ESPN report: John Calipari to leave Kentucky basketball to coach at Arkansas

Kentucky basketball coach John Calipari is leaving the Bluegrass State and headed to Arkansas to be the head coach of the Razorbacks after agreeing to a five-year deal to replace Eric Musselman in Fayetteville, ESPN and other media outlets are reporting.

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Neither Calipari nor the University of Kentucky has announced that the 65-year-old is leaving the job.

Calipari is expected to sign a contract Monday, sources told CBS Sports.

CBS’ Matt Norlander said Calipari had met with Arkansas officials over the weekend and had entered into a verbal agreement to become Arkansas’ next head coach.

Sources told CBS Sports that Calipari’s bargaining with Arkansas included discussions about bringing aboard his freshman class, in addition to widened parameters over how he could recruit the transfer portal.

One source said Calipari becoming the Arkansas coach is “imminent,” Norlander reported.

Norlander reported that Calipari is friends with John Tyson, a member of the Tyson family who owns Tyson Chicken. Tyson is UA’s most generous donor, having donated millions to the school.

Calipari has been coach at Kentucky, one of the most prestigious coaching positions in Division 1 College Basketball, since 2009. Should he move to Arkansas, he will replace Musselman who took the vacant job at University of Southern California earlier this month.

Talk of Calipari’s future with the Wildcats hit a fevered pitch after Kentucky’s season ended with a loss to Oakland, a No. 14 seed, in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. It was the third consecutive year that Kentucky had failed to make it to the second weekend of the tournament, something that sparked harsh comments from Wildcat fans on social media, according to the Lexington Herald-Leader.

Following the first-round defeat to Oakland,  athletic director Mitch Barnhart released a statement confirming Calipari would return as the Wildcats’ head coach next season.

In his 15 years at the school, Calipari compiled a 410-122 record with four Final Four appearances (2011, 2012, 2014, and 2015) and coached Kentucky’s last national championship team in 2012. He took the Wildcats to the Elite Eight in 2017 and 2019. However, he has won just one NCAA tournament game since that last run to the regional final.

According to ESPN’s Pete Thamel, the deal for Calipari to leave will be announced within the next 24 hours.

According to the terms of a contract he signed with Kentucky in 2019, Calipari would be owed a buyout of just short of $35 million as of April 1 if he is fired without cause, the Courier-Journal reported.

The school is not owed any money if another program hires Calipari.

He reportedly is finalizing a five-year deal with Arkansas worth $7.5 to $8 million per year, according to reports.

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