University of Memphis basketball coach John Calipari's name hasrecently been mentioned for vacated collegiate coachingpositions.
In a response to many rumors, Calipari issued the followingstatement from Portsmouth, Va., where he is attending thePortsmouth Invitational Tournament with Earl Barron and JohnGrice:
"I came to The University of Memphis to rebuild a winningbasketball program and it is my intention to stay here until we getthe job done. I view the task at The University of Memphis as muchthe same as we did at UMass. I stayed there for the long term.
"I have really come to love this city, this university and myteam. My family and I are very happy here.
"The more successful we are at The University of Memphis, themore my name will be mentioned for jobs throughout the country. Iwant Tiger fans to understand I am happy right where I am and thereis still much work to be done.
"I feel like we have made significant strides with the Tigerbasketball program and have it moving ahead on all fronts. We arestarting to show success on the court as well as academically andin the areas of ticket sales and community relations but we are notthere yet. We are still on a mission because I firmly believe wecan compete for national championships here."
Calipari inherited a program which had suffered throughback-to-back losing seasons and had not been to postseason playsince 1997. All three of his teams at Memphis have won 20+ game andadvanced to postseason play, including the 2002 squad whichcaptured an NIT championship and this year's team which received abid to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1996.
In three seasons under Calipari, the Tigers are 71-31 and 35-13in Conference USA play. Memphis has also posted record numbers atThe Pyramid turnstiles. The U of M drew over 300,000 in paidattendance during Calipari's second season and three of the fourseasons in which the Tigers have averaged over 16,000 in attendancehave come during Calipari's tenure.
