Kentucky Basketball: Cats scratch, claw Bulldogs behind Tschiebwe’s 21 and 22

John Calipari joins elite coaching company with 800th victory

Calipari works tirelessly to get the most out of his players and he too achieved quite the milestone with victory No. 800.

His overall record is 800-237 spanning back to his first coaching season in 1988 at Massachusetts.

These are counted as overall actual on the court wins. The NCAA however vacated seasons at UMASS and Memphis due to eligibility issues surrounding Marcus Camby and Derrick Rose. They officially have him at 759 wins.

But let’s just focus on the actual on-court wins.

He now becomes just the 13th Division I head basketball coach to achieve this win achievement. Out of that group, there are four others still on the sidelines that include Jim Boeheim, Mike Krzyzewski, Bob Huggins, and Jim Calhoun.

This is the final season for Coach K, and likely Boeheim and Calhoun will hang it up soon.

At Kentucky, Calipari is 355-97 a .785 win percentage. This might be another team that could earn Cal another shot at a National Championship.

Ever the humble one Calipari made note of the achievement after the game.

"It means I’ve been doing this a long time. I’ve had a lot of good players. Publicly, I’d like to thank all those players from UMass, all those players from Memphis, and all those players here that have won all these games. When you’re coaching good kids and when families entrust you with their sons, you’re blessed. And to be in this job with this fan base, I am blessed. I’ve been doing this a long time, like 30-some years. I’m 56 now, but I started young. I was 18 when I first got my first job."

For all his critics out there just be thankful we have a coach who cares and loves what he does. There are still 11 more regular-season games to go, the SEC Tournament and the NCAA Tournament. How many more can he notch in the win column?

Kentucky takes on Kansas this Saturday in the Big 12/SEC Challenge in Lawrence.