Calipari to Receive NABC Metropolitan Award

KANSAS CITY, Mo.  – One of only three coaches in history to lead a team to the NCAA Final Four four times in five years, University of Kentucky head coach John Calipari is the 2018 recipient of the Metropolitan Award presented by Nike for long and outstanding service to men’s college basketball.
 
The National Association of Basketball Coaches will present the storied award, first presented in 1941, to Calipari at the annual NABC Guardians of the Game Awards Show on Sunday, April 1, at 6:30 p.m. (CDT) at the Lila Cockrell Theater in the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center in San Antonio. The awards show will be live streamed on Facebook.
 
When Calipari guided Kentucky to the 2015 Final Four in Indianapolis, the Wildcats’ fourth appearance in five years, he joined John Wooden and Mike Krzyzewski as the only coaches in history to accomplish that feat.
 
That same year, Calipari joined Wooden and Krzyzewski as members of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, the 96th coach in history to receive that honor.
 
In his 26th season as a head coach in college basketball, the Moon Township, Pa., native has guided three programs, the University of Massachusetts, the University of Memphis and Kentucky, to a NCAA won-lost record of 673-201 heading into the SEC Tournament this week.  His record with the Wildcats is 270-63, a stellar winning percentage of .810.
 
In his first stint as a head coach at UMass, his teams won five Atlantic-10 Conference titles in eight seasons before he left the college ranks for three seasons to coach in the National Basketball Association.
 
Calipari returned to college basketball four years later and in nine seasons at Memphis led the Tigers to an NIT championship in just the second of his nine seasons and won five Conference USA titles.
 
He took over at Kentucky for the 2009-10 season and promptly guided the Wildcats to a 35-3 record, reaching the NCAA Elite Eight and followed with the historic run of Final Four appearances with Kentucky winning the national championship in 2012 and finishing as the runner-up in 2014.
 
Over the course of 25 seasons as a collegiate head coach, Calipari has helped 42 of his players earn selection in the NBA Draft.
 
Off the court, the Kentucky coach has raised millions of dollars to help those in need. With three telethons, he raised more than $1 million in 2010 to help victims of a devastating earthquake in Haiti; raised another $1 million in 2012 to aid those in need from Superstorm Sandy; and another for victims of Hurricane Harvey that generated $1 million.
 
Coach Cal’s foundation has also worked with and donated money to Samaritan’s Feet, the West Liberty Recovery Fund, 4 Paws for Ability, the Starkey Hearing Foundation, the Urban League of Lexington and the V Foundation. Calipari has also headed up the EverFi Financial Literacy Program, which teaches students across Kentucky the importance of money management.
 
The Metropolitan Award has a long and storied history, which began in New York City.  The Metropolitan Basketball Association presented its first Metropolitan Award in 1941 to legendary City College of New York coach Nat Holman and followed that a year later with Ned Irish, who first brought college basketball to Madison Square Garden.
 
Over eight decades, the most famous names in men’s college basketball have been honored with the award, including Adolph Rupp, Clair Bee, Henry Iba, John Wooden and Dave Gavitt.