From Beijing to the "Greatest Town on Earth", Calipari is the ambassador UK needed

Despite what The Sporting News has insinuated, Coach Calipari doe NOT intend to turn his back on his basketball Cats and “not coach” if UK fans are rowdy toward Rick Pitino when UL travels to Rupp. More on that in a sec, but first…

Part of the criticism of Billy Gillispie was that he never embraced what it really meant to be the head coach of UK and he never embraced the fans. Well, Calipari has smashed the mold that past coaches are made off and further proved that he really, really, gets “it”.

The picture above is from Calipari’s barnstorming tour across the state when he stopped at my hometown of Madisonville, and held a coaching clinic at good ole MNHHS. Along the way, he pressed the flesh and had this great photo opportunity with Madisonville legend Brown Badgett and former UK All American Frank Ramsey. Madisonville has been good to UK in the past, as it has also produced Travis Ford and current UK freshman Jon Hood.

Calipari also did his part to help the economy as he twittered his half million followers to check out “Foxy’s” for their wet ribs on East Center Street. Nothing against Calipari, but how can you make a trip to Madisonville and NOT sit on one of the iconic green barstools at Ferrell’s? Seriously. It has been several years since I have been back in Madisonville, but you can bet my last stop before I left was for a sack of that grilled hamburger goodness.

To be honest, (and I have been away from the state for a while), but I can not recall any coach making this kind of barnstorming tour with such fervour. I know that Tubby had been to Madisonville in the past to honor Badgett , not not with such passion. I know Joe B Hall was a big fan of the barnstorming days and he often took his teams of “Kentucky All Stars” to gymnasiums through out the fanbase in the 1970’s. But not even Pitino showed this passion and fever in making UK the Commonwealth’s Team.

Sporting News writer Mike DeCourcy caused quite a stir in the Bluegrass this weekend when he posted a story that said Calipari may “not coach” the UK/UL game if UK fans do not show Pitino respect. The story alluded to a 1992 incident when Calipari made the veiled threat to the UMass student body before a game against Rhode Island.

Rest assured Cat fans, Calipari has no intention of NOT taking the opportunity to wipe the Rupp Arena floor with Pitino’s smug face (my paraphrasing, not Calipari’s). All he asks is that Cat fans be respectful of Pitino but he admitted to Andy Katz that he “can’t control 25,000 people. “.

This just shows that there are a couple of things that Calpari has to learn in his first year at UK: when in Madisonville, stop at Ferrell’s and the UK/UL game is a heck of a lot bigger than UMass/Rhode Island.

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