John Calipari asked Kentucky to counter Arkansas offer and Kentucky said no, per Dick Gabriel
Now we may know why it’s taking John Calipari so long to tell Kentucky he is officially leaving for Arkansas. According to Dick Gabriel, a veteran on the UK sports beat, after Calipari received the job offer from Arkansas, he gave Kentucky the chance to counter. Kentucky turned him down.
“Calipari, going into that meeting with [athletics director] Mitch Barnhart, didn’t have much leverage,” Gabriel said of the meeting between the two last week. “Mitch had the leverage. But now, when you’ve got somebody else in your corner who is a viable candidate for your services. I mean, if it was a junior college that came to hire him, no, but this is Arkansas. Powerful school with deep, deep pockets and all kinds of booster money out there. Tyson chicken and Wal-Mart. They come in and say, we want you and we’ll do what it takes to get you. That’s leverage.
“Calipari, as I’m told, said, here’s what it’s going to take to keep me and UK said, I don’t think so. As I understand it, now if the deal isn’t done, it’s going to be done. You have a fanbase that is unhappy, an institution that is not satisfied with what’s been happening. You’ve got another school that would be happy to have him. When you factor in the fans, this might be a win-win-win if such a thing is possible. That all depends, of course, on who Kentucky hires if and when Calipari does leave.”
Matt Jones says Kentucky expects an announcement from Arkansas that John Calipari will be its new head coach this afternoon but Calipari still has not informed the school that he is leaving. Once he does, Mitch Barnhart will release a statement and the coaching search can start in earnest.
When it does, Gabriel, who works for the UK Sports Network, says he’s hearing Kentucky will “make Danny Hurley say no” and will reach out to Nate Oats. He also listed Scott Drew, Todd Golden, and T.J. Otzelberger as potential candidates.
“If you’re Kentucky, you have what you believe to be the premier basketball program in the country so you owe it yourself, you owe it to your fanbase, the tradition, to go out and get who you believe is the best coach possible.”
Gabriel expects almost all of Calipari’s players and commitments to follow him, except for Travis Perry, the state’s all-time scoring leader and reigning Mr. Basketball.
“Travis Perry, I very firmly believe will honor his commitment to Kentucky. I don’t know if anything can pry him away.”
You can view all of Gabriel’s comments over at KET.org.
UPDATE (1:47 PM ET)
Matt Norlander, the main national media member breaking news on the Calipari/Kentucky situation, reports that Calipari did meet with two UK administrators yesterday (neither of which were Barnhart) and they made it clear UK was not interested in “salvaging matters” and that it was time to split. That lines up with Gabriel’s reports of the counteroffer discussion.
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