John Calipari Elected into 2015 Basketball Hall of Fame

Kentucky head coach John Calipari has received enough votes to get inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as part of its 2015 class. 

Jeff Goodman of ESPN passed along the news one day after Wisconsin ended the Wildcats' bid for perfection in the NCAA tournament semifinals:

Evan Daniels of Scout.com first reported the news Saturday night, with Jerry Tipton of Kentucky.com passing along the official announcement of Calipari's election on Monday.

Calipari and his fellow 2015 inductees will be enshrined during a ceremony on Sept. 11.

Although the honor won't take away all of the sting from Saturday night's loss, it's a nice consolation prize for Calipari. It shows he's come a long way since going 10-18 in his first season as a head coach with Massachusetts in 1988-89.

In fact, Calipari hasn't had another losing season at the collegiate level since then. He's won better than 78 percent (635-178) of his games, covering stops with UMass, Memphis and Kentucky. He was also the head coach of the NBA's New Jersey Nets from 1996 to 1999.

Now 56, the Pennsylvania native has earned Naismith College Coach of the Year honors three times and won a national championship with Kentucky in 2012.