal is too sleezy to be this up front with anything.

That won't happen. Memphis will not get into a bidding war and I think Cal knows that. Besides the money, I really think he wants to be challenged by coaching UK and coaching in the SEC.

[ironside]

The reason that you never heard of Grant as a serious candidate for the Arkansas job was because of JFB.  Broyles was not going to hire a black coach.

Did Richardson decide to turn black sometime after '85   

[hoglady]

It's hard to win it all. Took Roy Williams and Dean Smith a long time to win it all. You've got to have the talent, but you've got to have some luck, too.
Calipari will win a NC whether he's at Memphis or UK.
He has on paper the best recruiting class of all time coming into Memphis, how much better can you do than that?
He's probably gone to Kentucky, hate to see it and I feel sorry for the city of Memphis and their fans. Calipari and Memphis always seemed like a pretty good match - don't know about Kentucky.

[HawgAdvocate]

Cal has an NBA arena, and an easier location to recruit to, in Memphis.

Cal has much less pressure and equally as much, if not more, potential to win it all in Memphis.

I'd stay in Memphis, if I were him. But I'm not.

[Mr. Porkleone]

He will not be at kentucky next year. This thread might as well go to the trash.

Over the road trucker might be right....Cal does live in the city of Fed Ex and we know how deep there pockets go...But this kind of money is getting crazy...

[WPSinOhio]

  The main booster at UofM as already said she will personally match Kentucky's offer.. If Calipari goes, it will not be for the money..

Also if Calipari goes, they are willing to offer Anderson 2.5 million per year..

They match Kentucky, he stays, because he also gets his 5 million bonus...

CK

[minman]

I think he might go because Cal has an ego.  C-USA will never be as good as the SEC.  He knows Memphis won't ever be talked about until the end of February of each year because no one thinks anything of the C-USA, and rightfully so.  Also, you never really get to see your guys progress through the season and become all that they can be because they play a bunch of high school teams for 3/4 of the year.  What you see in March with Memphis is what you see in November.  As long as they are in the C-USA it will always be that way.  He just might go to Kentucky because of that... and oh yeah, the money don't hurt. 

[minman]

  The main booster at UofM as already said she will personally match Kentucky's offer.. If Calipari goes, it will not be for the money..

Also if Calipari goes, they are willing to offer Anderson 2.5 million per year..

They match Kentucky, he stays, because he also gets his 5 million bonus...

CK

Can you imagine Anderson at Memphis?  That would be fun to watch!

[eathill5]

We don't have ENOUGH players right now.  It will get better next year and better the year after, etc.

agreed.  However the problems we have now are because of recruiting.  Not really because of Pel but what he inherited.

[Hoggish1]

FWIW, Dan Patrick is talking to the local radio people here right now and he says it's a mistake for Calipari to take the Kentucky job.

He said he lived near Lexington for several years and he believes that Travis Ford or John Pelphrey would have been better hires because they understand what it means to be a Kentucky Wildcat.

Did Rick Petino understand what it meant to be a Wildcat before he took the job?

[HawgAdvocate]

Did Rick Petino understand what it meant to be a Wildcat before he took the job?

No, but he did very well in the role. Rupp has been dead for quite a while.

Pitino is the standard for how UK fans measure their recent and future coaches.

[dhornjr1]

No, but he did very well in the role. Rupp has been dead for quite a while.

Pitino is the standard for how UK fans measure their recent and future coaches.

Exactly. And they see Calipari as being "Rick Petino-Lite".

[Oliver]

Exactly. And they see Calipari as being "Rick Petino-Lite".

Just as many Arkansas fans see Anderson as "Nolan Richardson-Lite".

[dhornjr1]

Just as many Arkansas fans see Anderson as "Nolan Richardson-Lite".

Good point.

[dhornjr1]

Calipari isn't going to kentucky. I guarantee it. I'm willing to stake my reputation on it.

Are you?

I guess it's not a big deal to stake a sh*tty reputation is it?

[BallHog1]

Calipari isn't going to kentucky. I guarantee it. I'm willing to stake my reputation on it.

I thought this was a done deal on Sunday. Now two days later and it hasn't happened. That coupled with OTR's staking his rep on it has me thinking maybe it really isn't going to happen.
Heck, OTR is all over the courtry hearing things....I suspect he's all over the road too.

[Brass Knob]

I thought this was a done deal on Sunday. Now two days later and it hasn't happened. That coupled with OTR's staking his rep on it has me thinking maybe it really isn't going to happen.
Heck, OTR is all over the courtry hearing things....I suspect he's all over the road too.

Certainly the longer this draws out the better it appears to be for Memphis...