Eleven days ago, John Calipari and Mitch Barnhart sat side-by-side in the Kentucky basketball office conducting a painfully awkward TV interview.
Barnhart had just publicly confirmed the previous day that Calipari would return to lead the school’s storied men’s basketball program for a 16th season. Now it was time for the embattled coach and his longtime athletic director to set aside any lingering tension and put on a united front while discussing the future of Kentucky basketball.
Insisting the notion that he and Calipari had no relationship was “garbage” and “misinformation,” Barnhart likened their partnership to that of a “semi-married” couple. Barnhart admitted that he and Calipari had some “highs and lows” but explained, “By and large, I’m sitting next to a guy that I brought here 15 years ago. And we’ve been together just fine.”
That entire uncomfortable conversation is a hilarious watch given the stunning news that broke on the eve of the men’s national title game Sunday. The “semi-marriage” between Calipari and Kentucky is over. Calipari, per numerous reports, is finalizing a five-year deal to become the next head coach at Arkansas.
For Calipari to leave the highest-profile job in college basketball to take a second-tier gig in the same conference, he had to be desperate to leave Kentucky. He had to know that he was never going to recapture the magic from the first half of his Kentucky tenure when the Wildcats were competing for Final Fours and national titles and he probably could have run for state governor and won in a landslide.
Calipari was under increasing pressure at Kentucky because his last four seasons doubled as one of the worst stretches in program history.
In 2021, Kentucky endured its most humbling season in decades, going from preseason top 10 to a 9-16 face plant. In 2022, the Wildcats suffered their worst-ever NCAA tournament loss, a 2-versus-15 upset at the hands of Saint Peters. Last year, Calipari’s team earned a No. 6 seed but failed to survive the NCAA tournament’s opening weekend.
Those disappointments paved the way for a pivotal 2023-24 season that ended with another first-round March catastrophe. A grad transfer from Division II Hillsdale College came off 14th-seeded Oakland’s bench and knocked down 10 threes, outshining Kentucky’s array of former McDonald’s All-Americans and future NBA Draft picks.
The loss led to renewed calls for Calipari’s firing in the media and eroded much of the support that the once-beloved coach had left among Kentucky fans. It left Barnhart to ponder a once-unfathomable question: How much money would he be comfortable paying to oust Calipari? Was it worth paying Calipari’s $33 million buyout to sever ties and move on?
Only Barnhart knows how strongly he considered making such a bold move. Calipari spoke publicly like a man who expected to return to Kentucky, and Barnhart’s first public comments were to confirm Calipari’s return.
It seemed that Kentucky was stuck with a coach who was no longer the right man for the job. Calipari had been slow to embrace basketball’s 3-point revolution, slow to recognize that college basketball was trending older and more transfer-heavy, slow to adjust to it getting harder to build a national title contender around one-and-dones.
There were reports that Calipari’s relationship with Barnhart was frosty. Same with the dynamic between Calipari and the local media.
Then, out of nowhere, came an improbable chain of events that resulted in a fresh start for all parties.
SMU unexpectedly fired coach Rob Lanier after a 20-win season and an NIT appearance. Andy Enfield left USC after a disappointing 2023-24 season and snapped up the SMU job. USC then hired Eric Musselman away from Arkansas, paving the way for the Razorbacks to take a run at Calipari.
In many ways, this stunning outcome is a win-win-win for almost everyone involved.
Kentucky gets to move on from Calipari without paying any of his $33 million buyout. Calipari gets a clean slate at a top-20 program with championship pedigree and plenty of NIL money. And Arkansas gets a Hall of Fame coach who should have plenty to prove — and perhaps some of the talented incoming freshmen who had originally committed to Calipari at Kentucky.
The one person left with egg on his face is Barnhart. He goes from publicly sticking up for Calipari less than two weeks ago to having to scramble to find a replacement.
UConn’s Dan Hurley and the Chicago Bulls’ Billy Donovan are the pie-in-the-sky options. You make Hurley say he’s not leaving UConn and Donovan say he’s not going back to college basketball before you move on to other candidates.
After that, there are no shortage of realistic options, even guys like Alabama’s Nate Oats and Baylor’s Scott Drew, both of whom just redid their contracts.
The Kentucky job is college basketball’s highest-pressure job but also the one with the highest upside. Five different coaches have won national championships there, including Calipari. The Wildcats spar with Kansas for the title of winningest program of all time. Expectations are high, but there is also no ceiling on what the right coach can accomplish.
John Calipari was no longer the right coach for Kentucky.
Now they’re improbably free of each other.
