The 65-year-old Calipari signed a five-year contract with an annual base salary of $7 million through April 2029 with a maximum of two automatic rollover years for NCAA Tournament appearances that would extend the contract to 2031.

The deal includes a $1 million signing bonus and features retention bonuses of $500,000 each year of the contract along with one-time bonuses for making the NCAA Tournament, reaching the second round, Sweet 16, Final Four and winning a national championship.

Kentucky had been paid Calipari $8.5 million annually.

Calipari is the winningest active coach in men’s college basketball, with a career record of 855-263 in stops at Massachusetts, Memphis and Kentucky. He has led his programs to six Final Fours and three national championship games. He has won numerous awards, including AP Coach of the Year in 2015.

Arkansas vice chancellor and director of athletics Hunter Yurachek announced Calipari’s hiring in a news release on Wednesday. Yurachek noted Calipari’s reputation as an elite recruiter and success in the Southeastern Conference as contributing factors for the hire.

“As I visited with coach Calipari during this process, he acknowledged the tremendous opportunity we have at the University of Arkansas to attract and retain top players and compete for championships,” Yurachek said in a statement.

An introductory news conference is scheduled for Wednesday evening in Fayetteville.

Calipari replaces Eric Musselman, who left for the job at Southern California. Calipari inherits a program that went 16-17 last season after three consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances, including the Sweet 16 a year ago and the Elite Eight in 2021 and 2022.

Arkansas, like Kentucky, has a rich history. The Razorbacks have been to six Final Fours, won the national title in 1994 and lost in the final in 1995.

Calipari announced that he was stepping down as Kentucky coach on Tuesday, saying in a video that the program “needs to hear another voice.”

He left the Wildcats after going 410-123 in 15 years, including 23-10 this past season. But the past few campaigns have been disappointing by Kentucky standards with a 1-3 mark in its last three NCAA trips, including first-round losses to No. 14 seed Oakland last month and No. 15 seed Saint Peter’s two years ago. The Wildcats were top-three seeds both times.

The most recent NCAA loss set off immediate calls to fire Calipari before athletic director Mitch Barnhart stated soon after that Calipari would return next season. Doing so would’ve triggered a buyout of more than $33 million to dismiss him under the terms of a 10-year, “lifetime” contract signed in 2019.

Money is no longer an issue for Kentucky with Calipari’s announcement and Arkansas’ seismic move that at first glance makes the Razorbacks immediate SEC contenders given the coach’s track record. Kentucky won six conference tournament championships and six regular season titles, though it hasn’t won the tournament title since 2017.

“It was my dream job,” Calipari said in the video. “Anybody in our profession looks at the University of Kentucky in basketball and said, ‘that is the bluest of blue.’ The last few weeks we’ve come to realize that this program probably needs to hear another voice that the university as a whole has to have another voice giving guidance about this program that they hear and the fans need to hear.”

Credit: AP

The selected coaches form part of the Africa Coaches Program, which builds on NBA Africa’s and Basketball Africa League’s (BAL) commitment to building the capacity and expertise of coaches from across the continent, improving the quality of the on-court product, and contributing to the continued growth of basketball in Africa. Several of the coaches represent teams that have participated in the BAL

Below is the complete list of African coaches participating in NBA 2K24 Summer League and the NBA teams coaching staffs they have joined:

Driss Akil (Morocco, Charlotte Hornets)
Mavita Ali (Uganda, San Antonio Spurs)
Jacque Bahige (Rwanda, Indiana Pacers)
Sergio Cristovao (Angola, Milwaukee Bucks)
Wal Deng (South Sudan, Portland Trail Blazers)
Carlos Dezanove (Mozambique, LA Clippers)
Ibrahim El Gammal (Egypt, Denver Nuggets)
Ahmed Elgarhi (Egypt, Miami Heat)
Zakaria Elliasmine (Morocco, Atlanta Hawks)
Francois Enyegue (Cameroon, Orlando Magic)
Samba Fall (Senegal, Atlanta Hawks)
Zied Kachaou (Tunisia, Oklahoma City Thunder)
William Kosangue (Central African Republic, Memphis Grizzlies)
Mohamed Lamine Krideche (Algeria, Chicago Bulls)
Bley Leandre (Côte d’Ivoire, Dallas Mavericks)
Emmanuel Mavomo (Democratic Republic of the Congo, Utah Jazz)
Matar Mbodji (Senegal, Boston Celtics)
Moratiemang Junior Mmoloke (South Africa, Cleveland Cavaliers)
Abdulrahman Mohammed (Nigeria, Sacramento Kings)
Maxime Marius Mwiseneza (Rwanda, Philadelphia 76ers)
Karim Nesba (Morocco, Toronto Raptors)
Vincent Ntunja (South Africa, Minnesota Timberwolves)
Zedekia Otieno (Kenya, Washington Wizards)
Victor Samnick (Cameroon, New Orleans Pelicans)
Edison Saranga (Mozambique, Los Angeles Lakers)
Andrew Senyondwa (Uganda, New York Knicks)
Radhouane Slimane (Tunisia, Brooklyn Nets)
Luis Romero (Angola, Houston Rockets)

Credit: NBA

Following the game, BAL President Amadou Gallo Fall and FIBA Africa President Anibal Manave presented Al Ahly with the BAL Championship Trophy and Al Ahly forward Anunwa “Nuni” Omot with The Hakeem Olajuwon Trophy for winning the 2023 BAL Most Valuable Player Award.  Omot recorded per game averages of 18.9 points, 3.5 rebounds and 2.1 assists during the season.

Al Ahly went 7-1 during the Nile Conference group phase and Playoffs, defeating Rwanda Energy Group and Mali’s Stade Malien in the quarterfinals and semifinals, respectively, to advance to the Finals.  Stade Malien defeated Angola’s Club Atlético Petróleos de Luanda (Petro de Luanda) 73-65 in the third-place game yesterday.

Notable attendees throughout the 2023 BAL Playoffs and Finals included NBA Deputy Commissioner and Chief Operating Officer Mark Tatum; FIBA President Hamane Niang; FIBA Secretary General Andreas Zagklis; NBA Africa CEO Victor Williams; Fall; Manave; FIBA Africa Executive Director Alphonse Bilé; Toronto Raptors Vice-Chairman and Team President Masai Ujiri; Academy Award-winning actor, social activist and NBA Africa investor Forest Whitaker; BAL Ambassadors and NBA Africa investors Luol Deng (South Sudan), Joakim Noah (grandfather from Cameroon) and Ian Mahinmi (France; ties to Benin); and New York Knicks President of G League Operations Pops Mensah-Bonsu (Ghana).

The league has also announced several end-of-season awards, some of which honor pioneering African NBA legends:

2023 BAL Coach of the Year

AS Douanes head coach Mamadou Gueye led his team to a 3-2 record in the Sahara Conference group phase before defeating Mozambique’s Clube Ferroviário da Beira (CFV-Beira) and Petro de Luanda to advance to the Finals.  Gueye becomes the first African-born coach to win the award.

2023 BAL Defensive Player of the Year

Stade Malien center Aliou Diarra received The Dikembe Mutombo Trophy after helping his team to a 5-3 record and recording per game averages of 18.3 points, 12.8 rebounds and 2.3 blocks.

2023 BAL Sportsmanship Award

CFV-Beira guard Will Perry received The Manute Bol Trophy for exemplifying the ideals of sportsmanship and camaraderie.

2023 All-BAL First Team

2023 All-BAL Defensive Team

The voting panels were comprised of coaches, team captains, media and broadcasters in attendance and varied for each award.  The 2023 BAL Ubuntu Award, which is awarded to an individual or organization that has made an impact on the local community during the BAL season, will be announced at a later date.

The 2023 BAL season once again featured the top 12 club teams from 12 African countries playing a total of 38 games in Dakar, Senegal; Cairo, Egypt; and Kigali, Rwanda over three months. 

Champions from the national leagues in Angola, Egypt, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal and Tunisia earned their participation in the 2023 BAL season by winning their respective national leagues. 

The remaining six teams, which came from Ivory Coast, Guinea, Mali, Mozambique, South Africa and Uganda, secured their participation through the Road to the BAL qualifying tournaments conducted by FIBA Africa across the continent from October to November 2022.

Credit: AIPS 

Credit: AIPS

Perisic who left after he led Monastir to victory in May 2022, joined Al Ittihad Alexandria of the Egyptian Basketball Super League one month later.

The Serbian was reportedly sacked four months later by the Alexandria Federation after the team’s exit from the Arab Basketball Club Championship in Kuwait where Al Ittihad lost in the quarter-final against Kazma of Kuwait, 101-106.

Perisic who is back for his second spell with the Tunisian club says he chose to return because it’s a team he knows very well.

“When I finished the season with Monastir last year I chose some other club then I had some family issues and I could not work for a couple of months,” Perisic revealed.

“The club asked me to rejoin because I know most of the players. I am very happy to be back.”

US Monastir will hope to become the first club to successfully retain their BAL title which they won in 2022.

But Perisic has refused to be drawn on whether Monastir can defend their title as he remained modest about his target.

“The best way to defend something is to be focused everyday and the best way is to try to win it game by game.

“Our main target is to go to Rwanda for the playoffs but we will try to defend the title. Our target now is to pass this stage,” said Perisic.

The Tunisian champions recorded their first win in the Sahara Conference as they dug deep to beat a resilient Stade Malien 78-68 on Sunday in Dakar.

Jerome Randle (18), Ibrahima Thomas (11), and Oussama Marnaoui (12) all combined for 41 points but Monastir turned the ball over 21 times.

US Monastir’s last defeat in the BAL was against Rwanda Energy Group (REG) on March 14, 2022 in the Sahara Conference at the Dakar Arena.

The reigning champions have since maintained a four-game winning streak with four games left in the Sahara Conference.

They will hope to keep the streak going when they play Kwara Falcons of Nigeria in their second game on Wednesday, 15 March.

Credit: AIPS Media

Season three of the Basketball Africa League tips off on March 11 in Dakar, Senegal. Like the last edition, 12 teams from 12 African countries will play a total of 38 games over three months in three cities; Dakar, Cairo, and Kigali.

Of the 12, six automatically qualified for this season’s BAL while the other six had to go through qualifying tournaments.

The six teams with automatic spots are: Al Ahly (Egypt), As Douanes (Senegal), Petro de Luanda (Angola), Union Sportive Monastirienne (Tunisia), Rwanda Energy Group (Rwanda) and Kwara Falcons (Nigeria).

While Seydou Legacy Athlétique Club (Guinea), Abidjan Basket Club (Coted I’voire), Stade Malien de Bamako (Mali), Cape Town Tigers (South Africa), City Oilers Basketball (Uganda) and Ferroviario da Beira (Mozambique) made it to the BAL from the qualifiers.

Interestingly, there will be five debutants in season three of the Basketball Africa League – Al Ahly, Kwara Falcons, ABC, Stade de Bamako and City Oilers Basketball.

Let’s take a look at each of the 12 teams and how they made it to season three of the Basketball Africa League.

Union Sportive Monastirienne (Tunisia)

Reigning champions, US Monastir will be making their third appearance at the BAL, one of the two teams to do so. They picked one of the automatic spots after they emerged champions of the Tunisian league.

Monastir finished second behind Ezzahra in the regular season of the Championnat National A (CNA) but defeated the latter 3-1 in the playoffs to win their seventh Tunisian league title.

Petro de Luanda (Angola)

Angola second most successful team, Petro de Luanda won the Angolan Men’s Basketball League beating Interclube in the best-of-five series to qualify to the BAL for a third consecutive season.

Petro won the regular season of 26 games without defeat. They went on to defeat Casa do Pessoal do Porto do Lobito (CPPL) and Primeiro de Agosto in the quarter final and semi final respectively before they triumphed over Interclube to be crowned champions of Angola for the 15th time.

Brazilian Jose Neto who has been in charge since 2020 returns to the BAL, a year after losing the 2022 final to US Monastir.

Rwanda Energy Group (Rwanda)

Rwanda Energy Group (REG) Basketball retained the Rwanda Basketball League title after beating Patriots to take the series 3-2. The win earned them an automatic slot to the 2023 Basketball Africa League.

It was the first time REG will defend a trophy they won in 2021 in what has now become a fierce rivalry with Patriots locally.

REG reached the quarterfinal of the 2022 BAL where they lost to FAP of Cameroon, but can they go one better this year?

Al Ahly (Egypt)

This will be Al Ahly’s debut at the Basketball Africa League after missing out on the first two editions to local rivals, Zamalek.

Al Ahly picked one of the automatic slots to the BAL following their victory in the final of the Egyptian Basketball Super League beating Al Ittihad of Alexandria 3-2 in the best of five series.

The Red Devils as they are fondly called reached the final after thrashing El-Gezira 3-0 (80-61,76-62, 87-65) while Al Ittihad had to overcome Zamalek 3-0 (97-53, 73-68, 79-59) to set up a highly anticipated clash.

The title is Al Ahly’s sixth in their history.

AS Douanes (Senegal)

AS Douanes will be returning to the BAL after beating their arch rivals Dakar University Club (DUC) 2-0 in the Nationale 1 Masculin (Senegal Men’s Basketball league) playoffs to grab their 10th title in their history.

The Senegalese Customs team finished in the quarter final of the inaugural edition of the BAL after they struggled to go past US Monastir.

Kwara Falcons (Nigeria)

Following their 78-53 win over Nigeria Customs in the final game of the Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF) Final 8, Kwara Falcons will be making their debut at this year’s BAL.

Victory over Nigeria Customs saw them pick one of the six automatic spots to the BAL.

Falcons defeated Benue Braves 83-59 while Customs overcame former Nigerian champions Rivers Hoopers 64-59 in the semifinals.

The BAL season three will see the return of a Nigerian team to the elite League after a year out due to leadership crisis in the NBBF.

Abidjan Basket Club (Coted I’voire)

14 teams participated in the 2022 Basketball Africa League qualifying tournament tagged “Road to BAL”and ABC were in group A of the West Division held in Niamey, Niger.

The champions of the Ivorian Basketball Championship finished unbeaten (3-0) in the group stage that had Stade Malien, Elan Coton and host Nigelec.

They however managed one win out of their three group games in the West Division of the BAL Elite 16 which was enough to see them through to the semis were they defeated Stade Malien for a second time in the qualifiers and qualified for the 2023 BAL.

ABC crowned their BAL qualification with victory over SLAC in the final to emerge champions of the West Division.

Cape Town Tigers (South Africa)

With the six automatic slots already filled, Cape Town Tigers were one of the teams who jostled for the remaining six spots to the 2023 BAL edition.

They didn’t go through the Basketball Africa League qualifying tournament but went straight to the Elite 16 Round as one of the seven teams who played the last edition of the BAL and are champions in their countries.

The South African team edged City Oilers 75-69 in a thrilling semi final game before they overcame Ferroviario da Beira in the final to emerge Elite 16, East Division champions with a 4-1 record.

Ferroviario da Beira (Mozambique)

Ferroviario also went straight into the Elite 16 as one of the teams who played in last season’s BAL.

They finished with a 2-1 record in the group stage, their only loss was against City Oilers of Uganda.

The Mozambican champions qualified from the East division after they defeated Urunani 68-62 in the semifinal.

Seydou Legacy Athlétique Club (Guinea)

Seydou Legacy Athlétique Club (SLAC) are making a return to the Basketball Africa League for a second consecutive season. Like Cape Town Tigers and Ferroviario Beira, SLAC made it straight to the Elite 16 of the BAL.

SLAC finished second in Group B of the West division with a 2-1 record and went on to beat Bangui Sporting Club 69-61 in the semi final which earned them a spot in the 2023 Basketball Africa League.

Stade Malien de Bamako (Mali)

Stade Malien started the qualification to the BAL in Group A of the road to BAL qualifying tournament in Niamey. They won two and lost one against Abidjan Basket Club.

The next stage of the qualifying tournament called the “Elite 16 Division” was a smooth ride for the Malians as they kept a 100% record.

Despite winning all three games in Group B of the Elite 16 division, Stade Malien left it late to qualify for the BAL.

The Malian side lost 63-80 to the eventual champions of the West Division, ABC in the semis. They however dug deep to pick the last slot when they defeated Bangui 62-59 in the third-place game.

City Oilers Basketball (Uganda)

City Oilers made history as they became the first team from Uganda to qualify for the Basketball Africa League when they picked the last ticket in the East Division. They held on to defeat the champions of Burundi, Urunani 71-62 in the third place game.

COB who had a 2-1 record in the group stage of the road to BAL, were unbeaten in the group stage of the Elite 16 (3-0) but lost to Cape Town Tigers in the semis.

The Ugandans had to battle for the remaining BAL ticket in the third place game of the East Division.

BAL IN Lagos, which took place on Saturday 4 February, was put together to sensitise the public about the activities of the Basketball Africa League (BAL) season 3 which is scheduled to tip off in Dakar on March 11.

Twelve teams from 12 African countries will compete for one trophy for three months.

British renowned supermodel and business woman, Naomi Campbell was the special guest of honour alongside BAL President, Amadou Gallo Fall and Gbemisola Abudu, NBA Africa Vice President and Country Head, NBA Nigeria.

President of the Nigeria Basketball Federation, Musa Kida alongside former NBA players Olumide Oyedeji and Obinna Ekezie were also in attendance. During his address, BAL President Amadou Gallo Fall said: “Since we completed our second season in Kigali last year we have been on the road building the momentum signing some players and coaches in Las Vegas in the NBA Summer league as part of our capacity building.

“In September we launched this event just like the BAL in Lagos. We did it in Accra, Abidjan and recently Paris.”

Newly crowned champions of the Nigeria Premier Basketball League, Kwara Falcons are one of the contenders for BAL season 3.

Credit: AIPS Media