Despite losing to No. 14 seed Oakland in the first round of the NCAA tournament, Kentucky men’s basketball coach John Calipari will return to the team.
This announcement comes after Calipari met with athletic director Mitch Barnhart on Tuesday.
Matt Jones of Kentucky Sports Radio initially reported Calipari’s return.
In 2009, the Wildcats hired Calipari, who had previously coached Memphis for eight years. Calipari previously managed UMass for nine seasons before taking over as head coach of the New Jersey Nets for three years.
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Over the course of a decade or more at Kentucky, Calipari routinely added 5-star talents (and future NBA luminaries) to his roster, generally for a single year.
Although the UK had a high turnover rate in this one-and-done atmosphere, Calipari’s teams were mainly successful in his first decade, reaching the Final Four in 2011, 2012, 2014, and 2015, earning national championship berths in 2012 and 2014, and winning it all in 2014.
John Wall, DeMarcus Cousins, Anthony Davis, Karl-Anthony Towns, Julius Randle, Devin Booker, and Jamal Murray were among the stars during his debut half-season in the United Kingdom.
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