Kentucky's Mitch Barnhart announces John Calipari will return for 2024-25 season
John Calipari isn’t going anywhere. On Tuesday, Kentucky athletic director Mitch Barnhart announced Calipari will be the team’s head coach in the 2024-25 season.
Barnhart released a statement on Twitter on Tuesday evening.
“As we normally do at the end of every season, Coach Calipari and I have had conversations about the direction of our men’s basketball program and I can confirm that he will return for his 16th season as our head coach,” Barnhart wrote.
It’s been a tumultuous several days for Calipari. After Kentucky suffered a season-ending loss to No. 14 seed Oakland in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, fans around the country called for Calipari’s job.
On Calipari’s end, it was radio silence until Monday evening. Calipari stunned Big Blue Nation when he decided to appear on his radio show. In the past, he has passed this responsibility to assistant coaches after brutal losses.
Nonetheless, the 65-year-old coach faced the music and fielded an hour’s worth of questions about what went wrong this season. Further, he emphasized that his goals have not changed for the program.
“Let me just say that we have a standard here,” Calipari said. “I said, early on, they don’t put Final Four banners up – only national championship banners. My standard is we’re playing to play deep into the NCAA Tournament and compete for national titles, win national titles. I wanted this job knowing that was the case. I love this job knowing that was the case. I’ve never left this job but that’s what the standard is for me.
“We’re not changing the standard. We’re chasing what we chase here, which are championships.”
In Calipari’s 15 seasons at the helm of Kentucky Men’s Basketball, he has led the program to four Final Four appearances and one national championship in 2012. However, Calipari’s success was largely in his early days with the program. Kentucky has not been to a Final Four since 2015.
The storied program’s postseason accolades have only spiraled from there. In the last five seasons, Kentucky has one won game in the NCAA Tournament and one game in the SEC Tournament despite consistently finishing the regular season in prime position for a postseason run.
If Barnhart had decided to fire Calipari, it would not have been easy. Calipari is on a lifetime contract and his buyout is currently $33 million, the highest in the nation. If the 2024-25 season goes poorly, Barnhart will be able to fire Calipari while only being forced to pay a $27 million buyout.
For now, Barnhart does not need to worry about the numbers. Calipari is back and is hopeful to return to the program to the heights it once regularly reached.