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UK Basketball: Election Day over for Calipari

October 16, 2009

The results are in and John Calipari won in a landslide.

Calipari, hired more than six months ago as men's basketball coach at the University of Kentucky, has been touring the state from one side to the other getting to know his new friends and neighbors. He's made appearances at several functions and has been promoting his new book. In between the meet and greet sessions, Calipari assembled one of the top recruiting classes in the nation that has fans hyped for an immediate return to glory instead of a steady climb to the promised land.

The freshman class includes the guard tandem of John Wall and Eric Bledsoe, along with big men Daniel Orton and DeMarcus Cousins. Also included in the crop of newcomers are reigning Kentucky Mr. Basketball Jon Hood and sharpshooter Darnell Dodson.

If you didn't know he was coach of the Wildcats, he might have been mistaken as the new politician in town. Calipari said his whirlwind tour of the state resembled a political race during the team's annual media day Thursday at the Joe Craft Center and Memorial Coliseum.

"I've done enough," Calipari said. "I'm waiting for election day. I was kissing babies, and I didn't care if I won or lost the election. I just wanted it to happen."

Before he took the podium to talk about the upcoming season, Calipari was in the hallway signing autographs, now he's ready to start coaching perhaps the most anticipated season in the Bluegrass in more than a decade. Calipari couldn't help but notice the hype at each stop he made during the "campaign."

"The response to this university and this basketball program — I've never seen anything like it," he said. "It is awesome. It's what you live for in coaching. Every place I've been it has taken me five years to build this kind of passion. And, you know what? I walked into it here in Kentucky."

Although there will be more autographs to sign in the future, Calipari is ready to put his signature on his first team at Kentucky.

Calipari's calendar is clear and he's set to embark on a new chapter in his coaching career. The election is over and Calipari is ready to produce results.

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