Coach Cal To Kentucky

Seth Davis and Luke Winn of Sports Illustrated are reporting that John Calipari will leave Memphis to take over at Kentucky. Cal will reportedly make $4 million per year with the Wildcats. This is the perfect marriage. Calipari is a tremendous college coach who led two schools -- UMass and Memphis -- that do not reside on the college hoops Mt. Rushmore to the Final Four. Kentucky is the George Washington of that Mt. Rushmore, the most tradition filled program in college basketball's rich history, but they have struggled lately and missed the NCAA Tournament in 2009. Calipari will now get to lead a program with unlimited resources and Kentucky will get a coach who can return them to prominence. Calipari has some serious work to do to get Kentucky back to the Tournament in 2010. He needs to keep current stars Patrick Patterson and Jodie Meeks and find a way to convince DeMarcus Cousins and Xavier Henry, two of the highest rated high school seniors who had committed to play at Memphis, to join him in Lexington. Calipari also needs to find a way to keep Daniel Orton, who committed to Kentucky to play for ex-coach Billy Gillespie, and get on the trail of John Wall and Lance Stephenson, the top two unsigned seniors. If Calipari is successful in restocking the Wildcats roster, he may compete for the national championship as soon as 2010, 14 years after Kentucky defeated his 1996 UMass team in the Final Four and just two years after Memphis lost in the title game to Kansas.