MORGANTOWN — Sometime not long after he had made his decision to leave Memphis and head to Lexington, Ky., to become the next basketball coach at the University of Kentucky, John Calipari picked up his cell phone and dialed one of his closest friends in coaching.
“Am I crazy?” John Calipari asked Bob Huggins.
“No,” the West Virginia University coach answered. “You’ll win a national championship there.”
Huggins really believes that.
So, apparently does Calipari, although there were 35 million other reasons, all of them carrying pictures of George Washington, for making the move.
Now there are some who may wonder about such a move, considering that Calipari was the biggest thing to hit Memphis since Elvis and the man he was replacing, Billy Gillespie, was treated like nothing but a hound dog in Lexington.
Make no mistake about it, in today’s coaching climate, Calipari is moving from a place where he could do no wrong to a place where anything but success is considered doing everything wrong.
And sometimes success isn’t much a guarantee.
Tubby Smith, you may recall, won a national championship at Kentucky but two years ago left under heavy fire, with even his national championship being questioned as the work of his predecessor.
That, though, doesn’t enter into the thinking of coaches like Calipari, men who are good at what they do and know it.
While normal people think in terms of a paycheck from week to week, these people think of their place in history. While we all scoff at the thought that they may not be doing it for the money, that is the way it is.
There are certain cathedrals of college basketball – Indiana, UCLA, North Carolina, Kansas and Kentucky.
This where the royalty is supposed to reside. It is Bobby Knight and John Wooden and Dean Smith and Phog Allen and Adolph Rupp.
History suggests Kentucky is at the top of the heap.
Rupp won national championships. Joe B. Hall won a title there; Rick Pitino did, Tubby Smith did.
And now Calipari is drawn to the place like a moth to fire.
“It’s important to John,” Huggins said. “He wants to be in the Hall of Fame. He wants to be appreciated.”
Ego?
You bet. You can’t exist at those dizzying heights without an inflated ego, one that will drive you to perfection.
“John Calipari is a perfect fit,” Huggins said.
Huggins understands the pressures that come with the job, that you are always measured against the nation’s best, against history’s best.
“John understands how to work things,” Huggins said. “He was under fire at New Jersey.”
That was in another life, another profession, coaching in the NBA, a position Huggins once turned down. That was with the Los Angeles Clippers, a situation Huggins really didn’t need.
There is, however, a difference between coaching the New Jersey Nets and the Kentucky Wildcats. While they both may be basketball teams, one rolls and the other is a Rolls.
Tubby Smith never really lost at Kentucky, he just didn’t win national championships.
“Tubby hurt himself by having his son play for him,” Huggins said. “His son was a good player, but when he made a mistake it was magnified and reflected on Tubby.”
Even Huggins, who has had his share of scrutiny, doesn’t understand what it’s like at places like Kentucky, UCLA and Indiana, although he maintains that coaching at Cincinnati was every bit as much a life in the fishbowl.
“For 10 years we were as good as anyone,” Huggins noted. “Cincinnati ranks up there as a place that is overscrutinized. It was in the forefront of shock radio. Not just sport radio, either. Willie Cunningham was as bad as anyone. He’s unique.”
Huggins had his fall, just as Tubby Smith had his and Mike Davis had his at Indiana and Gene Bartow at UCLA. When you reach such heights, the falls you take are so much more terrifying.
“John won’t have a fall,” Huggins said.”He’ll quit when he wants to quit.”
And that won’t be until after he brings Kentucky back to the top, no matter what it takes, which is why they went for him in the first place.
E-mail Bob Hertzel at bhertzel@hotmail.com.
Bob Herzel
COLUMN: Huggins: Calipari good fit
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