UK hoops notebook: Calipari as life coach?

UK hire is latest to dispense advice through self-help book

By Jerry Tipton / Herald-Leader Staff Writer

Youthful head coach. Celebrated Final Four run. Jump to the NBA. Embarrassing failure and firing. Resurrection as successful college coach.

The striking pattern of John Calipari following Rick Pitino's career footsteps continues with the release of the new Kentucky coach's self-help book. The book, titled Bounce Back: Overcoming Setbacks to Succeed in Business and in Life comes a year after Pitino produced Rebound Rules: The Art of Success 2.0.

Each book uses reversals in the coach's life to encourage readers to overcome obstacles. In that area, Pitino has the more compelling story to tell, having had to deal with the deaths of his best friend/brother-in-law in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and an infant son.

To illustrate his advice on how to overcome adversity, Calipari uses his firing as New Jersey Nets coach in 1999 and Memphis losing the 2008 national championship game despite leading by nine points with 2:12 left.

Although lacking the same emotional punch as Pitino's book, Calipari gives the reader interesting hints into what kind of person will lead UK basketball.

He writes his players letters in the pre-season to explain his expectations going forward and set a tone. He likes to schedule a non-conference opponent late in the season to help prepare for the NCAA Tournament. He has a metaphorical dog house for players. He'll reward good practices with a day off.

(Because Calipari's new, we'll excuse his misspelling Cawood Ledford's name as Caywood.)

UK fans can meet Calipari on Saturday when he's scheduled to do a book-signing at Lexington's Joseph-Beth Booksellers beginning at 6 p.m.

Of course, the primary point of the books is not biographical, but to help readers deal with adversity.

Calipari tells the reader, remember you're not alone, rely on a group of friends (which he calls a Kitchen Cabinet), and move forward.

On that latter point, he uses Tennessee Coach Bruce Pearl as an example. Without naming names, Calipari notes that a coach in Tennessee divorced his wife in a messy split that resulted in the ex-wife exacting revenge by opening a hair-and-nail salon called Alimony's.

Rise above the impulse to strike back, Calipari advises.

So, how valuable are self-help books?

Gerald Rosen, a professor at the University of Washington who chaired two American Psychological Association task forces looking into self-help books, said it was "conceivable" that coaches could give valuable advice.

"A good old wise coach, just like a wise old uncle, could give reasonable advice," he said.

Marion Jacobs, a clinical psychologist and retired professor at UCLA, said relying on friends, moving forward and realizing you're not alone were "well-known good points."

What makes a self-help book worthwhile is its ability to get the reader to do something truly difficult: Actually make the change that overcomes a problem.

"A lot of self-help books fall on their face at that point," Jacobs said. "They don't offer anything but a lot of advice."

Jacobs noted how strongly people resist change. "That's why New Year's resolutions fizzle," she said.

Neither Rosen nor Jacobs had read the Pitino book nor the Calipari book. So neither psychologist could make a value judgment.

Rosen acknowledged that the study of the effectiveness of self-help books has been grossly inadequate.

With a ton of self-help books on weight loss, personal finance, true love, etc. flooding the market, Rosen offered his own bit of advice for would-be coaches/authors.

"Instead of one coach writes a book and then the rival coach writes another book and eventually they die and new coaches are writing their books," he said, "what you might have is a committee of coaches put together their best thoughts of what they've learned."

Then, he added, experts could study the effectiveness of such collective wisdom. Future panels of coaches could make necessary revisions.

"You'd have an instructional product," he said.

Safeguards in place?

UK Athletics Director Mitch Barnhart declined to comment when the NCAA stripped Memphis of 38 victories and a Final Four appearance because of rules violations while John Calipari was coach.