John Calipari: Hall of Fame Coach

On Friday, September 11, University of Kentucky Men’s Basketball Coach John Calipari is set to be enshrined in the Naismith Hall of Fame. After stops in Amherst, Mass., Memphis and Lexington, with a slight detour in New Jersey, the little boy from Pittsburgh has finally made it to the big time. Coach Cal is taking his rightful place among the game’s elite coaches.

Apr 3, 2015; Indianapolis, IN, USA; Kentucky Wildcats head coach John Calipari speaks during a press conference for the 2015 NCAA Men

Obviously, Calipari will be taking a lot of baggage with him when he stands on the podium to deliver his speech. He’s the only coach to have to Final Four appearances vacated by the NCAA. That’s a fact that he cannot shake. It would be unfair to let that be the end of the story. Despite what his detractors want, Cal’s story is more than just vacated Final Fours and the specter of cheating. Coach Cal is a coach that has made an impact on the game of basketball and, more important to him, the lives of the players that have played for him.

The University of Massachusetts, outside of the being the college home of Julius “Dr.J” Erving, didn’t have a lot of basketball history when John Calipari became the head coach in 1988. By the time he left in 1996, the Minutemen were major players on the national scene. Under Coach Cal, UMass won the Atlantic 10 Tournament 5 straight times in the 90s, appeared in 9 NCAA Tournaments, reached 2 Elite Eights and made the 1996 Final Four. Coach Cal’s run in Amherst is unmatched in school history.  Looking at the history of Minutemen basketball is looking at two different periods: with John Calipari and without.

After a run with the NBA’s New Jersey Nets, Calipari returned to the college game at the University of Memphis. Unlike UMass, Memphis had a modest basketball history, with Anfernee “Penny” Hardaway playing there and the Tigers reaching two Final Fours (1973, 1985). The program needed to make a splash and Cal was the man to do it. In short order, Cal went to work revitalizing the Memphis program. It was at Memphis that his recruiting prowess began to take shape. Not only was he bringing in top recruits to an NCAA also ran and making deep tournament runs, culminating in the 2008 NCAA Runner-up finish.

Mandatory Credit: Thomas J. Russo-USA TODAY Sports

After the disastrous run of Billy Gillispie, University of Kentucky Athletic Director Mitch Barnhart had to hit a homerun with his next hire; enter John Calipari. I’ll admit that when Cal was hired, I was skeptical. How is a guy with this NCAA baggage gonna work under the bright spotlight of Kentucky Basketball, who itself has had NCAA issues? Yet, here we sit 7 years later and it’s obvious that this coming together of two renegade entities have worked rather well, to the tune of 5 Elite Eights, 4 Final Fours, one NCAA Runner-up finish and one National Title. As unbelievable as it sounds, John Calipari has made his mark on the most storied program in college basketball history.

Yes, there’s the two vacated Final Fours, but there’s so much more. Calipari’s “Player’s First” approach has endeared him to recruits and to his players. He recruits top high school basketball players and gets them to learn how to sacrifice and play together as a team. Some folks may nitpick his X’s and O’s acumen, but what isn’t in doubt is Coach Cal’s ability to get players to commit to the team first and then achieve their individual goals. What else is the mark of a great coach?

On Friday night, take your bow, John Vincent Calipari. You’ve earned your place in the Hall of Fame and the Big Blue Nation couldn’t be more proud of you.