John Calipari
	Position: Head Coach

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Third-year Kentucky head coach John Calipari kept the momentum going in his second year at the helm of the Wildcats, guiding Kentucky to its 14th Final Four. In doing so, he became only the second coach to lead three different schools to a Final Four (UMass-1996; Memphis-2008; Kentucky-2011).

In a season that was labeled as a "rebuilding effort" where Calipari and the Cats were supposed to struggle after losing an unprecedented five first round picks in the 2010 NBA Draft, Kentucky instead reloaded as Calipari guided UK to its 27th SEC Tournament championship, kept his unbeaten record at Rupp Arena (33-0, tied for the longest such streak in Rupp Arena history) alive and collected his 500th career on-court win.

Upon being named head coach on April 1, 2009, Calipari continued to work his magic of resurrecting once proud programs, taking an NIT team in 2009 to the 2010 NCAA Elite Eight. Along the way he led the Wildcats to a No. 1 ranking (UK's first since 2003), the program's 44th SEC Championship and 26th SEC Tournament title.

The honors continued after the season as Calipari became the first coach in UK history to receive the Adolph Rupp National Coach of the Year award. He then watched as five of his players were selected in the first round of the 2010 NBA Draft, the first time a school has ever produced five first round picks. Among those picks was the first Wildcat ever taken as the No. 1 overall pick, John Wall.

In his inaugural season as head coach of the Wildcats, Calipari posted his fifth-straight 30-win season, the only coach in NCAA Division I history to do so. In addition to the Rupp National Coach of the Year, Calipari was also named the Associated Press SEC Coach of the Year.

When he led Kentucky back to the No. 1 spot in the country, Calipari became one of only two coaches (Frank McGuire) in NCAA history to lead three teams to a No. 1 ranking. He led UMass to a No. 1 ranking in 1995 and 1996 and he led Memphis to the No. 1 spot in the 2008 season.

Much like he did at UMass, when his players graduated at nearly 80 percent, Calipari has stressed academics. Fifteen of his last 18 seniors that came through the Memphis program have earned their bachelor's degrees and the four seniors under Cal at Kentucky have all earned their degrees.

The Wildcats posted a 3.14 grade-point-average (GPA) in the 2011 spring semester, the highest semester GPA in recent years, and an overall 3.015 GPA for the 2010-11 season.

Since the 2005-06 season, Coach Cal ranks as the winningest coach over the last six years.

After bringing the University of Massachusetts basketball program to national prominence in the '90s and resurrecting the Memphis basketball program in the 2000s, Calipari became the 22nd coach in UK history, and is the seventh in the last 80 years.

Following his second season at UK, Calipari's overall on-court record soared to 509-152 for an impressive 77.0 winning percentage. His 509 wins are the second-most in NCAA Division I history in the first 19 years, Roy Williams being the other.

Calipari's 77.0 winning percentage is the third-highest among active NCAA Division I coaches with 10 years experience at college basketball's Division I level, trailing only Mark Few and Roy Williams. On the NCAA Division I list for winning percentage for all coaches (minimum 10 years), Calipari is in 10th place and ahead of Krzyzewski, Jim Boeheim, Bob Huggins and Lute Olson.

With his five 30-win seasons, Calipari has seven for his career, which is fourth most for a head coach in NCAA Division I history. For his career (19 years), Calipari has 17 20-win seasons and 11 25-win campaigns.

In 1996, Calipari moved from UMass to the NBA after leading the Minutemen to the Final Four. For his efforts, Calipari was named Naismith National Coach of the Year.

Calipari led the Tigers to the 2008 NCAA title game, and Memphis' 38 wins in 2007-08 made him the winningest coach for a single season in NCAA history. As a result, Calipari was named Naismith National Coach of the Year for a second time in his career. He is only the second coach to receive the honor multiple times since the award's inception in 1987. Duke's Mike Krzyzewski is the other to do so.

Calipari, the 2009 Sports Illustrated National Coach of the Year, led the Tigers to nine-straight 20-win campaigns and nine-consecutive postseason appearances, the only Memphis coach to do that. He posted 252 wins -- 28 wins per season -- as the Tigers' head coach, making him the winningest coach in school history.

Calipari compiled a 193-71 record (.731) during his eight-year career at Massachusetts, including a 108-44 mark (.684) in Atlantic 10 play. In addition to five-straight NCAA Tournaments, UMass also made two appearances in the NIT, advancing to the NIT final four in 1991. The 1990-91 season was the first of six-straight seasons in which the Minutemen won at least 20 games.

Calipari's personal 20-win streak has reached the 17-season mark after 35 wins in his first year at UK and 29 in his second. All nine of his Memphis clubs won 20-plus games, along with his last six teams at UMass. In his final season at UMass, Calipari was named the 1996 Naismith National Coach of the Year and The Sporting News National Coach of the Year. He was also named the Atlantic 10 Coach of the Year for the third time in four years, as well as Basketball Times East Region Coach of the Year.

During the Minutemen's 35-2 season in 1995-96, UMass posted wins over Kentucky, Maryland, Wake Forest, Georgia Tech, Syracuse, Virginia Tech and Louisville. UMass ended the regular season ranked No. 1 in the nation in the final regular season poll after being the top-ranked team for nine weeks earlier in the year. The Minutemen also won their first 26 games of the season, setting a school record for most consecutive wins.

In addition to his National Coach of the Year honors in 1996, Calipari was a Naismith Coach of the Year finalist in 1994 and 1995. He was the USBWA District I Coach of the Year in 1993.

At 29, when he was named head coach, Calipari began to build a program from the ground up, going 10-18 his first season before posting a 17-14 record his second year (receiving a bid to the NIT).

The Minutemen won their first A-10 championship in 1992 with a 30-5 record, including a 13-3 mark in league play. With a 77-71 overtime win over Syracuse in an East Regional second-round game, UMass made its first NCAA Sweet 16 appearance.

Calipari left UMass in June of 1996 to become Executive Vice President of Basketball Operations and Head Coach of the New Jersey Nets. He led the Nets to a second-place finish in the NBA's Atlantic Division and the playoffs in 1998, ending a five-year postseason drought for the franchise. The Nets' 17-game turnaround from the previous year was the best that season in the NBA.

He became a member of the Philadelphia 76ers coaching staff in 1999, rejoining Philadelphia coach Larry Brown, for whom Calipari was an assistant at Kansas.

Calipari began his coaching career at Kansas as a volunteer assistant under Ted Owens. In 1983, he was hired as the recruiting coordinator at the University of Vermont, but was swayed back to the nation's heartland

when Brown was hired as head coach at KU. He spent three seasons at Kansas (1982-85) before another three-year stint as an assistant coach to Paul Evans at Pittsburgh (1985-88).

The 52-year-old lettered two years at North Carolina-Wilmington before transferring to Clarion State. He played point guard at Clarion during the 1981 and 1982 seasons, leading the team in assists and free throw percentage. The Eagles were ranked in the Division II Top 20 both years and participated in the 1981 NCAA Division II Tournament.

Calipari and his wife, Ellen, have two daughters, Erin and Megan and a son, Bradley. Erin graduated from UMass and is now in grad school at Wake Forest, while Megan is pursuing her undergraduate degree at UMass. Brad is a freshman at Lexington Christian Academy.

Head Coaching Record

*-season includes games later vacated due to NCAA sanctions; actual on-court records were 35-2 in 1995-96 and 38-2 in 2007-08. NCAA Tournament appearances were also vacated in 1996 and 2008. Actual on-court won-lost record overall is 509-152 for a .770 winning percentage.