John Calipari reportedly wanted to coach at Indiana following Bob Knight, Mike Davis

John Calipari, Pat Adams — Photo by Dr. Michael Huang | Kentucky Sports Radio

Indiana head coach John Calipari? According to The Athletic’s Bob Kravitz, it was a brief possibility following Bob Knight’s departure and before Calipari’s time at Kentucky.

In a feature analyzing Indiana basketball post-Knight and the future of the program, former Hoosier guard Brian Evans (1992-96) revealed that Calipari made it clear that he was interested in taking over as head coach following Mike Davis’ time in Bloomington (2000-06). Davis, who was initially named interim coach after Knight was fired in 2000 and stayed five years at IU, resigned in 2006. At that point, Calipari expressed interest in the job.

Instead, Indiana went with then-Oklahoma coach Kelvin Sampson, who had been charged with various numerous recruiting violations with the Sooners, then again with the Hoosiers.

“Stunned,” Evans said in the article. “Absolutely stunned by that hire (Sampson).”

“Kelvin was a bad hire, a really bad hire,” former IU guard Joe Hillman (1984-89) added.

“I know — I KNOW — John Calipari (then at Memphis) wanted the job really bad,” Evans responded. “I played for him in New Jersey; he reached out to me. So the AD (Rick Greenspan) invited me to come down to talk to him.

“I go down, (Greenspan’s) not there, he got pulled into another meeting. Finally, he comes in and says, “What kinds of qualities should we be looking for in a coach?” That’s the question? I started telling him about Calipari, and he leaned forward and he said, “In no way, shape or form am I soliciting names from you.” I got my gas money and left.”

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“I think Sampson thought he was bigger than the program,” former IU forward Dean Garrett (1986-88) said.

“He was coming off a situation where he was successful, but he did things to get him in trouble,” said former IU forward Jared Jeffries (2000-02). “Even though IU has been down, it’s still a top-25 coaching job, a great job. They totally overcorrected.”

Indiana went with Sampson, while Kentucky later went with Calipari in 2009. From there, the rest is history.

For more on the post-Bobby Knight era of Indiana basketball and the program’s never-ending suffering, click here.