247Sports: CatsPause - The latest on John Calipari and Kentucky
Verrry interestink...
Article by Chris Fisher, Staff writer
As I'm sure many of you are wondering, if the news broke that John Calipari was leaving late Sunday night, why is it Tuesday morning and we still haven't heard anything official from any of the parties involved?
That led to some speculation Monday that perhaps Calipari was having second thoughts. Based on multiple people I've spoken with, I can tell you that at the very least, Cal getting cold feet is more than just a message board rumor.
I'm told Arkansas may have leaked its talks with Calipari prematurely in order to assert some public pressure on him because as of Tuesday morning, Calipari had yet to inform Mitch Barnhart, as contractually obligated, that he's been in discussions about another job. There was a team meeting scheduled at Calipari's house on Monday that got canceled, further fueling speculation that Calipari (as ridiculous as it sounds) was making a legitimate effort to return to UK.
The fact that he has yet to inform Barnhart of his discussions with Arkansas is important for two reasons: 1) If he engaged in talks with Arkansas without informing Barnhart, he would be in breach of contract and could be fired for cause and void his $33 million buyout and 2) Barnhart cannot offer the UK job to any other candidate until he has Calipari's resignation.
The bottom line is this: Under no circumstances at this point can Calipari return to Kentucky and it's also important to note that everyone on the Arkansas end of things is still confident that this thing gets done and Calipari is announced either Tuesday or Wednesday.
But it's definitely made for an interesting 36 hours.
This post was edited by Chris Fisher 2 hours ago
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