"I got to hire my son” - John Calipari explains major reason that nudged him towards Arkansas head coach job

Arkansas basketball head coach John Calipari has revealed one big reason why he left Kentucky to take charge of the Razorbacks. As one could see, it`s basically all in the family.

Appearing on both The Dan Patrick Show and The Jim Rone Show, the 65-year-old tactician revealed that being able to hire his son Brad as a member of his coaching staff made leaving Lexington a done deal (via On3).

“I got to hire my son,” John Calipari said to Patrick.

“Now, he’s not one of my top three guys, but he’s on the court. I made a decision based on what was right for me and my family,” he said on Rome. “And being able to hire my son, my wife, you know, she wanted — that’s her baby. I gotta sleep with this kid’s mom. So yeah, I wanted to hire him.”

John Calipari's son Brad, who used to play for the Wildcats under his dad, was hired as a member of the staff focusing on on-court player development (via CBS Sports). The younger Calipari is also named as an assistant coach to the team. He played for Kentucky in 2016-2017 and 2017-2018. Then he moved to Detroit Mercy for two more seasons before calling it quits on his playing days.

He now joins an Arkansas coaching staff intent on bringing competitive basketball back to the Razorbacks program. This includes Kenny Payne, Chin Coleman, Chuck Martin, and another former Wildcats guard Tyler Ulis in an undisclosed role (via Whole Hog Sports). Furthermore, a good chunk of the rest of the staff were also former members of Calipari`s old staff in Lexington.

Calipari `loved` his 15 years in Kentucky

When talking about the time he spent coaching the Wildcats, John Calipari revealed that he didn`t have any inclination to leave the team at first. This is despite his team getting bounced in the first round of the recently concluded 2024 March Madness.

In the same interview with Dan Patrick, Calipari mentioned how much he loved his 15 seasons spent in Lexington and "didn`t anticipate" leaving. But the chance to hire his son Brad and a talk with Houston Cougars head coach Kelvin Sampson helped further seal the deal.

“Let it be good for both. I had 15 great years there. Let Mark Pope have 15 great years. Let me finish how I want to finish,” John Calipari added.

The coach also mentioned how he just didn`t want to leave his players on the Wildcats but was swayed when player freedom via the transfer portal was mentioned to him.