Report: Ex-Kentucky Coach John Calipari Was Interested in Ohio State Buckeyes Job

According to reports, former long-time Kentucky Wildcats coach John Calipari was interested in being the next head coach at Ohio State

Kentucky's coach John Calipari is all smiles as he tells the crowd the may see some zone play during / Scott Utterback/Courier Journal / USA

Long-time Kentucky Wildcats head basketball coach John Calipari shocked the college basketball world on Monday morning, leaving his job in Lexington to accept the job with the Arkansas Razorbacks.

However, it might not always have been the Razorbacks that Calipari was targeting for his next gig.

According to reports from CBS Sports college basketball insider Matt Norlander, it was actually the Ohio State Buckeyes who first drew interest from the legendary head coach back in February after the firing of Chris Holtmann.

Kentucky's coach John Calipari is all smiles as he tells the crowd the may see some zone play during / Scott Utterback/Courier Journal / USA

"John Calipari leaving Kentucky has been on the table going back to February, sources tell CBS Sports," Norlander said on X. "He privately expressed significant/serious interest in the Ohio State job but the timing wasn’t right, per source. Arkansas coming available was a dream shot out of Lexington"

Obviously, Calipari would have been a blockbuster hire for the Buckeyes, who were searching for a real difference maker at the position.

In In his career at Kentucky, Calipari amassed a 410-122 overall record in 15 seasons, made the NCAA tournament in 13 of those seasons. He also made four final four sppearances and two national title games, winning one of those championships (2011-12). And that was just at Kentucky.

In total, Calipari made 24 NCAA tournaments, six final fours, 31 conference titles (regular season and tournament), and multiple coach of the year awards over his three stops at UMass, Memphis, and Kentucky.

In other words, he would have fit exactly what the Buckeyes were looking for.

Instead, the Buckeyes elected to hire then-interim head coach Jake Diebler, who had a fantastic end to the season after taking over for Holtmann, winning over the team and the locker room along the way.

And while Diebler may or may not have been the right choice in the end (only time will tell), it is fun to imagine what the Buckeyes could have looked like in the future if Calipari had worked out for the Buckeyes.