Mammoth Blog

John Calipari hasn't stopped moving since he arrived in the Bluegrass State three months ago.

He has traveled around Kentucky, shaking hands, signing autographs and showing crowds that often exceed 500 fans that he's more personable than his unpopular predecessor, Billy Gillispie.

He has participated in charity events, gotten a feel for his new home and tried to take his message global by logging in to the real-time short messaging service, Twitter. It's all part of what could be summed up as Calipari's "90-day plan" to start restoring Kentucky basketball to its old glory.

"In 90 days, you really have to set the tone within the program and staff of what's acceptable throughout everything you do," Calipari said Monday during a Southeastern Conference coaches teleconference.

"So these 90 days -- and like I said, they're starting to wind down here -- have been hectic but exciting. I've had a lot of fun with it, but it's been an absolute whirlwind."

Wednesday will mark the three-month anniversary of Calipari's hire at Kentucky. His decision to leave Memphis on March 31 and accept the Wildcats' offer to become college basketball's highest-paid coach caused a stir nationally.
*

He's already perhaps the most popular man in the state.

Calipari's official Twitter account -- UKCoachCalipari -- has attracted more than 302,000 followers since its start seven weeks ago. And he expects that number of subscribers to climb to 500,000 by the middle of July and reach 1 million followers by the start of the upcoming season.

Naturally, Calipari's arrival to the SEC made the rest of the league's coaches take notice. How much so? Despite all the roster changes that have taken place over the offseason, his hire was the hot topic on Monday's summer news teleconference, where each of the league's coaches took questions from the media for 7 minutes.

"I think John has raised the bar tremendously for all of us. He's already assembled one of the more talented teams in college basketball. He's upgraded his schedule," Tennessee coach Bruce Pearl said.

"... (His arrival) is going to bring great credibility to the SEC, and John being in our league is going to make us all better. It's going to be more difficult to win the (SEC) championship. It's going to be more difficult to finish ahead of Kentucky."

That wasn't that tough to do during Kentucky's failed two-year experiment with Gillispie. His abrasive personality didn't go over well with the school's rabid fan base, and his struggles on the basketball court led to his firing in late March.

Gillispie went 40-27 in two seasons at Kentucky, and his 14 losses last season are tied for the second-most in the program's 106-year history. It became apparent that a change was needed after the Wildcats missed the NCAA Tournament in March for the first time since 1991.

Enter Calipari, with his proven track record, charismatic personality and well-established recruiting contacts.

"I think John's had success every place he's been, and so to think that he would not have success at Kentucky would be foolish," Vanderbilt coach Kevin Stallings said.

"... But I don't particularly want Kentucky to be good. We have enough good teams in our league already."

It didn't take long for Calipari to make an impact at Kentucky, where the program's devout fans have been known to turn on a coach if he doesn't produce immediate results.

Calipari quickly assembled the nation's top recruiting class, signing the No. 1 prospect in guard John Wall and convinced power forward DeMarcus Cousins to follow him from Memphis to Lexington, Ky.

As a result, expectations will be high next season for the Wildcats despite the loss of guard Jodie Meeks, the SEC's leading scorer last season at 23.7 points per game.

Again, it's all part of Calipari's 90-day plan.

"People look at me and say, 'Slow down.' But this is how we do things," Calipari said. "... No, we won't slow down." source>>>