John Calipari and the University of Kentucky are inching closer to a multi-year deal, reportedly for eight years and $35 million.

I hate to break the news to Kentucky, but John Calipari is not the key to putting Kentucky basketball back on the map. In fact, don’t be surprised if the Wildcats program gets shoddier with Calipari at the helm.

I can’t get a grasp on why Kentucky is seeking the duties of the current Memphis Tigers head coach. Even more puzzling is the fact that Calipari is strongly considering taking over the reigns at UK. His poor coaching will be completely exposed. Finally!

Now, the SEC isn’t exactly the crème de la crème of college basketball, but it is certainly more prominent than Conference USA. My advice to John is this: If you want to continue to fool college basketball fans and analysts into thinking you are among the best, stay in your pathetic conference. Ridiculous conference winning streaks (58) and complete dominance over the competition will be no more if Calipari takes his ghastly coaching to the SEC.

What’s going to happen when John can’t fully rely on players of superior talent to chalk up W’s for him? I’ll tell you what’s going to happen; he’s going to fall flat on his face!

At Memphis, he has had some of the nation’s top recruits playing against teams with inferior aptitude. I know for a fact Kentucky will not be blowing teams out, as talent is distributed fairly evenly throughout the conference. John Calipari might actually need to rely on coaching to grind out a W!

Calipari controls his fate. Remain at Memphis and continue to manhandle inferior teams, or head to the SEC and be open to the elements.

If he is lucky enough to take the Wildcats to the Big Dance next year, they won’t be getting a No. 1 or No. 2 seed like he has become so familiar with. There goes his easy route to the Sweet 16 and beyond.

Everyone seems to praise John Calipari for his previous tournament ‘success,’ when in reality, he has not won anything. He lost his team the title last year, and as a result of his second-rate coaching and lack of preparation against Mizzou this year, he cost his team a chance to go to the Elite Eight.

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If Memphis Head Coach John Calipari dashes for the University of Kentucky, with all of its tradition and vast dollars, where will Memphis turn for their next head coach?

Let's explore the most logical choice, University of Missouri head coach Mike Anderson.

Why Memphis makes sense:

1. Memphis is a national name in the recruiting battles, something Missouri is only now working towards. Every 17-18 year old kid in America saw Derrick Rose in the national championship game a year ago, and they all want to be just like him. And Tyreke Evans didn't do anything to hurt the Memphis persona this year. Mike Anderson doesn't need top recruits to implement his system efficiently, but he certainly wouldn't turn them down.

2. The University of Memphis has the luxury of being the biggest draw in town. The Grizzlies, although young and exciting, have yet to make a solid connection with the citizens of Memphis since arriving from Vancouver. University of Memphis basketball is the hottest ticket in town, without question.

In fact, the University of Memphis often uses the very building the city built for the Grizzlies, to play its home games. NBA arena equals big draw for high school recruits. Also, Memphis football is not, and never will be a threat to its basketball program as we've seen at schools such as Notre Dame, USC, Miami, Florida, and Texas.

3. Worldwide Wes. Don't know who he is? Click here. Wes is an agent without the paycheck (supposedly) and more contacts than a Rolo-dex. Without writing Wes' biography, I'll just introduce you to his affiliation with the University of Memphis. Wes got his start in "recruit funneling" with Dajuan Wagner. Where did he go to college, you ask? Memphis.

Wes rode Wagner as long as he could, picking up more contacts and cell numbers on the ride. Wes' next "friend" is a Chicago kid named Derrick Rose, you may have heard of him. Rose also attended college at Memphis.

Wes' most recent "friend" is Memphis' point guard from last year Tyreke Evans.

Add Allen Iverson, Michael Jordan, Richard Hamilton, LeBron James, Jay-Z, and P Diddy to Wes' list of contacts, and you can figure that as long as he is around, Memphis will land a fair share of top recruits.

4. Family & cultural ties. Anderson's wife, Marcheita Anderson, is from the Memphis area. We've seen coaches take other jobs to be closer to family, what is unknown is if Anderson would take a job so his wife could be closer to home.

His son, Mike Anderson, Jr. is a walk-on on the Missouri Tigers basketball team. Mike Sr. may have declined a job like Memphis in the past to continue coaching his son who transferred to Missouri after his dad took the job. However, now Mike Jr. has finished his senior season and is joining his father's staff as soon as he graduates this May.

The most talented basketball player in the family, Yvonne Anderson, has recently enrolled in college and is playing basketball at the University of Texas. So, Anderson has no ties to Columbia, MO, and a few threads connecting him to the Memphis area, thus making the move easier.

The cultural difference between Columbia, MO and Memphis, TN are vast, trust me, I've been to both. I'm not saying it's difficult for a middle aged black man to coach D1 college basketball in east-central Missouri, but it can't be as culturally soothing as it would be in Memphis.

Will he take the job?

The $64,000 question, indeed.

In the end, I say he will not take the Memphis job.

Memphis plays in a horrible conference that makes it nearly impossible to prepare for the NCAA tournament. The difference in dollars will not be significant enough to make this a no brainer, like Calipari to Kentucky.

Missouri's salary ceiling is about $1.5M, and I have to doubt whether Memphis will be willing to pay Anderson upwards of $2M a year (roughly what they were paying Calipari).

Last, Mike Anderson finally has his system up and running at Missouri and I don't think Memphis is the place to start anew. I also don't think Mizzou wants to start from scratch either, expect them to scrounge and scramble to find any way to keep Anderson at the University of Missouri.

Less than a week after suffering a disappointing defeat in the Sweet 16 to Michigan State, the Jayhawk Nation is buzzing with offseason stories. 

Already wondering if top players Sherron Collins and Cole Aldrich will try to cash in on their fabulous season, and head for the NBA draft, Kansas fans have another development to closely follow.

Former assistant coach at Kansas, and current Memphis head-man, John Calipari is considering leaving Memphis for a new job at The University of Kentucky. 

This move could effect the Jayhawks for years to come.   

Lance Stephenson, the number one rated small forward in the nation by scout.com, has said that he will decide between Memphis, St. John's, Maryland and Kansas tomorrow. Stephenson, who's from Brooklyn, broke Sebastian Telfair's New York State boy's high school basketball scoring record this season.

Top point guard prospect John Wall from Raleigh, North Carloina also has stated that he will play at either KU, Duke, or for "Coach Cal" and the Tigers. 

Kansas, already has commitments from shooting guard Elijah Johnson (North Las Vegas, Nevada) and power forward Thomas Robinson (Wolfeboro, New Hampshire), both five-Star recruits. 

Tonight on ESPN Radio, top college basketball analyist Andy Katz was a guest on The Brian Kenny Show.  While addressing the Calipari to Kentucky question, he was asked, and commented, on Wall and Stephenson, but then he started to talk about Xavier Henry. 

Henry, the top shooting guard prospect from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma had previously committed to Memphis, but was very, very close to signing with the Jayhawks.  

Katz said that he would not be at all surprised if Henry decided to go with the more stable atmosphere in Lawrence, Kansas, should Calipari head to Kentucky. 

It's hard to expect that Kansas will end up with all of these elite players, but it is possible. 

Would it be the best recruiting class in the Jayhawks storied history? Maybe college basketball history?

According to scout.com, if all these players were to sign with KU, they would give coach Bill Self the number one prospect at point guard (Wall), small forward (Stephenson) and shooting guard (Henry). 

Elijah Johnson is the number six player at his position, and Thomas Robinson is rated fourth at his.

Farewell, Coach: An Ode to John Calipari

It looks more and more like Memphis head coach John Calipari is headed to Kentucky. The contract has been reported eight years at $35 million.

Calipari has been very successful at Memphis, leading them to the National Championship Game last year, and then to the Sweet 16 this year, before losing to Missouri.

If this comes true, we may see a chain reaction at Memphis. The Tigers have commitments from two of the three top recruits (Xavier Henry and DeMarcus Cousins) of 2009 according to Rivals.com, so with him leaving, would that cause them to look elsewhere?

The No. 1 recruit John Wall (who has not committed) is down to Memphis and Kansas. If Calipari leaves, Kansas should get the point guard.

Kansas has already received a commitment from Elijah Johnson, a point guard, but I am pretty sure Bill Self will make room for the extremely-talented guard from Raleigh, North Carolina.

The Jayhawks are already waiting to see where No. 9 recruit Lance Stephenson will go. Stephenson has said he will make his decision tomorrow. Stephenson is also a guard from Brooklyn, New York.

If the Jayhawks somehow get both Stephenson and Wall to go with five star recruit Thomas Robinson, they would be a huge force next season.

I doubt the Jayhawks will get both Stephenson and Wall. The Jayhawks will have three new guards on next year's team to go with Tyrell Read, Brady Morningstar, and possibly Sherron Collins, if he stays. That is a lot of guards.

Then again, it looks very realistic the 'Hawks get them all.

John Calipari has been given permission to meet with the University of Kentucky administration to discuss their head coaching position.

In a move that surprises no one—but causes extreme dismay to Memphis Tiger fans everywhere—Calipari apparently spoke with UK brass over the weekend, who in turn formally requested permission to pursue the coach.

Memphis Athletic Director R. C. Johnson confirms that he was, indeed, approached by Kentucky and that he gave them the green light to discuss the job opening with Calipari.

Tiger fans should take solace in this statement issued moments ago by Johnson:

"We will do everything in our power to retain (Calipari's) services at Memphis."

Calipari, however, has already met with his basketball team to clear the air about the opportunity, and many of his student-athletes seem convinced that the coach will take the job that he describes as "the Notre Dame of college basketball."

2 p.m. CDT update:

Word circulating from Lexington is that Calipari is set to sign a seven-year contract at $4 million per annum. The University of Memphis is attempting to put together a package that would entice the coach to stay with the Tigers.

3 p.m. CDT update:

Latest reports on a potential John Calipari contract with Kentucky now put the figure at an astronomical six year, $40 million dollar deal. Calipari has reportedly rejected the Memphis counteroffer.

According to reports from the Fox affiliate in Memphis, TN, Athletic Director R. C. Johnson has received permission to speak with Mike Anderson of Missouri. Anderson was said to be in talks to the brass at Missouri on a contract extension and a raise after taking the school to the Elite Eight.

7 p.m. CDT update:

In a desperation, last ditch effort to keep him in Memphis, prominent U of M boosters have scheduled a second meeting with John Calipari tonight.

The school's administration is said to be willing to meet, or even perhaps exceed, any offer made by the University of Kentucky.

The last hopes for the U of M are centered around the idea that the school can play on Calipari's emotions and persuade him to change his mind. His son is very comfortable at a Memphis area private school, and Calipari is as beloved in Memphis as any man in any city across America.

Memphis fans remain pessimistic, but at this point, no news is truly good news in the Bluff City. The school has been careful to limit any information from leaking to the press, so that any decision, once announced, will certainly be final.

Midnight CST update:

It would appear that the reports that Calipari was Kentucky-bound were grossly exaggerated.

Calipari had at least two meetings with University of Memphis boosters, and was said to be in yet another meeting late into the night with none other than Fred Smith, the founder of FedEx.

Smith and other boosters have been engaged in a determined effort to dissuade Calipari from taking the head coaching position at UK.

As of approximately 10 p.m. CDT, Calipari was meeting with his coaching staff at his home; no one knows what the content of their conversation was.

Perhaps the best summation of the situation came from C. J. Henry, the erstwhile New York Yankee baseball prospect who walked-on at Memphis, and was instrumental in the signing of his younger brother, Xavier Henry:

"I don’t think (Calipari) knows (what he is going to do),” said Henry, in an on-camera interview with the local Fox affiliate. “I mean, he’s going to, I guess, explore. I mean, who wouldn’t? It’s Kentucky basketball. I would."

It's a drama that comes around annually in April. It garners national attention.

The finale leaves people teetering on a long spectrum.

On one side of the spectrum, people are deviously smiling and rubbing their palms with aspirations of a championship or championships.

On the other side, however, people are endlessly weeping. They're confused and frantically searching for any kind of reasonable logic to explain what transpired.

The truth is, there's no real logic to this soap opera. The truth is, this soap opera isn't as riveting as one would be made to believe.

The truth is, this soap opera leaves a lot of fans heart broken, and not because of a touching ending.

In fact, it's the complete opposite. The spectacle, commonly known as "The Coaching Carousel," lacks substance. It's pointless.

But guess what?

Forgive the cliche, but it's rearing its ugly head again.

The University of Kentucky, the program who is at the top of the proverbial college basketball mountain, is in need of a head coach. Billy Gillispie didn't suffice, at least to Kentucky's standards, and he got the axe.

A.D. Mitch Barnhart and the Wildcats are on the prowl for the head coach that's going to save their program from mediocrity and single-handedly pull them from the abyss that is the bottom of the SEC.

Ideally, they want to lock up the University of Memphis's head coach, John Calipari. He took the Memphis program from nothin' to somethin' in the blink of an eye. He's built a powerhouse foundation from nothing but debris and rubble.

He's importing one of the best classes ever in college basketball history next season. He's poised to make a serious national championship run again.

My advice to the Kentucky administration: Keep dreaming.

No, seriously. R.C. Johnson and the Memphis front office are diligently working to extend his contract and up his salary. On top of that, Calipari doesn't want anything to do with the SEC. That's football country; Cal is top dog here in C-USA and the city.

Why would he leave? Memphis will match and one-up whatever Lexington throws Calipari's way. Memphis plays in an NBA facility. Calipari has the love and utmost support from his fan base whether he wins or whether he loses.

In Lexington, your every single, solitary, voluntary or involuntary movement is microscopically scrutinized with a fine tooth comb. If you have a bad season, it's off with your head. Cal doesn't have to worry about that in the Bluff City.

And if Calipari, for whatever far-fetched reason, did leave the Memphis program, he'd virtually have to rebuild the Kentucky program. He'd have to recruit players who knew the Dribble Drive Motion offense, and then start from square one in practice with pre-existing players.

Calipari wants no part of that.

Continuity is also a major factor. Calipari has a son, Bradley, enrolled in Memphis City Schools. His daughter is a freshman at the University of Memphis. How would he be able to explain to his children why he is uprooting them from their comfortable environments and thrusting them into a brand new one?

Mrs. Calipari wouldn't be a huge fan, either, I'm sure.

“I want to be here,” Calipari said yesterday. “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.”

Good call, Johnny.

Just make sure you keep it up when Kentucky's doing the calling.

Many have referred to this year's NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament as "bland," claiming it has lacked the dramatic, logic-defying upsets we’ve come to associate with March Madness.

This fact has some validity to it, and yet, my brackets have still suffered.

Though I turned only 23 last week, I consider myself an avid student of the sport's history. I've followed the programs and the coaches. I know the style of play many of the teams use, and how each matches up against others.

I have a basic grip on what's gone down both out-of-conference and in, how squads have fared on the road, and how successful teams have been against other tournament participants. I take these details into account when I make my bracket selections.

And as a result, I've done quite well in previous years' pools, winning two in high school and one in college.

I also take into account what most ardent fans consider to be basic axioms of achieving a strong bracket: Pick one, if not two, 12-seeds over fives; pick at least one 11 over a six, at least two nines over eights, and at least one 10 over a seven. I know that an average of two two-seeds have gotten to the Elite Eight this decade, and always keep in the back of my mind other basic facts like that.

So I followed all of those historical trends in making my bracket this season, and also provided for what I’ve watched on TV this season and the impression actually seeing temas in action left upon me.

Well, it appears I might have overanalyzed these matchups. After all, I currently stand in 20th place out of 61 participants in my office pool, and most of these people know little to nothing about the tournament’s participants.

I've gone off on this tangent because the success of one of this afternoon's participants, Missouri, symbolizes my frustration with much of what's transpired the past couple weeks.

I seem to pick the right seeds to move on, but the wrong teams. Allow me to expound upon why this particular three-seed reaching the Elite Eight boggles my mind.

First, let’s take the “eye test:" Missouri hasn't been relevant since Quin Synder's first couple of years in the early part of the decade. As a result, they flew under the radar for much of the season, even though the Big 12 had a pretty successful year on the whole.

I watched Mizzou a couple times this season, and wasn’t particularly blown away. Yes, Mike Anderson's "40 Minutes of Hell" style of play was well publicized, but it reaped few significant results while he coached UAB, aside from a 2006 home victory over Memphis.

Knowledge of that fact was apparently more important than I previously imagined.

Missouri went into the tournament as a No. 3, which was deserved after winning the Big 12 tournament, but was presented with what I saw was a difficult second-round matchup with Marquette (Dominic James' health notwithstanding at the point).

Still, the Tigers went on to win that game 58-57 in a highly controversial result that easily could have gone Marquette's way with a stronger officiating crew.

With that ugly performance, Missouri looked ready to be an afterthought for a streaking Memphis team. These other Tigers were team without a loss in 2009, a team that had just embarrassed a decent ACC squad in Maryland.

Though some may bash C-USA, the fact that a team can win that many games in conference without taking a night off is unbelievable. They aren't playing Ivy League teams, and this isn't the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference here, either. I believe that C-USA rivaled the Missouri Valley Conference this year, the conference the sports media likes to base the term “mid-major” on.

Memphis destroyed the Terps, who had played to their potential by throttling seventh-seeded Cal. And one could argue that Missouri's offensive performance hadn’t been much stronger than that of Maryland in its past few games.

I just didn't believe Missouri's swarming defensive style could disturb Memphis, a team with a starting lineup filled with physical specimens all 6’5” or taller and a coach who can prepare and motivate his team like few other generals in the game.

Yet Coach Cal and Co. could do little to stop Missouri, the same team that put up only 58 points on a Golden Eagles squad with a questionable track record of winning games because of their defense.

I’ll be frank. If you told me coming into the tournament that Missouri would defeat Memphis in the Sweet 16, I would have been shocked.

If you told me they’d win by putting up 102 on Memphis in the Sweet 16, I’d have you admitted to Riker’s Island.

If I'd filled out 10 brackets, I’d have chosen Memphis over Missouri every time. I was stunned; absolutely shell-shocked by Memphis’ inability play any sort of defense, and Missouri’s inability to miss shots—even from half court.

Mizzou played their best game of the year, and Memphis obviously wasn’t prepared for that performance.

Perhaps I need to reconsider just how much I know about this game. Or maybe I shouldn't be so hard on myself.

Maybe the naysayers are wrong, and this hasn't been such a bland tournament. I mean, we do still call it "March Madness," and as Missouri has proven to me it's still the most extraordinary three weeks in American sport.

And the best part? We still have eight teams left.