Will Calipari/Calhoun feud surface at tonight's UK/UConn matchup?
By Staff
As coaching feuds go, this one has been simmering for a while. The combatants have aged and have reached the pinnacle of success in college basketball, yet you get the feeling that this healthy dislike is not going away anytime soon.
So how about it Cat fans? Are we ready for a good old fashioned coaches feud? The potential is always there for a display tonight when John Calipari and Jim Calhoun face off in the SEC/Big East Faceoff in New York City. Even though it’s obvious that Calipari and Calhoun are not Facebook buddies, I doubt we will see any outward displays of disdain. That’s too bad because I am always one for a good ole coaching feud. I was all prepared to hate Roy Williams, but when he came into Rupp with that broken wing, talking about Rupp’s brown suits, and paying homage to Bill Keightley, I found my hate level turned down to moderate dislike.
This got me to thinking and I really can’t remember any good coaches feud involving the Wildcat’s coach since the Pitino days. Slick Rick had a healthy “rivalry” going with Kansas’s Roy Williams back in the day and even got under the skin of Dean Smith. And who can forget Dale Brown? Or Wimp Sanderson? Even Rick Majerus was a good foil, but whatever coach’s rivalry there may be was lostbecause UK demolished the Utes all the time.
Tubby was really to much of a gentlemen to engage in a bitter, nasty coaches feud, and well Billy G was not here long enough. I am sure the Gillispie/Pearl feud would have developed into a good one but now with Cal coming into the conference, we can probably look for the Calipari/Pearl rivalry to heat up. But for tonight, we have to hope for some drama between Calhoun and Cal.
This feud started several years ago when Calipari was at UMass and Calhoun was at Connecticut. The Huskies and Minutemen used to be engaged in a yearly matchup but this longstanding series became a lame duck series shortly after Calipari’s first season, supposedly because Calhoun did not approve of Calipari’s sideline behavior. Calhoun spoke in a teleconference call about the brashness of the young Calipari:
Well John came in from Moon Township, Pa., and didn’t know — he was asked the king of New England. Their program was king of New England. He didn’t know what “Chowda” was, with an A. You know what I’m saying? You’ve got to know what clam chowda is before you start saying that you’re — especially for a guy from South Boston, it’s very tough for a guy to say that.
Calhoun won round one of the rivalry 104-75 in 1989 and then the series was cancelled with just one game left on the schedule. Calipari did not let this issue pass easily as he was in the midst of rebuilding a program and the UConn matchup definitely benefited UMass more, so Calipari went public about resuming the rivalry. A lot. Calhoun was further irked by Cal’s very public pleas to renew the rivalry. Alas, those pleas fell on deaf ears and Calhoun won the last UConn/UMass matchup 94-75 in 1990. For a while, the rivalry turned into a a battle on the recruiting grounds.
As the UMass program progressed, Calipari started to win more and more recruiting battles against Calhoun and the piece d’resistance was Marcus Camby, right out of Calhoun’s backyard in Hartford. The Connecticut coaches were known to take frequent shots at UMass’s Academic Standards when talking with recruits.
Calipari upped the ante by becoming good friends and even seeking advice from UConn’s women’s coach Geno Auriemma. The power struggle between Geno and Auriemma still exists to this day and apparently Calhoun took offense to Geno mentoring his “enemy”. This rivalry has cooled off since Calipari left the Northeast.
The two teams did not meet again on the court for several years but Calipari’s Memphis Tigers won round 3 of the matchup with an 81-70 win in 2007 at Madison Square Garden. Even at this time, the rivalry seemed to have cooled to a mere matter of dislike rather than severe hate. Calipari even joked at the time that Calhoun was not his biggest rival from his days at UMass saying: “I’m trying to get John Chaney to come up to the game in case anything breaks out.”
Calhoun even admitted the fire was gone saying:
“Bottom line, I have great respect for what John has done, but we don’t see each other much,” Calhoun said. “There were two things that upset me and things I’m sure he was upset about, but it’s been so long I’ve forgotten. All he wants to do is beat us and all we want to do is beat [Memphis].
So now, two years later, it’s Calhoun and Calipari with Calipari taking this rivalry to a third school. And it appears that while the two guys still don’t like each other, the rivalry has evolved into a mutual admiration society. Recently Calhoun had these comments about if he had a relationship with Calipari:
None. I don’t have a relationship with John. When I see John, ‘Hi, John, how you doing?’ ‘Hi, coach, how you doing?’ That’s it. But that has got nothing to do with anything. He’s won exceptionally well. He has very good players. I love how hard his team plays. I love the fact that he puts his teams in position to win. I love the fact that he puts his players in position to succeed. A lot of guys really haven’t done that.
So there you have it. Seemingly no need to expect Calhoun to channel his inner John Chaney against Calipari at the post game press conference tomorrow night and threaten to kill Calipari or to kick his ass the next time he sees him …
Oh well, we can always hope for the fireworks when Pitino comes to town.
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