UK basketball notebook: Calipari just being himself

Calipari is making friends during his UK honeymoon, but he expects critics eventually

Jerry Tipton / Herald-Leader Staff Writer

Jerry Tipton

After a recent appearance on Joe B. Hall's radio show, new Kentucky coach John Calipari accompanied his predecessor to lunch. This caused quite a stir as Coach Cal not only palled around with Hall's regular "Lunch Bunch" but also greeted other patrons.

Before he departed, Calipari said goodbye not only to the Lunch Bunch but also walked over to others in a room full of newfound friends.

Suffice to say, Calipari is comfortable in the spotlight.

Good thing, given what the late Al McGuire said best: Being Kentucky coach is like being Wilt Chamberlain. You can never hide.

Calipari is not looking to hide.

"I'm going to be who I am," he said last week. That might mean going to McDonald's for a hamburger or having lunch at Panera Bread Company, he said. "I'm not going to change who I am.

"The option is you're 2-28, and they're not coming near you. I like the option of having to sign a few autographs and being bothered at the table occasionally."

Of course, Calipari is no stranger to the spotlight. In the 1990s, he made a mighty splash in college basketball by transforming UMass from nonentity to Final Four participant. Then, this decade, he returned a dormant Memphis program to national prominence.

Not all applauded in the cutthroat, who-needs-another-competitor world of college basketball.

"I'm a lightning rod," he said. "Part of it is because of not being under Dean Smith or Bobby Knight. And it's like, 'He took scraps and beat us. Well, there's no way.'"

Although his honeymoon as UK coach is in full flower, Calipari expects to have his critics. It should be noted that no coach can measure up fully to the program's magnificence. Even Adolph Rupp, who made the program magnificent, heard grumbles about the game passing him by late in his 42-year run.

"What you see is what you get," Calipari said. "... Some people like that and some don't like that." They say, "'He's brash.'

"No, I'm just being me.

"There will be some who don't like me. I'm a northern Italian. Or 'he talks too much.'"

But, Calipari added, " Everyone will love my wife."

Draft notices

UK big man Patrick Patterson, guard Jodie Meeks and other college underclassmen who test the NBA waters this year will have about six weeks to assess and, if necessary, improve their draft status.

Players have until next Sunday to enter their names in the NBA Draft.

Stu Jackson, executive vice president of basketball operations for the NBA, said the formal evaluation process of interviews and workouts will begin around May 4. Players have until June 15 to withdraw their names from the June 25 draft.

That process changes this year. Instead of five-on-five games at a pre-draft camp, the NBA will have a football-like combine where players will do skill work, be measured (height, weight, vertical leap), participate in interviews and undergo a medical exam.

Because so many players opted out of the pre-draft camp, the five-on-five activity served little purpose.

(By the way, NCAA rules permit NBA teams to pay for workouts as long as the player is enrolled as a full-time student, the evaluation does not last more than 48 hours and no class time is missed.)

Jackson serves as chairman of the NBA's Undergraduate Advisory Committee, a panel of nine "player personnel types" that tries to give prospects an idea of where they might be drafted, he said.

The committee tries to place prospects in one of four general categories: lottery pick, first-rounder, second-rounder and undrafted.

Jackson said the panel can be "pretty close" to 100 percent accurate in its projections. It's rare for a prospect projected, say, in the second round to be a lottery pick. A lottery projection falling to the second round has never happened, he said.

For what it's worth, projections by the NBAdraft.net and DraftExpress.com Web sites have had Meeks as a second-round pick. Those guesses would mean Meeks must use the evaluation process to greatly improve his stock.

"That happens frequently," Jackson said. "That's why we really encourage players who seek an evaluation to seek multiple evaluations."