4 NCAA basketball coaches most likely to jump to the NBA

1. John Calipari – Kentucky

Contrary to popular belief, it’s not required to include John Calipari in any discussion of college coaches and the NBA. It’s just the smart thing to do, even if Calipari has maintained his desire to stay at Kentucky for the rest of his career.

While Calipari is far from a job hopper, he was at UMass for eight years and Memphis for nine, he has been at Kentucky for 12 years now. He’s on my list right now because it might just be time for him to move on. He has probably peaked at Kentucky and the changes that I mentioned earlier will hit the Wildcats as much as any program in the country. Calipari has proven to be a master recruiter, attracting more of the players that will be skipping college than any other program except perhaps Duke.

He’s won a lot of games, with a record of 339-93 (.785) at Kentucky and an impressive overall record of 742-231 (.765). He has had an amazing 52 players drafted into the NBA. Between 2002-2018 he had 25 players enter the draft after their freshman year and all were first-round picks.

That said, have the wins been enough? Given the incredible amount of talent that has come to Kentucky, is the 2012 National Championship enough? Are six Final Fours enough when only one culminated with a title?

Let’s contrast Calipari’s college success with his NBA experience. He was head coach of the New Jersey Nets from 1996-1999 with a record of 72-112 (.391). Will his ego let him retire without trying to rectify that?

An NBA team might be willing to hire Calipari with the hopes that he can attract free agents, he certainly has plenty of former players in the league.

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