After yet another one-and-done in the NCAA Tournament, Kentucky men’s basketball coach John Calipari is hearing more calls than ever for him to leave. Those same fans believe he’d be perfect to fill a nearby vacancy.
Shortly after the Kentucky Wildcats were eliminated at the hands of 14-seeded Oakland, fans began to muse that Calipari might be a good fit for the recently-vacated Louisville head coaching job. Louisville are, of course, the Wildcats’ arch-rivals, but have won only 12 games over the past two seasons under Kenny Payne.
Calipari would probably never make such a move. For one thing, his buyout is over $30 million, so Louisville would have to pay a ton of money to their rivals just to bring him into the fold.
Nevertheless, fans can’t help but find the idea incredibly funny and are eager to see it happen:
“The funniest thing Calipari could do now is take the Louisville job,” one user suggested.
“Screw it. Let’s just do the most hilarious thing imaginable. Tell Louisville to pay the buyout and hire John Calipari,” wrote another.
“Calipari parachuting to Louisville tomorrow is the chaos I need in my life,” a third declared.
John Calipari led the Wildcats to a national title in 2012. But the past three years have been the equivalent of a “Dark Age” for Kentucky basketball. While they have made the NCAA Tournament three times in the last four years, they have only one win in March Madness and have not won even a share of the regular season title since 2020.