John Calipari

John Calipari received the John R. Wooden Award “Legends of Coaching” honor in 2024. Calipari’s head coaching career began at the University of Massachusetts, where he led the Minutemen to five consecutive Atlantic 10 Championships and participated in the first Wooden Classic in 1994. After a brief stint with the New Jersey Nets, Calipari returned to college, becoming the head coach of the Memphis Tigers, winning multiple Conference USA championships. At the University of Kentucky, he took the Wildcats to four Final Fours in a five-year span, something that has only been accomplished at the men’s level by John Wooden and Mike Krzyzewski, winning the National Championship in 2012. Calipari has coached three different Wooden Award winners (Marcus Camby, ’96; Anthony Davis, ’12 and Oscar Tshiebwe, ’22) making him one of four coaches to have coached three different Wooden Award winners (Geno Auriemma, Krzyzewski and Dean Smith). Calipari was inducted into the Naismith Hall of Fame in 2015.