After 15 seasons, four Final Fours and one national championship, the John Calipari era is over at the University of Kentucky. With Coach Cal finalizing a contract with Arkansas, here are five coaches who could fill Calipari's big shoes in Lexington. Rick Pitino Pitino won a national championship in 1996 at Kentucky and lost in the final in 1997 before leaving to coach the Boston Celtics. The year after he left, many of his old players won a championship under Tubby Smith. Since then, Pitino went to Kentucky's archrival, Louisville, and won a title in 2013 that was later vacated after an NCAA investigation revealed
basketball officials committed violations regarding an escort scandal. Pitino was fired in 2017 after an
FBI investigation into Adidas — who paid Pitino millions each year — regarding whether it had steered college athletes to certain schools, and by implication, to Adidas. He was also extorted after sleeping with the team's equipment manager's wife. But the scandals didn't keep Pitino from returning to college basketball after a two-year hiatus coaching for Panathinaikos. He took Iona to the NCAA Tournament twice in three years before moving on to St. John's in 2023. He's signed through 2029 at St. John's, but then again, Calipari was signed through 2029 at Kentucky. Even at age 71, Kentucky might be interested in bringing back the coach who won 81.4% of his games at UK. Billy Donovan Donovan is still under contract with the
Chicago Bulls for the next few seasons, but after two straight losing seasons where the Bulls have been 10th and then ninth in the Eastern Conference, they may be ready to move on from their coach of four seasons. Donovan won two national titles as head coach at Florida, along with making two Final Four appearances and three trips to the Elite Eight. He left
Florida to coach the Oklahoma City Thunder for five seasons, then parted ways and relocated to the Bulls. Is Donovan eager to return to college basketball after nine years in the NBA? It's unclear, but he does have Kentucky roots, having started his coaching career as a Pitino assistant at
UK for five seasons. Donovan also played for Pitino at Providence and for the
New York Knicks. He's also won the same number of national titles as Pitino while avoiding the scandals that have dogged his former mentor. Dan Hurley The University of Connecticut coach is trying to complete one of the most dominant two-year runs in the history of March Madness when his Huskies face Purdue in the championship game Monday night. But could he be tempted with what could be a huge raise and an even higher-profile
Job than he has in Storrs? It would have to be quite a raise, as Hurley signed a six-year, $32.1M extension in the wake of the 2023 title. And it's hard to imagine a better situation than the program he's built at Connecticut, which has won 11 straight NCAA Tournament games by double-digits the last two seasons. But in the predatory hiring world of college hoops, where Calipari is just the latest in a chain of coaches being poached, no contract is sacred. Nate Oats The
Alabama coach took his team to the Final Four this year, the first time Alabama has ever reached the national semifinals. That followed a season where Alabama was the No. 1 overall seed (and lost in the Sweet 16), and the 2020-21 season where they won the SEC's regular-season title and also the SEC Tournament. Oats was the SEC's Coach of the Year that season. Oats has an even longer contract that Hurley, with an extension that took him through 2029-30. He also has an onerous buyout of $18M if he leaves Alabama. Still, there's so much money coming in from boosters and in potential NIL subsidies, it seems like no buyout is large enough to keep a coach in place. Mark Pope The BYU coach is a Kentucky alumnus who played for the national championship team in 1996. He offers a chance at program continuity without the baggage — or likely the price tag — of a Pitino or Donovan. Pope has been the head coach at BYU since 2019, winning 23 or more games in three of his five seasons. He's also been the head coach at
Utah Valley State, and for three years, a medical school student, before opting for a career in college coaching. Pope was a six-year NBA veteran who has a contract running through 2027 at BYU. But if Kentucky goes for a home-grown candidate who could be an easier, less-expensive target than Scott Drew of Baylor or Sean Miller of Xavier, Pope could be the new man for the Wildcats.