John Calipari says he’ll retire before becoming ‘transactional’ coach
Arkansas basketball coach John Calipari, who’s heading into his second season with the program, offered insight at SEC media day on Monday, Oct. 14 on how much longer he plans to coach.
The 66-year-old coach has been a head coach for nearly 40 years, dating back to his first head coaching gig at UMass from 1988-96. He made a surprising move before the 2024 season by leaving Kentucky — where he won a national championship and reached six Final Fours — after 15 seasons with the program.
‘I want to help 25 to 30 more families,’ Calipari said. ‘The only way you do that is to be transformational as a coach. If you’re not, you’re transactional. If I become transactional — ‘I’m going to pay you this to do this and that’ — then I won’t do this anymore. I don’t need to.’
Calipari mentioned a recent conversation with Houston coach Kelvin Sampson, who along with Calipari are two of the most respected coaches in college basketball. The two agreed that college basketball needs fixing, and that they need to stay in the sport before their children take over as head coaches.
Calipari’s son, Brad Calipari, is a second-year assistant at Arkansas under his dad. Kellen Sampson, who played for his dad at Oklahoma, has been an assistant at Houston since 2014.
‘Part of the reason I’m still doing this, my son’s in coaching,’ Calipari said. ‘Kelvin Sampson and I just talked. I said, ‘We got to fix some of this stuff before we’re out for our own children.”
Like many coaches across the landscape of college sports, Calipari said many of the sport’s problems stem from the transfer portal, specifically players having unlimited portal entries without losing eligibility. He also believes players should receive five years to complete four seasons of eligibility, which means keeping redshirts in order.
Two Vanderbilt football players and eight other former and current college athletes recently filed a lawsuit against the NCAA asking for five seasons of eligibility rather than four seasons plus a redshirt.
‘If we get those two things in order, we’re on the path to being better,’ Calipari said.
Arkansas lost a pair of starters from last season to the transfer portal, as former five-star recruit Boogie Fland transferred to Florida, while center Zvonimir Ivisic transferred to Illinois to play alongside his brother, Tomislav Ivisic. Zvonimir Ivisic started his career at Kentucky and followed Calipari to Arkansas.
Calipari tied his argument back to his statement on being a transactional coach, worrying that players who jump around from program to program may fail to build genuine relationships with their teammates and coaches.
He said he has no issues with transfers, just the ones that move schools multiple times in a career.
‘I don’t mind kids transferring,’ Calipari said. ‘You just can’t transfer four times, because it’s not good for you. Four schools in four years, you’ll never have a college degree. But that last place you’ll be at, they’ll really be loyal to you? No, you’re a mercenary.’