SPORTS
John Calipari steps down at Kentucky to become Arkansas head basketball coach.
Coaching career[/B]
From 1982–85, Calipari was an assistant at the University of Kansas under Ted Owens and Larry Brown. From 1985–88, he was an assistant coach at theUniversity of Pittsburgh under Paul Evans. From 1988–96, he was head coach at the University of Massachusetts. From 1996–99, he was head coach and Executive VP of basketball operations for the NBA’s New Jersey Nets. During the 1999–2000 season, he was an assistant coach for the Philadelphia 76ersunder coach Larry Brown, before moving on to his next position at the University of Memphis. He was inducted into the National Italian American Sports Hall of Fame in 2004.
Calipari is famous for popularizing the dribble drive motion offense, developed by Vance Walberg, which is sometimes known as the Memphis Attack. He wrote three different books about basketball, including “Refuse to Lose,” “Basketball’s Half-Court Offense,” and “Bounce Back: Overcoming Setbacks to Succeed in Business and in Life”.
In his first 17 seasons as a collegiate head coach, Calipari’s record is 441–139 (.762). His record in the month of March is 93–30 (.756). His record in theNCAA tournament is 21–9 (.714) and in the NIT is 15–5 (.750). His teams have made eleven NCAA tournament appearances, including reaching the Sweet Sixteen seven times, the Elite Eight five times, the Final Four two times, and the championship game once (Memphis). He has coached five teams to the NIT, winning the NIT championship at Memphis in 2002. He is one of only four coaches in NCAA Division I history to direct two different schools to a number one seed in the NCAA Tournament; North Carolina coach Roy Williams, Kansas coach Bill Self, and Louisville coach Rick Pitino are the others. Through 17 collegiate seasons, only Roy Williams has won more games than Calipari.
[B]University of Massachusetts[/B]
From 1988–96 at UMass, Calipari led the Minutemen program to five consecutive Atlantic 10 titles and NCAA Tournament appearances, including periods where the program was ranked first nationally. He finished with a 189–70 record overall, with a 91–41 record in Atlantic 10 conference games. Calipari was named Atlantic 10 Coach of the Year in 1992, 1993, and 1996. He was also named the Naismith, NABC, Basketball Times & Sporting News National Coach of the Year in 1996. He led UMass to its first-ever appearance in the Final Four with the play of the John R. Wooden Award winner and Naismith College Player of the Year Marcus Camby, although this appearance was later vacated by the NCAA because Camby had accepted about $28,000 from two sports agents.
Calipari helped accelerate the construction of the Mullins Center, UMass’ basketball and hockey facility. He also reached out to eastern Massachusetts andBoston to enlarge the fan base. Before moving on to the New Jersey Nets, Calipari became the second winningest coach in UMass history behind Jack Leaman.
