John Calipari on going 38-0: 'If it's done, it will be us'
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. -- Kentucky coach John Calipari said the only team that could replicate last season's 38 straight wins would be the Wildcats, but even that could be a reach.
Calipari, in an interview with ESPN on Thursday at the Basketball Hall of Fame, into which he will be inducted Friday night, said the Wildcats' 38 straight wins in 2014-15 -- before a loss to Wisconsin in the Final Four -- will go down in history.
"I think the challenge now is, can anybody be 38-0? I don't think so," Calipari said. "If it's done, it will be us. But I just don't believe anybody can do it. I just lived it."
Calipari said the undefeated run, through the regular season and SEC tournament to the national semifinals, will be remembered more than some previous champions.
"No disrespect to anybody, but who was the national champion two years ago, three years ago, four years ago?" Calipari said. "38-0, that's going to go down. To take away from what my team did last year and say you didn't win it? We won 38 in a row to start. That won't ever be done again. I'm so proud of what they did."
A year ago, the preseason and season-long No. 1 Wildcats openly discussed going 40-0 before the loss in the national semifinals.
"I hate to say if we had lost a game we would probably have won the whole thing," Calipari said. "I just wanted to try and win all 40, and our kids did too. You didn't realize how much it all piles up."
The 56-year-old Calipari has coached three teams to 38 wins. The 2007-08 national runner-up Memphis Tigers, who started the season 26-0, won 38 games. Those victories were later vacated after the Educational Testing Service invalidated Derrick Rose's standardized test score, which meant he was ineligible during the one season he played for the Tigers, according to the NCAA. Kentucky also went 38-2 in 2011-12, when it won the national championship.
Calipari has led Kentucky to a title and four Final Four appearances in his first six seasons in Lexington. Despite having conversations with multiple NBA franchises, including the Cleveland Cavaliers, the past few seasons, Calipari said he has no plans to leave Kentucky.
Calipari said assistant coach Tony Barbee told him recently that he should coach Kentucky for another 10 seasons. He said his goal is to see his players dominate the NBA All-Star Game.
"Tony said, 'You've got 10 percent of the NBA and 15 percent of the top guys, and that could be 20 percent, so why wouldn't you just do this?' I said, 'I'm not going anywhere.'" Calipari said. "My goal would be to have half of the All-Star Game. Right now, I've got four out of 24. I need eight more guys in the next four to six years."
Calipari has coached All-Stars John Wall, DeMarcus Cousins and Anthony Davis at Kentucky and Rose at Memphis.
"I want to go to the All-Star Game and every basket is one of my guys," Calipari said. "That would be the ultimate."
