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8 reasons John Calipari needs to return to the NBA

The University of Kentucky will take on West Virginia in the Sweet Sixteen on Thursday night, and barring an improbable upset from West Virginia, the Wildcats will improve to 37-0 on the season. Head coach John Calipari will move one step closer to his perfect season. If he gets it … actually, even if he doesn’t get it … it’s time for him to come back to the NBA.

Here’s why:

1. He’s accomplished everything he can in college

What else does John Calipari need to prove at the college level? He’s won at multiple schools. He’s shown that a group of talented freshmen heading to the NBA can come together and win a title. He’s proven all the haters and doubters wrong.

This Kentucky team is his masterpiece — a group of super talented one-and-dones and upperclassmen leaders he got to buy into the greater team,  all of whom sacrificed their own statistics to make a run at a title.

He’s the best recruiter. He knows how to put together a team. He knows how to coach. (Yeah, he does.) If Kentucky puts the bow on this season and finishes 40-0, what else does Calipari have to accomplish in college?

2. The NBA is the one place he hasn’t succeeded

Calipari’s time as Nets coach in the late 90s is the one time in his career he hasn’t had success. There were a lot of reasons for that, and without making excuses for Calipari, one of the biggest ones was that he wasn’t able to convince the NBA players to buy into his system (and the greater overall team) like he had done at UMass.

Calipari is older, wiser, and won’t make the same mistakes again when it comes to picking an NBA team to land with. While a team like the Lakers might not be the best place for him, as I doubt Kobe Bryant is going to buy into whatever Calipari’s selling, imagine Calipari taking a young and energetic Orlando Magic team under his wing. If he gets the right roster of young, talented players who want to work for him, Calipari could find the success in the NBA he never found before.

Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports

Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports

3. There will be coaching jobs available

I think the Magic would be a great spot for Calipari to land, but there will be plenty of NBA head coaching jobs available. Teams are getting tired of the coaching carousel where the same seven guys get the same jobs every year.

With the success of Steve Kerr, who came via TV and a GM job, and Brad Stevens, who came from Butler, NBA teams are more and more willing to look outside the same coaches. I think Calipari could get a look from some of these teams.

4. Each game will present a real challenge

Right now, Calipari’s job for half of Kentucky’s games is just making sure that his team shows up. If his players do their job, they’ll win, so it’s mostly about making sure the guys aren’t lazy or playing down to their opponents’ level.

In the NBA, Calipari will have to prepare and find creative ways to win every single night. As a coach, that sounds a whole lot more interesting than “make sure the guys don’t sleepwalk through the first half and briefly fall 5 points down to Auburn.”

5. His players will be properly compensated for a change.

That’s nice.

Brian Spurlock-USA TODAY Sports

Brian Spurlock-USA TODAY Sports

6. He has a chance to make history. 

Only one coach in history has won an NCAA title and NBA title: Larry Brown, who Calipari has worked under both at the college and NBA level (Calipari was an assistant under Brown at the 76ers.) Calipari understands Brown’s place in history, and it wouldn’t surprise me if he wanted to join his mentor as the only two coaches ever to win a title at both levels.

7. He won’t have to worry about recruiting, which seems like a real pain.

No more road trips to who knows where. No more AAU camps. No more AAU coaches. No more late-night phone calls from recruits’ uncles who want to know, precisely, just how many minutes per game their nephews are going to be getting next season. The GM will give Calipari his team, and he gets to go to work coaching.

8. He won’t have to learn a roster full of new names every year.

Unless he coaches the 76ers.

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