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LINCICOME: Calipari is on defensive

By Bernie Lincicome, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published April 6, 2008 at 8:03 p.m.

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No longer the hotshot boy wonder who was at this same place with an even unlikelier team, John Calipari is still all hustle and hogwash, about as academic as an earwig.

The coach of Memphis once took Marcus Camby and the ramshackle program of the University of Massachusetts to the Final Four, only to have his appearance in 1996 vacated because Camby took money from an agent while in school.

So, Calipari, technically speaking, is a first-timer here, like a bride whose six-month marriage is annulled can still technically be called a maiden.

(Coincidence is nothing without a sense of humor. The last time Memphis made the Final Four, in 1985, it was stripped of its appearance for recruiting violations and its coach, Dana Kirk, eventually went to prison for tax evasion.)

Though not found at fault for Camby's indiscretions, Calipari invariably leaves the impression that such things might be expected around him, and what will come of this Memphis team can't be known.

Assorted incidents have involved present players from assault to disorderly conduct to inciting a riot, giving the team a reputation as undisciplined thugs.

A reserve guard, Andre Allen, was left off the Final Four roster for violating team rules, which has been reported as flunking an NCAA drug test.

"There's a misconception about us off the court," said guard Chris Douglas-Roberts. "People judge us who don't really know us. The biggest misconception has nothing to do with basketball; it's us as people.

"Negativity just bounces off us. We don't pay attention to it. We just go out and play."

And they play very well, which is off the point.

"Some will put a (police) blotter together," said Calipari, conceding how easy it is to do. "Do they screw up? Sure, every once in awhile. Do they do something dumb? Yes, like our own children.

"Remember this. These players aren't coming from families and cultures where they're on third base. They're starting from the dugout and they're going to make mistakes sometimes.

"Have any of you screwed up? Look back and say, 'I did some of the dumbest things.' The good news for all of us is that there wasn't an Internet and there wasn't phones with cameras on 'em and there wasn't cameras at every establishment we went into when we screwed up and did dumb things."

Ah, the getting caught is the bad news. That's a life lesson.

Calipari had a brief shot at the NBA, coaching the New Jersey Nets, only to be fired early in his third year.

"That's like being kicked down the stairs," said Calipari. "And people lined up to kick you faster."

His old friend and mentor, Larry Brown, took him in as an assistant with the Philadelphia 76ers (and Allen Iverson) until Memphis called.

Part of the Memphis story, most of it, is that this a team that has won 38 games, more than any college team ever, completely humbled the great North Carolina in the semifinals and does not have a player - other than freshman point guard Derrick Rose - who was widely sought by elite programs.

"In my time here," said Calipari, "I've had two, maybe three, McDonald's (high school) All-Americans. Some programs have seven or eight right now."

Among the teams in this all-No. 1 Final Four, only Memphis could make the slightest claim of being an outsider.

"I don't play 'Us against the world,' " said Calipari, playing that very thing.

This is a program that came back from hard times to glory in a very short time, not unlike Calipari himself.

It isn't that Calipari is shady, though he has gained the same reputation for slickness that Jerry Tarkanian once had; it is just that no matter how he professes to boost education (Memphis graduated no players before he got there, and now 17-of-19 four-year players have gotten degrees), basketball is all that truly matters.

He is not unusual in his focus on winning. All successful coaches are of like motivation.

It is just that Calipari seems so removed from the college platform.

A University of Oklahoma president once said that he hoped he could build a school the football team could be proud of; so, too, does that seem the order in Memphis.

"If I was at Stanford," said Calipari, trying to explain, "I would recruit a player who could be successful at Stanford. If I'm at Massachusetts, we graduated 80 percent of our players.

"I'm at Memphis. I'm recruiting players who can graduate from Memphis."

No insult intended, of course.

Comments

  • April 6, 2008

    9:05 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    den2mke writes:

    Um, didn't they beat UCLA in the semifinals, not North Carolina?

  • April 7, 2008

    7:42 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    Broncosfan75 writes:

    I am sure someone else will write in, but they didn't play UNC this year.