Texas may be trying to steal John Calipari from Kentucky

John Calipari has been at Kentucky since 2009 and he's led the Wildcats to a wild (pun intended) amount of success.

Kentucky is one of the best programs in college basketball, largely due to Calipari's ability to recruit many of the top recruits in the country on a yearly basis. It's not surprising, then, that when a big-time job opens up -- such as the gig of head basketball coach at Texas -- Calipari's name is in the echelon of coaches that Texas would like to snag.

“A source has told me that Texas has contacted Calipari already through back channels,” 247 Sports recruiting analyst Travis Branham wrote on a VIP forum, per kentucky.com's Ben Roberts. “I do suspect that if a competitive offer is made then Cal would likely jump at it.”

Texas is looking for a new head coach after the program parted ways with Chris Beard, who had been suspended without pay since mid-December after a domestic family violence charge.

Roberts mentioned a few other candidates for the Texas job, a list that includes Kelvin Sampson from Houston, Scott Drew from Baylor, Nate Oats from Alabama, Jay Wright, who just retired from Villanova, and former UT player turned NBA assistant coach Royal Ivey.

That's a solid list of targets, but Calipari would no doubt be a crown jewel for the Longhorns if they can lure him away from Lexington.