John Calipari wanted to be the coach of the Ohio State basketball team

Last night, we found out that John Calipari was leaving Kentucky for Arkansas. It’s a fairly shocking development in the world of college basketball. Kentucky fans have had a love/hate relationship with him for a while now and apparently, that has taken its toll. So how does this affect the Ohio State basketball program?

Well, the Buckeyes decided to fire Chris Holtmann on Valentine’s Day this past season. In order to do that, the Buckeyes had to pay $12.8 million to make him go away. That’s a large chunk of money. Then, they decided to hire Jake Diebler after he had a great run to end the season. Apparently, they had the choice to land a big fish for that job.

John Calipari was interested in coaching the Ohio State basketball team

Reportedly, Calipari reached out to the Ohio State basketball program about interest heading there. He had been looking to leave Kentucky as early as February, which was right when the Buckeye job came open. Ohio State apparently wasn’t interested because they never engaged in a conversation with him after he reached out.

One of the reasons they weren’t interested is Calipari’s massive buyout. In order for him to leave Kentucky, the Wildcats are owed $33 million. Add that to the money Ohio State is paying Holtmann to not coach, plus what a new contract with Calipari would cost, and that’s just way too much money. That’s $50+ million on a basketball coach for a school that is a football school.

Had Ohio State not needed to pay that much money to Holtmann, perhaps the Buckeyes could have ended up with Cal as the head coach. Instead, they have Diebler. Diebler is still a good option and the players showed they really like playing for him at the end of the season. He can be a really good head coach.

What could Calipari have been with the Ohio State basketball program? We’ll never know.