M. David Rudd, president at the University of Memphis, admitted he made a mistake in organizing an event to honor John Calipari in the middle of the basketball season.

Calipari, the former head men's basketball coach at Memphis, left the program in March of 2009 to take the same position at the University of Kentucky, where he has coached since. Rudd announced the ceremony to honor Calipari, which was slated to take place at a benefit dinner on Dec. 28, on Wednesday, The Associated Press reported.

The dinner was meant to honor Calipari for his induction into the College Basketball Hall of Fame.

Will be honoring Hall of Fame coach @UKCoachCalipari in Memphis, Dec 28-29. Stay tuned for details. Will be a great homecoming.

— Dr. M. David Rudd (@UofMemphisPres) September 9, 2015

Less than two hours after posting the announcement to his official Twitter account, Rudd acknowledged he was getting a great deal of responses from students and other Memphis community members. Later Wednesday, he began re-tweeting various messages that indicated Memphis students, alumni, and basketball fans were not pleased with the ceremony to honor Calipari.

On Thursday, Rudd released an official statement cancelling Calipari's ceremony and apologizing for scheduling it in the first place.

Here is my response to our University and Community. pic.twitter.com/A8yx1ZlVDd — Dr. M. David Rudd (@UofMemphisPres) September 10, 2015

"I apologize for the unnecessary upset, embarrassment and genuine distress generated by the issue of honoring Coach John Calipari on the occasion of his installation into the College Basketball Hall of Fame," Rudd wrote. "One of my treasured responsibilities is to protect the integrity of our great university, represent our students, faculty, staff, alumni and community."

Calipari coached at Memphis from 2000 to 2009, but had all of his 38 wins from the 2008 season vacated by the NCAA over an investigation probing whether or not the team's star point guard Derrick Rose's SAT score was invalid. Regardless, Calipari remembers his time at the school fondly.

"They gave me a chance to revive my career," he told The AP. "There's many friends that I have there that'll be here, and I'm excited for all the players that are going to be here, and it was a great time. My wife and I have many great friends, so it's good."