[Ultra Peanut]

The Wildcat Delusion, by Richard Dawkins

BREAKING: John Wooden has refused to deny that he is leaving. I saw him on TV and he said something about how great his teams in the 70s were, and you could see in his eyes that he was strongly considering the Arizona job!

Also, someone on an internet forum took a quote out of context, so you can pretty much bank it.

John Calipari insists Memphis 'is where I want to coach'
By Dan Wolken (Contact), Memphis Commercial Appeal
Friday, March 27, 2009

Now that the last game of the University of Memphis basketball season has been played, attention immediately shifts to the annual speculation about the future of coach John Calipari.

Calipari, who just completed his ninth season with the Tigers, told a group of reporters at Wilson Air Center today that Memphis is “where I want to coach.”

Meanwhile, multiple sources close to the Memphis program told The Commercial Appeal that athletic director R.C. Johnson has been working in recent weeks to secure funding for additional years and dollars to redo a contract that pays Calipari $2.35 million annually. Calipari also has an annuity that averages $1 million per year over the course of his current deal, which runs through 2013.

Yet that won’t stop Calipari’s name from being linked to openings around the country, most prominently at the University of Kentucky, which fired Billy Gillispie today. Another major program looking for a coach is the University of Arizona, where Calipari could also pop up on a speculative list of candidates.

“When we win, and everybody loves to win, players go to the pros, and there are people that will come at me,” Calipari said Thursday night after his team’s 102-91 loss to Missouri in the NCAA Tournament’s Sweet 16. “That’s just how it is. I’m happy, happy with the program, happy with the people. I love Memphis. And like I said, I just need to kick back and hide from everybody for a couple days.”
. . .
The comfort level of Calipari’s family is also important. His second daughter, Megan, is a freshman at the U of M.

“I want to be here,” Calipari said today. “This is where I want to coach, and my name will be tied to every job that’s open, and our fans I think have gotten used to it.”

Originally Posted by The Dan Wolken

- Arizona will almost certainly try to gauge the interest of Calipari, Pitino and Izzo (they probably already have). But as I wrote in today’s paper, the group of schools who can put a better deal in front of Calipari than what he has at Memphis is extremely small. To this point, the contract numbers Arizona has thrown around don’t come close.