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April 1, 2009
Coach John Calipari - All of your former coaches, teammates, alumni and friends at Clarion University - Congratulate you and wish you all the best as you begin your tenure as head basketball coach at the University of Kentucky. John Calipari, a former Golden Eagle basketball standout and 1982 Clarion graduate, agreed to an 8-year contract today worth $31.65 million dollars plus incentives to become Kentucky's 22nd head basketball coach, pending the approval of the UK Board of Trustees. An additional $200,000 buyout was paid to the University of Memphis. The 2009 Sports Illustrated National Coach of the Year, Calipari led the Memphis Tigers to an NCAA Sweet 16 appearance and a 33-4 record this season. He also led the Tigers to the 2008 NCAA title game, and Memphis' 38 wins in 2007-08 made him the winningest coach for a single season in NCAA history. As a result, Calipari was named Naismith National Coach of the Year for a second time in his career. He is only the second coach to receive the honor multiple times since the award's inception in 1987. The Tigers' 137 wins the last four seasons made Calipari the winningest coach in a four-year span in NCAA Division I history. During that same time, he directed the Tigers to four straight 30-win campaigns becoming the first coach in NCAA Division I history to record four-straight 30-win ledgers. His 104 victories in the last three seasons are the second-most in NCAA Division I history in a three-year span. With his success in Memphis, Calipari's overall record soared to 445-140 for an impressive 76.1 winning percentage. His 445 wins is the second most in NCAA Division I history in the first 17 years. Calipari was 252-59 in nine years at Memphis. Memphis ranked second in NCAA D-I history winning 61 consecutive Conference USA games, while capturing the last four regular-season and tournament Conference USA titles. Only Kentucky (64 straight SEC Wins - 1945-50) has won more consecutive conference games. Prior to coaching at Memphis, Calipari was head coach of the New Jersey Nets of the NBA from 1997-99 leading the Nets to the NBA Playoffs in 1998. He also was head coach at the University of Massachusetts from 1989-96 taking the Minutemen to the NCAA Division I playoffs in each of his final five seasons including a berth in the Final Four in 1996. He was named the 1996 Naismith National Coach of the Year and 1996 The Sporting News Coach of the Year after being a finalist for the Naismith award in 1994 and 1995. He has a 17-year collegiate record of 443-139 while leading his teams to 11 NCAA Division I Tournament appearances and 5 NIT Tournament berths. Calipari played point guard at Clarion in the 1981 and 1982 basketball seasons and was a member of Clarion's 1981 NCAA Division II Tournament team, the first NCAA Tournament team in school history, that went 23-6 under coach Joe DeGregorio. Clarion reached the East Region Title game in 1981, losing to Cal Poly 84-61 and the chance to get to the "Final 4". He was a key member of Clarion's 1982 team that started the season 7-0 and ranked third in Division II. That team finished 16-11. His 143 assists in 1982 were the ninth most in school history at the time and still ranks 14th in school history. He also led the Golden Eagles in free-throw percentage while helping Clarion rank in the NCAA Division II Top 20 both seasons. |
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