1. John Calipari
There’s one coach you have to feel is just itching to get another shot at the NBA: Kentucky Wildcats head coach John Calipari.
He has had tremendous success in college basketball at UMass, Memphis and Kentucky. He’s taken all three of those programs to the Final Four and won a national title with Kentucky in 2012.
In total, Calipari has reached six Final Fours. His first was with UMass in 1996, and it landed him a job with the New Jersey Nets. Unfortunately, his NBA experience didn’t go quite so well as he was just 72-112 in just over two years as coach.
After being fired from the Nets, he coached Memphis for nine years. He hung an NIT banner in his second, then went on to make three Elite Eight appearances and was national runner-up in 2008.
At UK, Calipari has taken things to the next level. He is unquestioned as the best recruiter in the nation – regularly featuring classes that have three to five NBA first round draft picks. While recruiting isn’t a part of the NBA, coaching highly skilled players and managing egos is very much part of the job.
Pete Carroll proved that a failed NFL coach can go back to college to hone his skilled and be ready to do it much better upon a second chance. John Calipari is 57 years old and primed for his second chance at the NBA.
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