UK hoops notebook: Calipari makes club's day

Coach will speak to Bluegrass Kiwanis Club on October 1

By Jerry Tipton / Herald-Leader Staff Writer

While the basketball world wonders if John Calipari will become the first coach to have two Final Four appearances vacated, the Kentucky coach can be assured of making a more uplifting bit of history this year.

He's agreed to become the first UK basketball coach to speak to the Bluegrass Kiwanis Club.

Member Paul Bimschleger's competitive spirit led to this bit of history. He noticed that Calipari had agreed to speak to the Lexington Rotary Club in the fall. The next morning, Bimschleger called the UK basketball office.

"We were going to raise our hand and say we're not chopped liver," he said.

The Lexington Rotary Club has about 400 members, which dwarfs the Bluegrass Kiwanis Club's 45 members. Yet, Bimschleger felt fair was fair. So he called to invite Calipari to speak in either September or October. But deep down, Bimschleger had little hope of the UK coach accepting the invitation.

"No one from the basketball office has ever come," he said. "I'm talking even a trainer."

So when Bimschleger answered the phone a few days later, he was surprised to hear someone say it was the Kentucky basketball office.

"I almost fell off my chair," he said. Then he heard the person say, apologetically, that Calipari could only accept the invitation to speak on Oct. 1.

"That was it," Bimschleger said. "I couldn't believe it. I had to make sure I was talking to the right people. Things just don't go that easy."

Now, the Bluegrass Kiwanis Club is planning to move to a bigger meeting room at Lexington's Campbell House. Invitations will go out to other area Kiwanis clubs. Bimschleger's son, Dave, is coming from New Hampshire. His daughter, Chris, is coming from Dallas.

"It's historic for us," Bimschleger said, "and a great, great honor."

Help wanted

Former UK guard Dale Brown, a starter on the 1993 Final Four team, is now coaching Dillard University, a NAIA school in New Orleans.

Brown is seeking to play Kentucky in an exhibition game this upcoming season. His cash-strapped program needs the funds from such games to keep afloat. Hurricane Katrina compounded the school's financial stress.

When asked how his basketball program could use the money earned in an exhibition game, Brown said, "For equipment, mainly, because we don't have an equipment budget."

Dillard basketball's overall budget needs help, too. The program could afford only three scholarship players last season.

Brown has already spoken with former UK teammate John Pelphrey, now the Arkansas coach, about an exhibition game. Arkansas played Dillard in an exhibition last year.

And Brown has lined up an exhibition with South Carolina, coached by Lexington native Darrin Horn.

Now Brown would like to add exhibition games with UK and Mississippi.

Good luck to Brown, a good guy facing a Herculean task of building a basketball program at Dillard.

No rush for Stewart

Former UK player A.J. Stewart is in no rush to find a new college.

"He's taking his time," his mother, Dinah Stewart, said. "He wants to make sure this time he chooses a place that's good for him and gives him playing time."

Stewart played sparingly at UK. I always thought he was miscast as a low-post player. Rex Morgan, who coached Stewart in high school in Jacksonville, Fla., agreed.

"I always thought he was a three (small forward or wing)," Morgan said. " Because he can guard a three."

Morgan did not think Stewart was strong enough to play around the basket at the major college level.

Stewart touched on that theme in his most productive scoring game. He had a career-high 11 points at Vanderbilt last season mostly playing on the perimeter. But then UK Coach Billy Gillispie noted the team need when he called Stewart's scoring, "Definitely helpful ... but I really don't need a 6-9 two-guard. I need a 6-9 bruiser."

Stewart, never a bruiser, apparently got some mileage out of that performance at Vandy. Morgan said coaches mentioned that game in inquiring about Stewart since he began looking to transfer.