Kentucky Coach John Calipari on the move?

In a shocking turn of events, longtime Kentucky men's basketball head coach John Calipari is expected to leave the program after 15 seasons to take the job at SEC rival Arkansas.  ESPN reports that the 65-year-old Calipari should be signing a five-year deal with the Razorbacks at some point early this week.  Since taking over at Kentucky, Calipari led the storied program to four Final Four appearances and the 2012 national title.  He signed a 10-year deal with Kentucky in 2019 that had a clause in it that would allow him to remain a paid ambassador for the school once he retired.  Calipari will take over for Eric Musselman, who was hired by USC on April 4th.  

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Good morning. I'm Tony Cruiz alongwith the voice of the Kentucky Wildcats Tom
Leach, on the announcement in newsat least from many sources that coach John
Callum Perry of UK is leaving theschool to go to be the next head
coach at Arkansas. Tom Leach,good morning to you. What were your
what was your response with thoughts whenyou heard about that? Well, it

(00:21):
again, at this point, we'reassuming that's what's happening, so we'll we'll
see if that gets confirmed. We'veseen these things get down the road a
long way and then change, butit certainly appears that that's where it's headed
from a lot of reports from alot of trusted sources. So yeah,

(00:42):
it was a certainly surprised. Ifirst saw a little something I guess it
was Saturday, and heard a littlesomething on Saturday, and I thought,
well, that's possible for a coupleof reasons. But you know, you
think, oh, well they probablywon't happen. It's possible, but it

(01:03):
probably won't happen. So maybe itwill, maybe it will. When you
look at the w l e Xinterview with Mitch Barnhardt and Cal that was
something we've never seen before, andCal seemed a little contrite in that one.
How do you think he felt afterthe season was over? And is

(01:26):
it palpable kind of the angst ofUK basketball right now? In Lexington.
I'm sorry I lost the last partof your question, Tony. Is it
palpable that the angst that when theydecided when Cal was staying where people upset
or it just seems like it's turneda negative turn over the last maybe two
three years. Yeah, you knowin this we know you and I know

(01:49):
from doing calling shows, the percentageof people that listen versus the percentage that
call is dramatically different, And I'msure it's the same way with things that
are posted, So you never knowfor sure what put percentage something is in
terms of you know, who's themost negative and how great is that number?
Because that's all that number is alwaysthe loudest. So that's just the

(02:13):
way it is. You never knowwhat that number is. But obviously you
know there was a great sense ofdisappointment there was for Cal. It's about
his doubt as I've seen him indoing a postgame interview, because this was
just such a fun team for fans, those of us that covered it to
watch, and I think it wasfor him to coach. Why do you

(02:36):
think he had those issues over thelast the three years, in particular of
going out of the NCAA Tournament soearly, especially this team who had beaten
Arkansas excuse me, Alabama, whatby over twenty had beaten Arkansas. I
mean they had some really great wins, great wins down in Auburn. What
was it do you think. Idon't really know how to answer that one

(02:58):
other than to say, you know, coach k lost to Mercer in Lehigh
in the span of three years.It happens. Well, that's a good
point. Yeah it Uh, lookat Matt Painter last year. Yeah,
exactly, Tony Bennett before that.You know, coach Hall, who was
one of the most underappreciated coaches inthe history of college basketball. Probably he

(03:23):
had a run where there was oneNCAA Tournament win in four years, and
he came out of that and finishedwith three teams that one got to the
Final four and the other two overachieved. So, you know, we and
Kay obviously I mentioned K and hecame out of that to have a great
glory, and I was certainly hopingthat's the way it would play out for

(03:44):
Cal as well at Kentucky. Lookslike we you know, I say,
looks like it seems like we maynot get to see that movie play out
any longer. But again, thesethings it is still not confirmed. Nothing's
confirmed at this point. Do youthink Cal's changed over the years. I
mean he's gonna change, yeah,right, yeah, you get just you

(04:05):
know, with age, but youknow, he he is still hungry.
And you know, the thing thatthere's two things that I thought about is,
you know, watching all this coveragelate last night and seeing this play
out and if you know, ifit's going to happen, you know,

(04:28):
there was probably never a coach thatwas more the right guy that at the
right time than John Caliperry in twothousand and nine. And he is a
guy that did as done again Iwant to use the right tense because nothing
is confirmed yet, but he isa guy that has done an amazing job

(04:50):
at understanding what this job is allabout beyond coaching basketball and in terms of,
you know, impact on communities whenthings were going badly after tornadoes and
things like that and floods, andhe was the guy that always led a
charge to step up and help,and so if he moves on, that

(05:14):
will certainly be part of his legacyas well.