Memphis has given Kentucky permission to speak to John Calipari about their head coach vacancy. Now, its just a matter of time before Calipari bolts for greener pastures in Lexington.

Kentucky looked a bit foolish letting Tubby Smith leave for Minnesota two years ago. All Tubby did in 10 seasons, was win 268 games, go 120-40 in the SEC, and oh yeah, win a national championship in 1998.

Smith's replacement, Billy Gillespie, had a couple nice teams at Texas A&M, but he only had coached at UTEP a couple years prior. If you are a prospective recruit, I think you would rather play for a coach like Smith over Gillespie just because of the experience he has which he can bestow upon you.

Now that they have dropped the ball on two occassions, expect Kentucky to do some damage control and hire Calipari. There are alot of upset boosters and the program is starting to take a step back, so they need to throw out the full court press on him if they want to return to prominence in the near future.

Its not a slam dunk that Calipari willl leave Memphis. Now that the NBA has increased the minimum age to play to 19, he often gets guys who intend to play in college one season (Derrick Rose, and very soon Tyreke Evans). Reason being, is that Memphis plays in a weaker conference, and so players have the opportunity to pad their stats a bit. Also, they do not get worn down as much as if they played in a upper echelon conference.

My money's on Kentucky landing Calipari. They are going to have their third coach in four years, so this hire has to be big name.

Michael Perry is an oddsmaker with Logans.com