John Calipari will remain Kentucky’s men’s basketball head coach.
Kentucky athletic director Mitch Barnhart confirmed Tuesday that Calipari will return for his 16th season. The two met Tuesday to discuss a season that ended with a first-round NCAA tournament loss to No. 14 Oakland.
Discussing the situation on his CBS Sports podcast, Matt Norlander claimed a pricey buyout is the main reason Kentucky didn’t fire Calipari.
“I truly believe the only reason he’s the coach at Kentucky is because it’s too expensive to pay him out of his contract,” Norlander said. “Talking to two sources in the last two days, one of the biggest sticking points is a lot of that money would have to come from the Craft family, which is one of the biggest donors around the Kentucky men’s basketball program and Kentucky athletics. I was told Joe and Kelly Craft just were not going to pay John Calipari north of $30 million. … They’re not going to let him walk away with all of that money.”
Norlander speculated that Calipari would be gone if his buyout was closer to $12 million.
According to Norlander, Calipari and Barnhart have a fractured relationship and hadn’t had meaningful talks in months before Tuesday’s meeting.
“They had to avoid going into a room together and then coming out fuming against each other. And that did not happen,” Norlander continued. “They dodged any kind of significant disagreements to worsen the situation.”
Norlander disagreed with Kentucky’s decision. He believes Kentucky is “delaying the inevitable” by retaining Calipari, whose return “feels lame duckish.”
He also speculated that Barnhart wasn’t “overly eager” to lead a search for Calipari’s replacement.
Before Kentucky confirmed his return, Calipari said in a Monday night radio interview that he felt “physically ill” after Kentucky’s early March Madness exit. Having led the Wildcats to four Final Fours and a national title, he realizes that expectations are higher for the program.
“My standard is we’re playing to play deep into the NCAA tournament and compete for national titles. And win national titles,” Calipari said. “I wanted this job knowing that was the case. I love this job knowing that was the case. I never left this job. “But that’s what the standard is for me.”