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John Calipari’s seismic move, plus Caitlin Clark’s legacy

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Good morning! Big basketball day. Whew.

While You Were Sleeping: John Calipari one-ups the big game

John Calipari is leaving Kentucky after 15 seasons for Arkansas, sources told The Athletic late last night, a ground-shaking move in men’s college basketball, even if Calipari had lost his way in Lexington in recent years. Two important notes:

Calipari’s recent NCAA Tournament failures caused simmering discontent at Kentucky, where basketball is law. It was probably time for a change. And yet his run (410-123) is still remarkably good viewed as a whole. Two rosters’ worth of NBA superstars played for Calipari at Kentucky, he won a national championship and appeared in three other Final Fours, and he resuscitated the program’s championship standard in the wake of Tubby Smith’s fall and Billy Gillispie’s disastrous tenure.
For Arkansas, it’s a major — and expensive — win. No matter the feelings around the 65-year-old Calipari in Lexington, this is a program 1-2 rungs below Kentucky poaching one of the best head coaches in modern history. Sources told our reporters Calipari’s contract at Arkansas will be “massive.”

Read that full report here. The timing is also darkly funny because, hey, remember there’s a whole national title game tonight? And now we’re all talking about a coach leaving a school that got bounced in the first round?

As for that title game:

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.
Also on the line for Purdue: complete redemption after losing in the first round as a No. 1 seed last year, just the second time that’s happened ever. Incredibly, the first team to do so — Virginia in 2018 — won the national title in 2019.

Don’t miss our live blog for that game here. And somehow it still feels like this all got overshadowed by the other national title game…

GOAT Vibes: Women’s hoops wins March

In a season that defined a sport, one moment — one of the last ones, fittingly — felt like a microcosm of what the last year has been like: South Carolina coach Dawn Staley, having helped author a 38-0 campaign, one of the best seasons in the sport’s history, feteing her opponent, 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.”

Yesterday’s game also fit the season. The Gamecocks, clearly the better team, prevailed as expected, but Clark went for 30 points. Also expected. But there was more to this game, cascading effects that we’ll feel for the next few years at least:

Staley herself is on a GOAT run. In the last eight seasons, she’s won three national titles, been to two other Final Fours and lost a total of 12 conference games. That includes a 32-1 record in 2019, when COVID-19 canceled the NCAA Tournament. Shorten that span to the last three seasons and Staley is 109-3 (47-1 in SEC play 🤯) with two titles. She is the best coach in women’s college hoops right now, bar none.
Clark’s impact on this game is unmistakable. There has been so much chatter for the past week about whether Clark needed a title to be considered the best women’s college basketball player of all time. That’s probably accurate. But no one — as Staley herself alluded to — brought more eyeballs to this sport than Clark. It’s an objective fact she proved over and over again. She has nearly every scoring record. GOAT or not, her impact is unique in a very real sense of the word.

Clark’s turnaround is quick — she’s expected to go No. 1 overall to the Indiana Fever in next week’s WNBA Draft. Ticket sales are already spiking in anticipation of Clark’s arrival. Will she have a similar effect on the WNBA? Feels likely. She’s already done it once.

News to Know

MLB, MLBPA tussle over pitch clock
A day after the MLBPA blamed the pitch clock for pitcher injuries, the league slammed the notion in a fierce statement yesterday, saying the MLBPA’s screed “ignores the empirical evidence” involved with the pitch clock. It instead blamed the new rash of ailments on pitchers reaching higher velocities and spin rates. The entire back-and-forth is worth a read.

Rojas mad at grass
Dodgers infielder Miguel Rojas was furious with the damp turf at Wrigley Field yesterday, which featured puddles throughout the infield early in LA’s 8-1 loss to the Cubs. Multiple Dodgers, including Rojas, struggled with ground balls sloshing along the grass. It did not slow the Cubs’ offense, though, which put up seven runs in the first four innings. Rojas was still furious after a three-hour delay and after the game.

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

That’s Manchester City U-17 player David Chigwada pulling off a new move I had to watch about 44 times in order to make sense of it. Elias Burke, who knows soccer much better than I, explained every frame in a great piece Friday, which matriculated through the stateside sports internet over the weekend.

If I were the defender I would simply walk off the pitch and never play again.

Watch This Game

NHL: Penguins at Maple Leafs
7 p.m. ET on ESPN+
This is one of two NHL games tonight, both with playoff implications. Toronto is in while Pittsburgh controls its destiny. Five games left.

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

Try not to well up while reading Dan Pompei’s profile of Adisa Isaac, the Penn State defensive end who enters the NFL with a bigger mission on his mind.

Speaking of MLB pitcher injuries, Andy McCullough reports there is very real fear in the sport about keeping young pitchers healthy.

“One Shining Moment” is a Final Four staple, but for its creator, David Barrett, it’s a miracle that started with a pretty waitress and Larry Bird as inspiration. Fun story.

Brody Miller has a really intriguing piece about Joaquinn Niemann, who may be the most interesting story on the LIV Tour right now. He’s someone to watch this week at Augusta.

Most-clicked in the newsletter yesterday: Dallas’ mayor is campaigning to add the Chiefs as DFW residents. Hm.

Most-read on the website yesterday: Jim Trotter wrote a strong column about Cynthia Cooper, who surprisingly reappeared this past weekend. If she wants to return to basketball, as Jim writes, more needs to be done.