John Calipari talks his coaching future; Wants to see college basketball play summer games

The college basketball season is right around the corner and John Calipari is starting to talk about his ideas for the sport.

In a conversation with Kyle Tucker of The Athletic, Calipari made his case for college basketball to start having summer games. Basically, it would be the NBA Summer League but for college teams.

In fact, Calipari has already pitched the idea to the National Association of Basketball Coaches and has the support of Dan Gavitt, who is the person that oversees college basketball for the NCAA.

Summer games would give more exposure which could create more NIL opportunities and having the games televised would bring in more money for conferences.

In the conversation, Calipari noted that it would give Kentucky a chance to play in-state teams that are not going to be on the regular season schedule.

Summer basketball wasn’t the only big topic that Calipari discussed.

There has been a lot of conversation about how much longer Calipari will coach before deciding to retire.

While talking to Tucker, Calipari shot down the idea that he will be done coaching anytime soon.

“Now I want to know any normal human being that would give up a $9 million job for a $1 million job? Who would do that? I’m not doing it, OK?” Calipari said, laughing. “If something happens with my health or I don’t feel like I’m up to it, that is like an insurance thing for me. That’s all it was. Now, if they want me to stop and pay me $9 million for the next five years, I’d probably consider it. But I would say, ‘What am I gonna do? I gotta do something.’ ”

Calipari also talked about what he would like to accomplish before his time at Kentucky is done. Ensuring that the program is set up to succeed in the future is crucial, but he also wants to bring another title, or four, back home.

“I’d love to (win another title) for the state, the university, all our fans. Hell yeah, I’d love to do it. I’d love to win three more, four more.”

It sounds like Calipari has once again found the energy and enthusiasm he had when he first took the Kentucky job. It also helps when you have a preseason top 5 team and have a monster recruiting class shaping up for 2023.

You can check out everything Calipari had to say with Tucker here.