J.R. and Henry: N.C. State Coaching Search a Lesson for the Razorbacks
When University of Memphis head basketball coach John Calipari turned down $2 million a year earlier to become the head coach at North Carolina State, few were surprised. Calipari has never been on our short list of favorite coaches, long before he cancelled the entertaining Arkansas-Memphis series saying that he favored playing “national” programs like Villanova and Purdue, instead of “regional” teams like Arkansas and Tennessee (UT pulled the football card and Calipari was forced to keep playing the Vols).
Come on, John. You quit playing Arkansas to lessen the Razorbacks’ recruiting presence in talent rich Memphis. That’s fine. Just don’t take us for idiots.
Calipari turned down more money and a chance to coach in the ACC because he didn’t want to play third fiddle to Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski and North Carolina’s Roy Williams. His ego wouldn’t allow it. Better to be the man in Conference USA than to take a chance at doing something truly special at N.C. State, a lesson Calipari learned after leaving UMass for the NBA.
Enough about Calipari, that’s not the lesson here. For Arkansas, the lesson from N.C. State comes from examining the way the athletic director Lee Fowler conducted the coaching search.