Calipari Says "Go Big Blue"

John Calipari is leaving Memphis for the University of Kentucky. We’ll let ESPN.com take it from here:

After over a day of deliberation, John Calipari is headed to Kentucky.

The coach sent a text message to ESPN.com’s Andy Katz on Tuesday evening saying, “I am accepting the UK job! Go Big Blue, coach Cal.”

A source told Katz that Calipari will receive an eight-year, $35 million deal. He gets a $2.5 million signing bonus and $3 million per year for the first four years. In years five, six, seven and eight, Calipari will get an additional $1.5 million per year, so for the last four years of the contract his salary would be $4.5 million. Incentives push the deal up a few more million to get to the $35 million mark.

The contract is the richest in college basketball.

“Why did he wait so long?” said former Calipari assistant Bruiser Flint, the head coach at Drexel. “He said he didn’t have to take the job. He’s 50 years old. He felt good at Memphis. It was a good place for him. But at the end of the day, it’s Kentucky.”

The move was first reported by the Memphis Commercial Appeal and confirmed by ESPN’s Dick Vitale.

Sources told ESPN.com’s Pat Forde that Kentucky began planning for a Wednesday announcement earlier Tuesday. The Lexington television affiliate that has the school’s athletic broadcast contract was told to prepare for an announcement in the late morning or early afternoon, and plans were made to transport Calipari by private plane to an airport near Lexington.

Earlier Tuesday, former Kentucky coach Joe B. Hall said Calipari was having “difficulty” making up his mind about accepting the Wildcats offer and was trying to get as much information as he can before deciding.

Hall said he and Calipari talked for about 15 to 20 minutes on Tuesday.

“He talked about the difficulty in making the decision and wanted to establish a relationship in case he came to Kentucky, somebody he could bounce things off of,” Hall said. “He had not made up his mind. He was trying to get all the info he could.”

Kentucky president Lee Todd told reporters before a scheduled meeting with UK students on campus that the school was “working on it” when asked about the coaching search. He then cut short any speculation during his remarks.

“I won’t be talking about playing styles or coaching or things of that nature,” Todd said. “We have a process in place. It’s active, I would say.”

Calipari stopped by a Memphis doughnut shop he frequents on Tuesday, where he told some of the regulars that he needed to make a decision by the afternoon.

Calipari certainly seemed to be Kentucky’s choice to succeed Billy Gillispie.

The school received permission to talk to Calipari on Monday, though Memphis athletic director R.C. Johnson said the program would do whatever it takes to keep the coach who has spent the last nine years turning the Tigers into a national power.

The Commercial Appeal reported that after meeting with his players Monday night, Calipari met with a number of influential Memphis boosters. While the meeting was at first said to be a last-ditch effort to persuade Calipari to stay, another source told the newspaper that Calipari was lobbying for Tony Barbee, the current coach at UTEP, to succeed him in Memphis. Barbee played for Calipari at Massachusetts and was previously his assistant at Memphis.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.