FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — For Arkansas to pull off a big-name coaching hire in basketball, someone told me one time “the moon and stars would have to line up just right and hope we don’t miss.” Interestingly, on a day with a total eclipse, apparently everything has lined up just right and John Calipari is set to become the Razorbacks’ next coach after 15 years at Kentucky.
That’s assuming all of this gets finalized, which is always required until there is an official announcement from one of the schools or Calipari himself. It’s in the fine print, but at this point it would be shocking if things fell apart.
There have probably been decisions being made on the fly on this whole deal. The Hogs had no control over SMU firing Rob Lanier or luring Andy Enfield away USC set the stage for surfer boy Eric Musselman going back to Southern California. Kentucky was ready to move on from Calipari after only one NCAA title in 15 years.
Right or wrong, the folks in the Bluegrass State don’t view that as successful. Arkansas has pushed the chips to the middle of the table on basketball, thanks to John Tyson. Wins will be the bottom-line on all of this and Calipari probably won’t get a lifetime appointment. As we’ve just seen at Kentucky, even those deals require wins or folks figure out a way to run coaches off. He was still wearing Kentucky blue at his house walking the dog Monday.
As this is being written, a solar eclipse is happening. There haven’t been any Calipari sightings just yet, so there goes the theory he just wanted to be in the path of totality. This came down to so many things coming together at the perfect time and being able to execute it.
Now we see if it translates to wins. Nobody will put out a minimum number that has to be hit every year. But the wins are assumed. Calipari has won everywhere he’s been and it doesn’t take a long time to build it up. Look for recruiting to rocket up a few notches, even from where Eric Musselman lifted things. Apparently the NIL is going to be there as well and that’s a big thing these days.
Believe it or not the Razorbacks may be a basketball school. The goal, obviously, is to be good at both, but this is an obvious leap in basketball. Calipari would be the third or fourth Hall of Fame coach for the Hogs in the last 50 years. Let that number sink in for a few minutes. Don’t worry about being a basketball school. It’s not a bad way to go, but there’s absolutely a new way to look at the Hogs’ coaching history now:
• Eddie Sutton built it. Without Frank Broyles hiring him in 1974, we’ll never know how it would have played out.
• Nolan Richardson took it to the highest level. He came in with the fire to get to the championship level and won the only national championship the Hogs have won in football, basketball or baseball. Don’t bring up the football thing because you don’t get re-do’s and since the trophy sits in Tuscaloosa, Ala., there is no argument to be had.
• Musselman and Calipari could move Razorbacks’ basketball into the elite category, joining the likes of Kentucky, North Carolina, Kansas, Duke, Indiana and UCLA. I probably missed a few in there, but you get the idea about the level I’m talking about. Once you get there it obviously takes a while to get kicked out of the club.
Calipari is expected to be officially announced in the coming days as the Razorbacks’ next coach. That’s when we’ll know the exact details.
