When the Commercial-Appeal reports it, I am calling it official.
John Calipari is officially the 21st Head Men's Basketball Coach at the University of Kentucky.
This has been one heck of a day. Half of the Commonwealth has been following this story, and there was all kinds of drama -- from white doors to gates to helicopters to airplanes ... You know the drill.
But barring a Dana Altman, John Calipari has made up his mind and will take on the challenge of guiding the most storied college basketball program in America from it's current irrelevance back to national respectability.
These last three weeks have been a wild ride. At this point in time, I have no interest whatever in rehashing the events of the past, because the future looks so promising at this particular moment. John Calipari will be embraced by the Big Blue Nation, and he is one of the few coaches in America with the automatic stature, credibility and ego to take on this iconic position. There will be no learning curve, and if you think expectations were high before, welcome to the quantum leap.
I will have much more on this tomorrow, but for now, I just want to welcome Coach Calipari and his family to the Kentucky family. We are glad to have you, and confident that the Big Blue Nation and the legacy of Adolph Rupp, Joe B. Hall, Rick Pitino and Tubby Smith are now in capable hands.
So I hope you will all join me in welcoming the new Head Wildcat. May his reign be long, prosperous and filled with lots and lots of shiny hardware.