Kentucky celebrated coach John Calipari’s 500th win on February 26th after the Wildcats beat Florida in an SEC game last season. The celebration was nice (even if Calipari’s barely been at the school), but it was also inaccurate. See, Kentucky had been counting the wins Calipari earned at UMass and Memphis that were vacated by the NCAA, so he had an extra 42 by their total.
The NCAA called the celebration troubling and wanted an apology. On Thursday, it came. (somewhat).
UK said in a release Thursday that it had agreed to list Calipari’s career win-loss record “in our media guides, Internet sites and other publications consistent with the NCAA’s official records and statistics.”
I’m not sure how I feel about this. Calipari is one of the dirtiest coaches in college basketball, so I like him getting stripped of wins. However, this news clears the way for Kentucky to celebrate him for a second time. Maybe the best solution would have been for the NCAA to wait two years before saying anything, that way Calipari would have officially passed the 500 win mark and there would have been no chance for a second celebration. Knowing Kentucky, they’ll probably have a statue ready for him when he does it again.
