Spring Break
Kentucky introduces Calipari as next basketball coach
AP
Issue date: 4/2/09 Section: Sports
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Before his introductory news conference Wednesday, Kentucky's athletics board approved the contract that will make Calipari the highest paid coach in the nation. Athletic director Mitch Barnhart defended the salary, saying that the university paid a premium price to leave Memphis, and that Calipari "can flat out coach."
"I'm a regular guy, folks," Calipari said. "I do not walk on water; I do not have a magic wand."
He might need to find a magic wand. Kentucky fired Billy Gillispie on Friday after two seasons where he went 40-27, including losing 14 games this season and failing to lead the Wildcats into the NCAA tournament.
"The challenge of being here is competing for national titles, but winning them," Calipari said. "But that's what you buy into when you come here."
And Kentucky has demonstrated it's willing to pay whatever it takes to get back to that level.
Calipari's decision to take the job didn't come easy. He spent more than a day mulling Kentucky's lucrative offer while reporters camped outside his home.
"This decision was extremely hard," Calipari said. "It wasn't coming here, this was easy. It was leaving Memphis. The support that my family and I received over the years there ... to walk away from that was very difficult."
Calipari had such strong ties to Memphis that after his UK introduction, he was expected to fly back there for an afternoon news conference during which university officials were expected to discuss the future of their basketball program.
Calipari, 50, knows what he is getting into at Kentucky. He said before he made his decision, he reached out to several former Wildcats coaches.
"I talked to coach [Joe B.] Hall. I talked to Tubby Smith. I talked to Eddie Sutton. And I talked to Rick Pitino about this job. And ... none of those coaches would trade their time here for anything in the world.
"This is pretty heady stuff for me."
Calipari is 445-140 in 17 seasons, leading both Memphis and Massachusetts to the Final Four. He said he has long dreamed of coaching college basketball's winningest program.
"This was a dream I've had since we brought our team down here," Calipari said. "I believe it was 1992, we [UMass] had won the Alaskan Shootout, came down here to play and I could not believe the environment. At that point I said -- 'I would love to coach there someday.'"
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