WATCH: John Calipari statue unveiled at UMass
Kentucky head coach John Calipari, who started his head coaching career at the University of Massachusetts in 1988, had a statue unveiled on the UMass campus Friday afternoon.
After wrapping up his playing career at Clarion University of Pennsylvania in 1982, Calipari quickly moved into coaching and accepted his first-career role as an associate assistant coach for the Kansas Jayhawks, where he stayed until 1985. Calipari then moved from Kansas to Pittsburgh, where he served as an assistant coach for the Pittsburgh Panthers until 1988; he accepted his first head coaching role at UMass in 1988, where he would coach until 1996.
In eight seasons with the UMass Minutemen, Calipari amassed a 193-71 record. He won the Atlantic 10 regular season crown and the Atlantic 10 Conference Tournament in each of his last five seasons with UMass, making the NCAA Tournament each time. Calipari was named the Atlantic 10 Coach of the Year in 1992, 1992 and 1996, and in his final year with the Minutemen — a 1995-1996 season in which they finished with a dominant, 35-2 overall record — he was named Naismith Coach of the Year. The Minutemen, led by Marcus Camby, started the 1995-1996 season with statement victories over No. 1 Kentucky, No. 19 Maryland and No. 10 Wake Forest. Entering the NCAA Tournament with the No. 1 overall seed, they eventually fell to No. 2 Kentucky in the Final Four.
Calipari was eventually inducted into the UMass Hall of Fame in 2004 and the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2015.
Following his tenure with UMass, Calipari moved to the NBA, where he replaced Butch Beard as the New Jersey Nets’ head coach in 1996. After a dismal, 3-17 start to the 1998-1999 season, Calipari was fired. He then accepted an assistant coaching job under Lary Brown with the Philadelphia 76ers.
Before making his final career stop at the University of Kentucky, Calipari was Memphis’ head coach from 2000 until 2009. He strung together a 252-69 overall record at Memphis, won seven regular season Conference-USA championships, won the NIT and made it to six NCAA Tournaments, including a Final Four run in 2008.
Calipari, 62, is entering his 13th season at the helm of the Kentucky Wildcats. He has helped Kentucky reach the pinnacle of college basketball, putting together a 339-93 overall record and winning the 2012 NCAA Tournament.