NCAA Basketball: Top 10 best coaching hires from 2024 offseason

1. John Calipari (Arkansas)

Based on weeks of back-and-forth with these two fanbases, including Calipari on this list without Mark Pope will certainly turn some heads but let’s face the facts. Arkansas has been a program in brilliant shape in recent years and they grabbed one of the sport’s best coaches to fill their sudden opening. No matter what has happened the last couple of seasons in Lexington, Calipari arrives in Fayetteville with the potential to build a monster with the Razorbacks.

A basketball coach for over four decades, Calipari has been an NBA head coach and previously took both UMass and Memphis to Final Fours earlier in his career. He’d been at Kentucky for the last fifteen seasons and responsible for a great era of success for the Wildcats. That program made four Final Fours in his first six seasons, including a national championship in 2012, though they were badly upset in two of the last three trips to the Big Dance.

Calipari may have needed a change after things got stale, but Kentucky’s loss is certainly Arkansas’ gain. He steps into a program that Eric Musselman got going and can continue that journey, hoping to get the Razorbacks to their first Final Four in three decades. Obviously, the way recruiting and NIL have changed the game could negatively affect Calipari, but with the resources available he should be able to bring impressive talent to Arkansas.