The John Calipari-Wisconsin Ripple Effect

With the news breaking overnight that longtime Kentucky coach John Calipari would be taking a new job at Arkansas, a ripple effect has been triggered.

John Calipari is very well known to Wisconsin fans. His Kentucky squad squared off against the Badgers in back-to-back to NCAA tournaments, winning the first time, and losing in epic fashion the second to ruin Big Blue’s 38-0 season. And now it’s reported that Coach Cal is on his way to Arkansas. So what does that have anything to do with Wisconsin?

Star AJ Storr announced his intentions to join the transfer portal last week, and his target schools were reportedly Kansas, Illinois and Kentucky among others. Kansas has already been rumored to not be willing to meet Storr’s steep $1million NIL price tag according to Chas Wolfe, which has almost certainly reduced his potential suitors. And now with Kentucky’s future completely up in the air, it leaves Storr with the likely landing place of Big Ten rival Illinois.

As painful as it would have been to see Storr leave for Kentucky, it may feel even worse seeing him running around the Kohl Center in orange next season. But with his other potential destinations drying up, it seems all but certain Storr will be suiting up for the Illini in 2024-25.

I’m sure the very first thing Calipari thought of when he took the Arkansas job was, “How can I get back at the Badgers one more time? I know, I’ll send AJ to Illinois to beat them in the conference tournament.” Well congrats Coach, you’ve all but sealed AJ Storr’s fate. Obviously fans will still hope for Storr to find success, just not against us in the now inevitable matchup.