Kentucky guard Aaron Harrison's game-winning shot didn't just earn his Wildcats a surprise berth in the Final Four. It also earned his coaches a small fortune.
After the freshman guard sank a three-pointer with 2.3 seconds left to sink Michigan in the Elite Eight, Steve Berkowitz of USA Today sports reported that Kentucky coaches would come into a nice windfall.
Aaron Harrison's shot was worth nearly $330,000 in Final Four bonuses to #Kentucky men's basketball coaches and the athletics director
— Steve Berkowitz (@ByBerkowitz) March 30, 2014
As Deadspin reported, the Kentucky coaches' contracts are available online, and so the public can see just how much they each get for a Final Four berth. Here's the breakdown:
John Calipari: The Wildcats' head coach gets a $150,000 bonus, which is added on top of the two $100,000 bonuses that Calipari got when his team made it to the Sweet Sixteen and the Elite Eight.
Kenneth Payne, John Robic and Orlando Antigua: Calipari's assistants each get a bonus equal to two months salary. That's $58,333 for Payne ($350,000 a year), $50,000 for Robic ($300,000) and $45,833 for Antigua ($275,000).
That's quite a lot of money to hang in the balance of 19-year-old's three-pointer. And, of course, more bonuses will be on the line as the Wildcats vie for a second championship in three years. A victory in the championship game would be worth another $375,000 for Calipari.
Here's Harrison's shot:
According to Forbes, each of this year's Final Four coaches has earned at least $100,000 in tournament-related bonuses, with Calipari leading the pack. These kind of bonus payments will only serve to dial up the issue of the NCAA's insistence that so-called student-athletes remain amateurs.
