UK hoops notebook: Calipari used to criticism

Calipari predicts that criticism will continue to come his way

By Jerry Tipton / Herald-Leader Staff Writer

Matt Goins

Fans listened to UK Coach John Calipari before his Joseph Beth book signing at the end of August. Calipari has been on a promotional tour for his self-help book, Bounce Back.

He's charismatic. He's charming. He's accomplished. He's smart and funny.

For all that, John Calipari sure draws a lot of criticism.

More than once during his tour to promote his self-help book, Bounce Back, Calipari acknowledged that he and his successful basketball programs attract derision.

He noted the phenomenon when the New Jersey Nets fired him as coach.

"When there's something with me, it becomes aggressive," he said as the tour began. "It must be how I am. I try not to be that way."

Calipari did not explain what quality he believed he possessed that irritated others.

But he's predicted again and again that the criticism will continue in 2009-10.

"Two years from now, there will be another situation I'll have to bounce back from," he said.

During an appearance on the Mike Francesa radio show on New York's The Fan last week, Calipari noted how his most successful Memphis team (2007-08) did not lack for skeptics. So, too, will his first Kentucky team, he said.

According to a transcript provided by the Francesa show, Calipari said of criticism leveled at the Memphis Final Four team, "It's not fair to them. But they all look at this, all of them are looking at this and saying 'No one's taking away from us and what we did.' "

Actually, in a judgment rendered this summer, the NCAA Committee on Infractions took away the 2008 Final Four appearance and the team's record 38 victories as punishment for playing an ineligible player, star freshman Derrick Rose.

Memphis is appealing that decision. Calipari told Francesa that he did not know during the 2007-08 season that serious questions had been raised about Rose's entrance exam score. That contradicted reporting that Memphis had been aware of the risk of playing Rose.

To combat its critics, Memphis went internal. It's a strategy Calipari apparently wants to adopt this coming season.

"We created our own happiness," he told Francesa. "I'm telling my Kentucky team right now, we're going to get it from all corners because right now it's on. We're gonna get it from all corners. We have to create our own happiness, and it's gotta come from us. ...

"That team loved each other. I gotta create that in this team."

Meanwhile, more fuel for the us-against-them theme came last week when columnist Dan Shaughnessy of The Boston Globe criticized Calipari's inclusion in a function called Celebrate UMass Basketball.

"John Calipari is not something UMass needs to be promoting," Shaughnessy wrote. "Now or ever. ... If I were a UMass alum, I'd have bounced back the invitation with a letter of protest asking, 'Why are we honoring this guy?'"

Shaughnessy wrote of the 1996 Final Four appearance that UMass had to vacate because Marcus Camby later admitted accepting money and gifts from an agent.

UMass Athletic Director John McCutcheon argued on behalf of Calipari, saying the former coach still supports the school's basketball program.

But McCutcheon conceded that Memphis having to vacate the 2008 Final Four appearance made for bad timing.

"Obviously the situation at Memphis is not a real positive thing in light of the timing of this event," McCutcheon told Shaughnessy. "But it's imperative that people realize Coach Calipari was not implicated in any of the issues at Memphis."

To which Shaughnessy wrote, "Right. Cal never leaves fingerprints. He makes a clean getaway, then steps into a better job. If he wins the national championship at Kentucky, he'll probably be President of the United States by the time the Wildcats are forced to vacate their Final Four."

'Special guest'

UK basketball bills ESPN reporter Jeannine Edwards as a "special guest" at its women's clinic Oct. 7. "I'm not really sure what that means," she said last week.

But Edwards is sure that a large number of Kentucky fans haven't forgotten her sideline exchange with then UK coach Billy Gillispie at Mississippi last season.

Asked if she still gets feedback from UK fans about Gillispie scolding her for what he called a "bad question," Edwards said, "I do. Whenever I'm out and about."