A New Era Begins: John Calipari’s Seismic Move and Caitlin Clark’s Lasting Impact

Good morning! Big basketball day. Whew.

In Your Sleep: John Calipari surpasses the major match

Even though John Calipari had struggled in Lexington recently, he is leaving Kentucky after 15 seasons to take a job in Arkansas, sources told The Athletic late yesterday night. This is a seismic departure for men’s college basketball. Two crucial points to remember:

At Kentucky, where basketball is the rule, simmering anger was stoked by Calipari’s recent NCAA Tournament failures. I think it was time for a shift. Even still, when taken as a whole, his run (410–123) is still extremely strong. After Tubby Smith’s collapse and Billy Gillispie’s dismal tenure, Calipari revived the program’s championship standard at Kentucky, where coach won a national championship and appeared in three more Final Fours. coach also had two teams worth of NBA superstars play for him.
It is a huge victory for Arkansas, albeit an expensive one. Regardless of how people in Lexington feel about the 65-year-old Calipari, this program is a step or two beyond Kentucky stealing one of the greatest head coaches in recent memory. Our reporters were informed by sources Calipari’s Arkansas contract will be “massive.”
Watch the big guys tonight. Purdue’s Zach Edey (7-4) and UConn’s Donovan Clingan (7-2) are probably the game’s two best players and, as Brendan Marks and Kyle Tucker wrote, it’s the matchup we deserve with a ring on the line.
What is also at stake for Purdue is total avenging of their first-round loss as the top-seeded team from the previous season, which only happened twice in history. Interestingly, the first team to do so, Virginia in 2018, went on to win the national championship the following year.

GOAT Vibes: Women’s hoops wins March

One particular moment, one of the last ones, appropriately, felt like a microcosm of the last year in a season that defined a sport: After leading South Carolina to a 38-0 record, one of the greatest seasons in the history of the sport, coach Dawn Staley of South Carolina honored Iowa’s Caitlin Clark:

“I want to personally thank Caitlin Clark for lifting up our sport. She carried a heavy load for our sport. It just is not going to stop here on a collegiate tour but when she is the No. 1 pick in the WNBA Draft, she’s going to lift that league up as well. So Caitlin Clark, if you’re out there, you are one of the GOATs of our game. We appreciate you.”

The match from yesterday also fit the season. As predicted, the Gamecocks—clearly the superior team—won, but Clark scored thirty points. As anticipated. However, this game was more complex than that, with ripple effects that would be felt for at least the next few years:

Staley is having a career-defining moment. She has lost a total of 12 conference games, attended two further Final Fours, and won three national titles in the previous eight seasons. Among those was a 32-1 record in 2019, the year the NCAA Tournament was canceled due to COVID-19. If you reduce that time frame to the last three seasons, Staley has two crowns and a 109-3 record (47-1 in SEC play). There is currently no better coach in women’s collegiate hoops than her.
There is no denying Clark’s influence on this game. The question of whether Clark required a championship to be regarded as the greatest women’s college basketball player of all time has been the subject of a lot of discussion over the past week. That is very likely true. But Clark was the one who attracted the greatest attention to this sport, as Staley herself hinted. She consistently provided evidence for this fact. She owns almost all of the scoring records. Whether she is a GOAT or not, she has had an impact that is unlike anything else.

Clark has made a rapid recovery; in the WNBA Draft the following week, the Indiana Fever are predicted to select her first overall. Sales of tickets are already surging in advance of Clark’s visit. Will she impact the WNBA in a comparable way? Seems plausible. She is carried it out once before.

News to Know

MLB, MLBPA tussle over pitch clock
The league harshly criticized the MLBPA’s tirade for “ignoring the empirical evidence” surrounding the pitch clock in a statement released yesterday, one day after the MLBPA blamed the pitch clock for pitcher injuries. Rather, it attributed the recent surge in illnesses to pitchers who were achieving greater speeds and spin rates. Reading the full back and forth is recommended.

Rojas mad at grass
Miguel Rojas, an infielder for the Dodgers, was incensed over the wet field at Wrigley Field yesterday, as there were puddles all over the infield during the first innings of LA’s 8-1 loss to the Cubs. Several Dodgers, Rojas among them, had trouble with ground balls sliding through the grass. The Cubs offense, which scored seven runs in the first four innings, was unaffected by it. After the game and a three-hour wait, Rojas remained enraged.

More news

Things I Missed: Wait, what did he do?

This happened last weekend, but our website traffic hinted that many of us are just seeing the highlight. I am one of those people, too. Before I explain, just watch:

Dat wordt een nachtje niet slapen… #FutureCup pic.twitter.com/1RNMIRlXiB

— ESPN NL (@ESPNnl) March 30, 2024

I had to see that new move performed by David Chigwada of Manchester City U-17 approximately forty-four times before I could understand it. Elias Burke, a soccer expert far more knowledgeable than I am, broke down every frame in a fantastic essay that ran on the US sports website on Friday and into the weekend.

I would just leave the field and never come back to play defense if I were the defender.

Watch This Game

NHL: Penguins at Maple Leafs
7 p.m. ET on ESPN+
Tonight features two NHL games that might potentially impact the playoffs. Pittsburgh is in charge of its future, whereas Toronto is in. There are five games remaining.

NCAAM: No. 1 Purdue vs. No. 1 UConn
9:20 p.m. ET on TBS
The national championship game. Come on. Just make sure you stay up long enough. That start is late.

Pulse Picks

Read Dan Pompei’s biography of Adisa Isaac, the Penn State defensive end who is entering the NFL with a greater purpose, and try not to cry.

In relation to MLB pitcher injuries, Andy McCullough notes that the sport truly fears for the wellbeing of its young pitchers.

“One Shining Moment” is a Final Four mainstay, but for designer David Barrett, it is a miracle that began with inspiration from Larry Bird and a lovely waitress. A humorous tale.

Joaquinn Niemann may be the most compelling tale on the LIV Tour at the moment, and Brody Miller has written a pretty good piece on him. This week at Augusta, keep an eye on him.

(Photo: Andy Lyons/Getty Images)