FAYETTEVILLE -- Something many never expected to see in this lifetime was John Calipari wearing a Razorback shirt and getting a standing ovation from the fans, but it happened Wednesday night at Bud Walton Arena.
Calipari was the head coach at hated rival Kentucky for 15 years, but now he's in the same position with Arkansas. Calipari, generally considered one of the top coaches in the nation, was introduced to the fans and media on Wednesday. Even Calipari admitted he wasn't used to this kind of greeting in Bud Walton Arena.
"I have never gotten that kind of greeting in this building," Calipari said smiling. "As a matter of fact, you were probably in the building when they threw me out.
"We did win that game, though. But when I walked out, you guys were throwing stuff at me then. There weren’t any cheers."
He was hired to replace the departed Eric Musselman who went to USC. Hunter Yurachek, Arkansas' director of athletics, was asked if he thought he had a shot at Calipari before he talked to him?
"He can’t say no until I ask him the question to begin with right?," Yurachek said. "So if I don’t ask him the question during that meeting — how about your? Are you interested in our job? I mean, he spent 15-20 minutes bragging about how great of a job this was. So, if it’s so great of a job, why don’t you want it? And he kind of sat back in his chair a little bit and I think started to think about that. So I’m sitting in the presence of a Hall of Fame coach talking about other coaches for my job and he’s telling me how great a job this is. I’m not doing my job if I don’t ask him if he’s interested, right?"
Calipari was asked how it came about he would consider Arkansas and then ultimately accept it?
"John Tyson," Calipari said. "He said, ‘You need to talk to my AD while you're in Phoenix. He’s in Phoenix.’ What? Well, tell him to call me and I’ll meet him tomorrow. You want me to talk about candidates? I didn’t even know … And we met for about an hour-and-a-half, maybe less than that.
"Part of the time we talked about other people. Then he said, ‘I know that you think this is a great job. Why not you?’ Why not me? ‘Yeah, why not you?’ Now, from that meeting, I left and went West. We stayed in touch a little bit.
"I just want everybody here to know, I didn’t want anything out until after the national championship game, that we were even talking. Because I didn’t think it was fair to those two teams and those coaches and those players and those programs. Somebody here leaked it out, though. I don’t know who leaked it out, but someone did. Hunter and me, we didn’t speak about it, because it wasn’t fair for those teams."
Calipari then expanded on what happened after he met with Yurachek then headed out West.
"I’m telling you what happened to me, we were out West and we had a priest with us," Calipari said. "A Catholic priest, he gave mass in the morning. And I said to him, ‘Father, I’ve got to decide what I’m going to do here. One is Arkansas, the other is Kentucky.’
"He told me, go for an hour walk and have it in your mind you’re the Arkansas coach. And then on the way back, have it in your mind you’re the Kentucky coach, and you’ll see what moves your heart and what you want to do. And I did that. I’ll be honest, when I thought about coming here and building this program and making it something special, it got me excited."
Yurachek pointed out some of the reports about NIL available were premature.
"I will say that Coach Cal and I talked about NIL robustly," Yurachek said. "We talked about it on the plane. Him and I are on the same page of where it needs to be for us to be competitive. We’ve got some ways to go to get there. Reports make it sound like it is a done deal and the money’s in the bank. What I will tell you is that’s not the case.
"We’ve got a pretty good program in place but we’re going to need help from people across this state to make sure that we give Coach Cal the tools that he needs to put a great team on the floor, not only this year but next year and the following year. So him and I are on the same page for what it needs to be and it’s my job to give him the tools to make sure that he can be successful."
Calipari admits he thinks Arkansas can reach the Final Four again. That is something he did as a head coach at each of his three stops.
"I called Kelvin Sampson," Calipari said. "He and I are dear friends, and I said, tell me about Hunter. Well, he almost jumped through the phone, and I said, what are you talking about? I talked to his assistant who used to work for me, Bilal (Batley), and he said, when you need things done, then he goes and does it. He’s, what can I do to help you, and then we’re going to get it done.
"I mean, what he did at Houston, the building, the practice facility, all this stuff. What Kelvin needed so he could coach basketball. That got me to where I had to listen, because I’m going to say it again, basketball coaches win games. Administrations win championships, and you know why? Because they want to, and it’s important to them. Some of the phone conversations, because the meeting we had, as a matter of fact, he’ll tell you. How much time did we spend on it?"
Calipari is regarded as one of the nation's top recruiters. He will need to because has 13 open spots on the roster.
"If you’re not into basketball, you won’t come here," Calipari said. "If you’re smoking, clubbing, drinking, chasing. This is about being at a place that has zeroed in on a culture that creates professional habits, and that includes academically. We didn’t have any issues, they all finished the term, we didn’t have any APR problems. We had 32 kids graduate, we had six graduate in three years. You can do all that, you can care about the kids and still win. What’s changed a little bit is that kids are older. Now, do you know why they’re older? Why do you think we played against a 26 year old in the NCAA Tournament against my 19 year olds?"
Calipari and Arkansas will begin the process immediately of building a roster.
PHOTOS COURTESY OF CRAVEN WHITLOW CW3 SPORTS ACTION
