John Calipari Biography

John Calipari born John Vincent Calipari, is an American basketball coach. Since 2009, he has been the head coach of the University of Kentucky men’s team, with whom he won the NCAA Championship in 2012. He has been named Naismith College Coach of the Year three times (in 1996, 2008 and 2015), and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2015.

He was previously the head coach at the University of Massachusetts from 1988 to 1996, the NBA’s New Jersey Nets from 1996 to 1999 and the University of Memphis from 2000 to 2009, and was the head coach of the Dominican Republic national team in 2011 and 2012.

Calipari has coached Kentucky to four Final Fours, in 2011, 2012, 2014 and 2015. He also led UMass and Memphis to the Final Four in 1996 and 2008 respectively; those appearances were later vacated, although Calipari was not personally implicated by the NCAA in either case. As a college coach, Calipari has 21 20-win seasons, eight 30-win seasons, and three 35-win seasons.

John Calipari Age | How Old Is John Calipari

He was born on 10 February 1959 in Moon, Pennsylvania, United States. He is 59 years old as of 2018.

John Calipari Family

He is son to Vince Calipari, his father and Donna Mae Calipari his mother. He is also brother to to Terri Calipari and Lea Calipari. He is husband to Ellen Calipari whom he has three children with.

John Calipari Wife

He is husband to Ellen Calipari whom he wedded in 1986.

John Calipari Son

His son is called Bradley Vincent Calipari.

John Calipari Daughter

He has two daughters. They are: Megan Rae Calipari and Erin Sue Calipari.

John Calipari Photo

John Calipari Teams Coached

He has coached the following teams as their head coach : Kentucky Wildcats men’s basketball Memphis Tigers men’s basketball, Brooklyn Nets and UMass Minutemen basketball. He has also been an assistant coach. He coached 76ers, Pittsburgh Panthers men’s basketball and Kansas Jayhawks men’s basketball.

John Calipari Salary

Under the new contract, Calipari will make up to $8.0 million annually (not including bonuses), which further cements his status as one of the most highly compensated college basketball coaches in the country.

John Calipari Book

He has written books like: Success Is the Only Option: The Art of Coaching Extreme Talent (2016), Players First: Coaching from the Inside Out (2014), Swim to the Buoy: Why Everyone Needs the Safety of a Mentor (2014), Bounce Back: Overcoming Setbacks to Succeed in Business and in Life (2009), Refuse to Lose (1996) and Basketball’s Half-Court Offense (1996).

Coach John Calipari

From 1982 to 1985, Calipari was an assistant at the University of Kansas under Ted Owens and Larry Brown. Calipari had several jobs as the lowest coach in the pecking order when Ted Owens hired him as a volunteer assistant for the Jayhawks’ 1982–83 season, including serving food at the training table. “I was blessed to have the chance. Can you imagine being 22, 23 and your first opportunity to be around the game is at a program like Kansas?”

From 1985 to 1988, he was an assistant coach at the University of Pittsburgh under Roy Chipman and Paul Evans. From 1988 to 1996, he was head coach at the University of Massachusetts. From 1996 to 1999, he was head coach and Executive VP of basketball operations for the NBA’s New Jersey Nets. During the 1999–2000 season, he was an assistant coach for the Philadelphia 76ers under coach Larry Brown, before moving on to his next position at the University of Memphis. He was inducted into the National Italian American Sports Hall of Fame in 2004.

Calipari is famous for popularizing the dribble drive motion offense, developed by Vance Walberg, which is sometimes known as the Memphis Attack. Calipari is a published author with several titles to his credit, including Bounce Back: Overcoming Setbacks to Succeed in Business and in Life and Players First: Coaching from the Inside Out. Additionally, Calipari starred in the 30 for 30 documentary from ESPN “One and Not Done” which details his professional career.

In his 22 official seasons (23 seasons overall) as a collegiate head coach, Calipari’s record is 667–194 (.775). His record in the month of March is 107–37 (.743). His NCAA adjusted (the records of two appearances being removed) official record in the NCAA tournament is 38–12 (.760), and in the NIT is 15–6 (.714). His teams have made 15 NCAA tournament appearances (13 official, due to 2 later being vacated), including reaching the Sweet Sixteen 12 times (10 official, due to 2 later being vacated), the Elite Eight 10 times (8 official, due to 2 later being vacated), the Final Four 6 times (4 official, due to 2 later being vacated), the NCAA Championship Game 3 times (twice officially, with the 2008 Championship Game appearance while at Memphis being vacated by the NCAA), winning the NCAA Championship at Kentucky in 2012, and finishing NCAA Runner Up in 2014.

As a college coach, Calipari has 21 20-win seasons (20 official) and 9 30-win seasons (8 official). He has also coached 6 teams to the NIT, winning the NIT Championship at Memphis in 2002. He is one of only four coaches in NCAA Division I history to direct three different schools to a #1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.

John Calipari NBA

John Calipari said he thinks prospects should be able to go to college after playing in the G League, and also believes players selected in the second round of the NBA draft should be able to return to college. Calipari has maintained that players should be able to skip college for the NBA, but the Kentucky head coach is concerned too many high school student-athletes will be persuaded to go straight to the NBA or the G League.

And, borrowing from minor league baseball, he has a bold idea on how to fix the potential issue.

“I’ve got the solution,” Calipari told ESPN on Tuesday. “The NBA, you want these kids in the G League, you want to do all this? Everyone that goes in the G League is guaranteed eight semesters of college education if you don’t make it. You give them a signing bonus, you pay them. And then if they don’t make it after two years, the NBA pays to have them on my campus. They have to sit out their first year, to prove they really want to be in college. So you can come to college, the NBA is gonna pay for it, for eight semesters. You come back, sit out a year to prove you really want to be in college, then you start playing and your clock starts.”

Calipari added that if a player does go to college after fading out of the G League, he must stay at least two years. Along with the required sit-out year, each player would have a minimum of six semesters in college before being able to enter the NBA draft.

In August, the NCAA adopted a new rule that allows undrafted players who attend the NBA combine and request an Undergraduate Advisory Committee evaluation to return to college.

Calipari thinks that protection should apply to players drafted in the second round, too.

“If a kid is picked in the second round, he doesn’t have to go. He can go back to college,” he said. “Everybody is telling him he’s a first-round pick, and you slip to the second round, ‘Nah, I’m going back.’ If you’re gonna let kids stay in the draft and then say they’re coming back a week later after they don’t get drafted, why not put it on the second round? Because the kids that went in the second round are pissed. They all were told they were gonna go in the first. Do we care about the kids or is this about the NBA or is this about college?”

Along with the rule regarding undrafted players, the NCAA adopted a number of rules recommended by a committee led by former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. College players and elite high school players — the latter being determined by USA Basketball — are also allowed to be represented by agents. High school players can be represented beginning July 1 before their senior year in high school, pending the end to the one-and-done rule.

Calipari thinks the rule changes will dissuade more prospects from going to college — and fears that the floodgates could open and we will see 100-200 players per year skipping college for the G League.

“If they’re trying to encourage them to go to the G League, I think it’s wrong,” Calipari said. “Instead of encouraging academic success and learning and a life of learning, just go chase basketball. They can’t do that at 14, 15, 16 years old.

“More than half the G League is going to be high school kids that are trying to make it. I hope I’m wrong. I absolutely hope I’m wrong.”

He said he continues to get feedback that the NCAA doesn’t mind if large numbers of high school basketball players don’t ever attend college.

“They’re going to look back at this time in basketball, and this is a pivotal point of where this thing goes. This time we’re sitting in right now. And I want to make sure I’m on the right side of history,” Calipari said. “What’s been going on right now, you have people that basically are saying, ‘They don’t belong on this college campus.’ Who doesn’t belong on a college campus? Why don’t they belong? ‘Well, they don’t want to be in school.’ I didn’t want to be in school! Why are you saying that? Is that that ivory tower thing, where you’re looking down and seeing how people are dressed and how they walk and saying they don’t belong on a college campus? Drives me nuts.”

While Calipari acknowledged that there are three or four kids every class capable of skipping college for the NBA, he fears dozens more kids will also try, and “they will be roadkill.” Moreover, because they were sold on skipping college from early on in high school, their academics will be deemed secondary.

“My thing is, if you encourage high school sophomores or juniors not to worry about academics, you won’t be on a college campus anyway, you don’t belong on a college campus. They’re told that stuff,” Calipari said. “The minute there’s pushback, ‘Ah, I’m going to the NBA anyway.’”

As a result, prospects who flame out of the G League after a couple of years will be left in a difficult situation — leading back to Calipari’s original suggestion of allowing them to go back to college. If Calipari is right and 100-plus prospects skip college for the G League every year, he believes more than 93 percent will be out of the league within two years.

“The 93 percent that don’t make it,” Calipari said. “Give me the demographic of that group. We really want to do that to those kids? I’m not. I’m standing on a mountaintop saying no.”

“What you’re doing is wrong and I’m on the other side,” he later added. “And 10 years from now, if you do this and all these kids are ruined and all their families that had a chance at a better life, maybe not through sports but through education, why would we not use sports to encourage kids to be more educated? Because of eight kids, you’re gonna throw out everything? Eliminate the summer. What’s happened with this FBI probe, we’re changing evaluation periods? Don’t tell me we’re gonna put them all in a setting and we have three days to figure out who’s who. You know who you don’t care about by doing that? The kids. You’re trying to make this look like you’re doing something. Stop.”

Adopted from: kwese.espn.com

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John Calipari Net Worth

John Calipari is an American college basketball coach who has an estimated net worth of $25 million.

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John Calipari Height

He stands at 1.88 meters tall.

John Calipari Championships

As a college coach, Calipari has 21 20-win seasons (20 official) and 9 30-win seasons (8 official). He has also coached 6 teams to the NIT, winning the NIT Championship at Memphis in 2002.

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John Calipari and Wildcats recap win over SIU

Updated on: 10 November 2018.

The Kentucky Wildcats were looking for a way to put Tuesday’s thrashing at the hands of the Duke Blue Devils behind them. Southern Illinois was Kentucky’s opponent for their 2018-19 home opener in Rupp Arena.

The Cats got off to a horrendous start offensively. Through the first 12-plus minutes of the game Kentucky was shooting 56%, but only scored 13 points. The Wildcats had 11 turnovers at the under-8 minute timeout.

The Cats grabbed their first lead of the game, and for that matter, the season when Quade Green nailed a triple. Green’s three-pointer was Kentucky’s only trifecta of the first half. Some nice hustle by Nick Richards to close out the half gave UK a 31-28 lead at the half.

Kentucky outrebounded Southern Illinois 25-8, outscored the Salukis’ bench 14-2, and shot 13 more free throws, but only led by 3 at halftime. UK’s 14 first half turnovers were a big reason for the slim lead at intermission.

Whatever John Calipari said at halftime did not light a fire under the Cats, as the Salukis regained the lead and led by one at the first TV timeout of the second half.

SIU increased their lead with 14 minutes to go in the game. However, an 10-0 followed by a flat out rejection by freshman EJ Montgomery helped the Cats push back in front.

A 13-6 run led by freshman Keldon Johnson and Immanuel Quickley helped UK push their lead to 5 with 7:40 left in the game. The Cats led 58-52.

Keldon Johnson’s breakaway dunk with just under 3 minutes to go put the Cats up by 10 and sealed the victory for the Wildcats. Kentucky outlasted Southern Illinois for a 71-59 victory.

Here is a recap of what John Calipari had to say about the win, courtesy of UK Athletics.

John Calipari: Southern Illinois, veteran players, well coached, he does a great job with his team. An NCAA tournament level team. Missed some threes today that could easily have beat us, but hard second game. I’m still mad we scheduled it. I’m mad we scheduled the first one when we did. And, after we played two exhibitions games I knew where we were. But, we made strides today. Nick (Richards) made strides. Immanuel (Quickley) made strides. P.J. (Washington) made strides. Quade (Green) made strides. And, just so you know I’m riding the guys that are playing.

If you’re fighting like crazy and making good decisions, then I’m going to ride you and we’re going to play. We had some guys not play well. I said just be happy we won and figure it out. I got a pretty good mindset of how I’m going to do this now, and I’m glad that we really got smashed, so there’s no question. What if we would have lost by five or six? Oh, we’re okay. No, no, we’re not okay.

And, so my mindset and how I’ve got to go forward and what I’m going to emphasize and what I’m going to demand. If you demand a lot, you get a lot. If you accept mediocrity, you’re going to get it every time. If you accept them doing what they choose to when they choose to, that’s what you get and you get sloppy play and you can’t win ball games. So, I have a pretty good mindset. I was more aggressive today. Could you tell? I was a little more aggressive today. And, I was happy with Immanuel and how he dealt with it, because it’s what it is. It’s a man’s world, let’s go.

Q. You are down 44-37 and then you go on the run. What changed over the next couple of minutes for you guys to get everything going?

John Calipari: Well, first of all, we were down eight because they made that free throw, I believe. Didn’t we go down eight? We never went down eight?

Q. Not that time…

John Calipari: Fine. Well, at some point. And, I told the guys I was glad, because I have to figure out who is going to be able to make plays, stops, make good decisions. I tell you what a great play was. The play where Quade went under the basket to help Nick (Richards), so they couldn’t throw it over the top and still stole the skip pass and threw it ahead and we dunked. Basically that was the game. Now he could have gone under and if the skip went, let the guy get a three and maybe they win the game? And he says, well, you wanted me to help, which we’re getting some of that right now.

Well, yeah, we do, but we also want you to be able to play your man, a veteran move. I thought Immanuel played really well, made big shots when we needed. But again, he took a tough shot going down the middle with about 17, 18 on the shot clock. Why are we doing that? I thought Quade took one standing on the wing and threw a desperation three. We didn’t need it at that point.

But, how about the play where we threw it ahead to Keldon (Johnson)? Did anybody think he was going to pass that ball? Not one soul who watched it who was in the gym, people were sleeping saying ‘oh, he’s shooting that one.’ And he passed it because of the shot clock. And he passed it. P.J. rebounded that last ball instead of trying to get his, he passes it out so he can finish the game. We made strides. Some guys didn’t play well. So, move on. Next game. Let’s figure it out.

Q. Especially in the first half you struggled with turnovers. Not so much in the second half. What changed?

John Calipari: Look-away passes, make the hardest play, throw-bounce passes instead of lobs, loose with the ball. Keldon and P.J. had three each at half. Like, wait a minute, what, how? So we did have a lot of turnovers, and we got some guys who got to get better with the ball. We got to get better with the ball too. We’re going to show them tomorrow all 19 turnovers and I’ll have one question after each one.

Was that necessary? Some of them were pretty good plays, okay, they got a hand on it. But my guess is nine of them were like, ‘why in the world would you even attempt that?’ Today I thought some guys played for us. I thought every single guy last game played for themselves. Every single guy on the court. Today they played for each other. But, we had to or we wouldn’t have won the game.

Q. Nick had 19 rebounds, that was as many as the entire Southern Illinois team. Is rebounding just a matter of effort on his part?

John Calipari: Well, that, and we need Nick on the court. I knew after Duke where they shot layup, layup, layup, layup, you got to have a shot blocker in there. So we need him on the floor. I thought E.J. (Montgomery) played well by the way. But the three blocks and E.J. got two, that’s five blocks, that’s five blocks between them. That changes – now you’re not going in there just to shoot layups.

I thought we collapsed definitely better but Nick gives us something we don’t have. Now, he should have had about 10 more points, he faded away on shots, there’s still that stuff, he fumbled a couple balls, one-handed caught a couple balls. But look, if he’ll fight and go after balls and block shots, we can deal with the rest of it. He was good. Happy for him. I was worried. Exhibition games and even the last game, I mean, you worry. You just, you know, you want every kid to play well.

Q. What was the game plan coming into tonight?

John Calipari: Well, they play a lot like Kansas plays. They play a lot of high/low basketball. They play a lot of pick and roll, kickback, post ups. And it was good for us because we had to really work on being tighter and not stretching the floor out and coming off on the weak side. And when you got young players, you know, they just forget and they’re guarding their own man and all of a sudden it’s a throw over the top and a layup. Or a guy drives and there’s a layup because we’re not collapsing on drives. And I thought most of the game we did a pretty good job.

Q. Is Tyler (Herro) not taking the kind of shots you want or is he just not making shots right now?

John Calipari: Probably both. I thought the open shots he had he didn’t take. And then he had one where he bounced it and tried to shoot it and then the fade away late. I’m telling him, you got to have the shot before you catch the ball. Before you catch it, you know you got a shot. In high school you catch it and you say, do I have a shot. And then you bounce it and just shoot it or do whatever, you’re the best player on the high school team.

As you move in this sport, most of your shots are before you catch it and if some of it is, boom. Because he can shoot, you know and then he drives for layups or does the things he does. He’s still not there yet. I thought he defended better. But you know and I told him after I’m happy he’s going through this. Deal with it. Deal with it. You’re not, this isn’t just easy, it’s hard. Every game we play teams are going to come in here and play and they’re going to give us a good game.

Q. If I heard you right you said you figured out how you want the team to play. What is that?

John Calipari: I haven’t figured all that out, but I know how we’re going forward, what’s going to be demanded. There’s certain things that are game in-house stuff that I’m demanding when we practice. And we had some guys that got mad last practice. Got mad for holding them accountable. No, do it again. And I had to explain to them, you’re not supposed to be mad. I’m supposed to be mad.

You got this backwards. And it’s, again, when you’re dealing with young kids and they — and I told them it’s not their fault. Whose fault is it? It is my fault. If we went to that — I told them you’re good, guys. I never saw coming what happened up there. You know why? Because I really didn’t have a good read. That’s my job as a coach is to have a good read on where we are. I had no read at all.

I knew Bahamas there were flaws and I knew that’s not who we were going to be. Today we grinded, we need to score easier, but we had to grind it. But this thing, as we go forward, is you’re held accountable. This is what we’re asking you to do. And there’s no — we’re not arguing, we have what we have, we have our buddy in the gym. He’s called the treadmill that’s going at 17 miles an hour for 30 seconds.

Get on the treadmill. And I tell them hold on before you get on because it’s already running. Then start running and then let go and then run for 30 seconds and then hold it and then put your feet on both sides and then come back in and — da da da, nope, on it. Go ahead, go on to buddy. Get over there. So it is holding their feet to the fire to say this is what’s acceptable. And what you’ll see is a much more disciplined basketball team.

That’s not on these kids. That’s on me. The way they played up there, each of them looked bad. Not one of them looked good. That’s on me. And I let them go out there and play that way. I got a lot of work. We got a lot of work to do to get this team where it needs to go. But I’m loving this group of guys and I’m just saying, hey, be responsible, own your performance. Don’t blame anybody, don’t blame me, don’t blame the fans, don’t blame the other team, don’t blame the officials. Own your performance. That’s the only way you get better.

Q. I wonder with the freshmen you bring in here every year to play under this spotlight, especially when a kid struggles early, how much of it is maybe pressing for the first time in their life, trying to do that much better?

John Calipari: There’s this thing you can’t explain how it’s going to be until you get here. And again, let me say this, I have friends, I got a bunch of high school buddies here. We went to high school together. But all of this, they’re looking at these guys saying wow, what they’re up against. Every kid that we bring here thinks this is going to be easy and that there’s a magic wand called Kentucky. You put the uniform on, you made it. Nope.

You got to take what you want. You have to take it. And you have to be about your teammates. You can’t be about yourself here. Because no one makes it that. They talk about the fans. My guys are saying these fans… our fans are the best. Do you know how many people showed up in Indianapolis? It was crazy, people were blown away. They deserved a better effort than we gave them, but guess what, fans, we’re not ready for that yet.

Please stay with us. And if you’re mad at anybody, you should be mad right at me, not these kids. They’re going to do what I’m asking them to do. Obviously, I wasn’t as disciplined myself or asking enough from them. But they get here, they find out, wow, this is hard. Tyler’s figuring it out. Keldon’s figuring it out. Ashton’s (Hagans) figuring it out. Stuff’s hard here. And you can’t just do what you want to do. Well, you don’t understand my game. I do. I do understand your game. I’m trying to get you to play a way that you look good and we win.

Q. Is there anything preventing P.J. from getting going offensively? And I noticed some tape on his fingers tonight. Is his hand okay?

John Calipari: You know what, he’s struggling a little bit. And he’s still — he had an operation on that hand, and I don’t think right now he’s confident enough yet in that hand. But my thing is, forget the hand, just run and go crazy and play with unbelievable energy and get away from what you look like in other areas. Just make easy plays and fly up and down. But he’s going to have to work his way through it. I can’t do it for him. I didn’t think Reid (Travis) played particularly well today. He played okay. But he didn’t play as good as I think he should play. But we should be able to cover for each other. This guy’s not playing great, I’ll step in and let me play. And kind of what happened today.