Steve Serby
John Calipari Photo: Getty Images
Lou Carnesecca is in a league of his own, a Hall of Fame coach, and a Hall of Fame man. In our town without pity, he charmed the most hard-boiled and suspicious among us. And it wasn't an act.
Inside the Big Blue Commonwealth, it is the same way with John Calipari. He can do no wrong. He is the royal king of college basketball. He recruits nine McDonald's All-Americas at a time, gets them to check their egos at the door and play smart and play together and if all goes well, they get to cut down the nets and gaze up at their "One Shining Moment" at the end of their one and only year at the school before diving into the NBA pot at the end of the rainbow. Hell, he even showed them there was life after Rick Pitino.
But once you leave the Bluegrass State, it often seems like a virtual Secretariat Kentucky Derby romp to the finish line for the field of haters.
John Calipari: The Coach They Love to Hate.
Who is They, you ask? They is more than a few rival coaches. They is more than a few media members.
They is the NCAA. They is Bobby Knight, who would sooner participate on "Dancing With the Stars" than watch Calipari become the first coach to fashion a perfect season since he did it with the 1976 Indiana Hoosiers.
"We've gotten into this situation where integrity is really lacking and that's why I'm glad I'm not coaching," Knight railed six years ago. "You see we've got a coach at Kentucky who put two schools on probation and he's still coaching. I really don't understand that."
Yes, Calipari beat the NCAA infractions posse out of town at UMass and Memphis, so it stands to reason his trust quotient dips once you leave Lexington. Pete Carroll beat the NCAA infractions posse out of USC, but his jumping around on the sidelines as if he has a hot foot and generally acting like a 15-year-old - whoopie! - leaves fewer naysayers perceiving him as evil, or diabolical.
Calipari doesn't do Energizer Bunny, and he sure doesn't do warm and cuddly. He is The Coach They Love to Hate in part because he does cutthroat. Does haughty. Does smug. Does confrontational. Does my way or the highway. Does say whatever the hell you want, I don't bleeping care. Does smartest guy in the room, even though he sometimes is. Does the lead role in Wolf Of Ball Street.
Calipari with his Kentucky squad after knocking off Notre Dame.Photo: AP
He is The Coach They Love to Hate to a large degree because he does winning. Big winning, and winning big.
So you add it all up, and what you have is a great coach who a lot of people wish wasn't great.
Iowa coach Fran McCaffery isn't one of them.
"I think in a lot of ways, he's been a visionary," McCaffery said. "He's done things a little bit different, and he's been successful. Some people don't like the guys that are really successful. I respect the guys that are really successful."
But John Wooden was wildly successful, and revered instead of reviled. Same with Dean Smith. If you hate Coach K, it's probably because you hate Duke. Calipari could probably use the boorish Knight around to deflect the hate - lots of people wanted to toss a chair at him.
Maybe some people have a can't-miss likability gene, and some don't.
"I don't know the answer, I really don't," said Howard Garfinkel, who remembers Calipari fondly as a high-school sophomore camper, then a counselor, then a coach at the legendary Five-Star Basketball Camp that Garfinkel started in 1966. "He's obviously annoyed some people - I don't know how or why.
"Maybe because he wins."
Mike KrzyzewskiPhoto: Getty Images
It isn't Calipari's fault his program makes a mockery of the term student-athlete, he's just beating the system. And beating it good, 38-0 good entering Saturday night's Final Four showdown with Wisconsin. Even the great Coach K has seen the one-and-done light. This used to be called "keeping up with the Joneses." Now it's keeping up with the Caliparis, whether they like it or not. And they don't. But they've learned they have no choice. How would Nike like it if they stopped winning?
"You don't know when you recruit a kid if he's going to leave after a year," Calipari said Thursday. "You don't know. You just coach them, then they make a decision what they want to do. We just try to make sure we make this about the kids. The reason things are different, 20 years ago NBA contracts were $125,000. Now if you're a top-10 pick, it's $25 million. Your next contract may be $80 million. That's $100 million. You have to respect that. You have to respect these kids' genius. You have to develop young people."
But, often, only for one year.
"I think everybody's now looking at this saying, 'It's not my rule,' " Calipari said. "As a matter of fact, it's not the NCAA's rule. This is a rule between the NBA and the Players' Association."
Calipari made it on last year's Sports Illustrated's 35 Most Disliked People in Sports list along with such notables as Alex Rodriguez, Lance Armstrong and Rutgers AD Julie Hermann:
"Calipari wins and recruits wherever he goes. He's also left a trail of NCAA violations in his wake at UMass and Memphis. His position at the forefront of college basketball's 'One-and-Done' era of recruiting have made him reviled among hoops traditionalists."
Never mind that long before One And Done, Temple coach John Chaney wanted to kill him.
For crying out loud, there is an I HATE JOHN CALIPARI Facebook page.
Maybe it would help if he showed up one night in a hideous good luck sweater, speak in a raspy voice, and compare one of his imminent pros to Paganini. Maybe.
John Calipari Photo: Getty ImagesLou Carnesecca is in a league of his own, a Hall of Fame coach, and a Hall of Fame man. In our town without pity, he charmed the most hard-boiled and suspicious among us. And it wasn't an act.
Inside the Big Blue Commonwealth, it is the same way with John Calipari. He can do no wrong. He is the royal king of college basketball. He recruits nine McDonald's All-Americas at a time, gets them to check their egos at the door and play smart and play together and if all goes well, they get to cut down the nets and gaze up at their "One Shining Moment" at the end of their one and only year at the school before diving into the NBA pot at the end of the rainbow. Hell, he even showed them there was life after Rick Pitino.
But once you leave the Bluegrass State, it often seems like a virtual Secretariat Kentucky Derby romp to the finish line for the field of haters.
John Calipari: The Coach They Love to Hate.
Who is They, you ask? They is more than a few rival coaches. They is more than a few media members.
They is the NCAA. They is Bobby Knight, who would sooner participate on "Dancing With the Stars" than watch Calipari become the first coach to fashion a perfect season since he did it with the 1976 Indiana Hoosiers.
"We've gotten into this situation where integrity is really lacking and that's why I'm glad I'm not coaching," Knight railed six years ago. "You see we've got a coach at Kentucky who put two schools on probation and he's still coaching. I really don't understand that."
Yes, Calipari beat the NCAA infractions posse out of town at UMass and Memphis, so it stands to reason his trust quotient dips once you leave Lexington. Pete Carroll beat the NCAA infractions posse out of USC, but his jumping around on the sidelines as if he has a hot foot and generally acting like a 15-year-old - whoopie! - leaves fewer naysayers perceiving him as evil, or diabolical.
Calipari doesn't do Energizer Bunny, and he sure doesn't do warm and cuddly. He is The Coach They Love to Hate in part because he does cutthroat. Does haughty. Does smug. Does confrontational. Does my way or the highway. Does say whatever the hell you want, I don't bleeping care. Does smartest guy in the room, even though he sometimes is. Does the lead role in Wolf Of Ball Street.
Calipari with his Kentucky squad after knocking off Notre Dame.Photo: AP
He is The Coach They Love to Hate to a large degree because he does winning. Big winning, and winning big.
So you add it all up, and what you have is a great coach who a lot of people wish wasn't great.
Iowa coach Fran McCaffery isn't one of them.
"I think in a lot of ways, he's been a visionary," McCaffery said. "He's done things a little bit different, and he's been successful. Some people don't like the guys that are really successful. I respect the guys that are really successful."
But John Wooden was wildly successful, and revered instead of reviled. Same with Dean Smith. If you hate Coach K, it's probably because you hate Duke. Calipari could probably use the boorish Knight around to deflect the hate - lots of people wanted to toss a chair at him.
Maybe some people have a can't-miss likability gene, and some don't.
"I don't know the answer, I really don't," said Howard Garfinkel, who remembers Calipari fondly as a high-school sophomore camper, then a counselor, then a coach at the legendary Five-Star Basketball Camp that Garfinkel started in 1966. "He's obviously annoyed some people - I don't know how or why.
"Maybe because he wins."
Mike KrzyzewskiPhoto: Getty Images
It isn't Calipari's fault his program makes a mockery of the term student-athlete, he's just beating the system. And beating it good, 38-0 good entering Saturday night's Final Four showdown with Wisconsin. Even the great Coach K has seen the one-and-done light. This used to be called "keeping up with the Joneses." Now it's keeping up with the Caliparis, whether they like it or not. And they don't. But they've learned they have no choice. How would Nike like it if they stopped winning?
"You don't know when you recruit a kid if he's going to leave after a year," Calipari said Thursday. "You don't know. You just coach them, then they make a decision what they want to do. We just try to make sure we make this about the kids. The reason things are different, 20 years ago NBA contracts were $125,000. Now if you're a top-10 pick, it's $25 million. Your next contract may be $80 million. That's $100 million. You have to respect that. You have to respect these kids' genius. You have to develop young people."
But, often, only for one year.
"I think everybody's now looking at this saying, 'It's not my rule,' " Calipari said. "As a matter of fact, it's not the NCAA's rule. This is a rule between the NBA and the Players' Association."
Calipari made it on last year's Sports Illustrated's 35 Most Disliked People in Sports list along with such notables as Alex Rodriguez, Lance Armstrong and Rutgers AD Julie Hermann:
"Calipari wins and recruits wherever he goes. He's also left a trail of NCAA violations in his wake at UMass and Memphis. His position at the forefront of college basketball's 'One-and-Done' era of recruiting have made him reviled among hoops traditionalists."
Never mind that long before One And Done, Temple coach John Chaney wanted to kill him.
For crying out loud, there is an I HATE JOHN CALIPARI Facebook page.
Maybe it would help if he showed up one night in a hideous good luck sweater, speak in a raspy voice, and compare one of his imminent pros to Paganini. Maybe.
