Associated Press
HOUSTON ó Nobody will dispute that they are great coaches, and the latest evidence lies in the teams they guided to this yearís Final Four.
Nobody will argue that John Calipari and Jim Calhoun are saints, either.
The men on the sidelines for the Kentucky-Connecticut Final Four matchup have had their share of trouble ó with each other, the programs they run and the NCAA.
They are a microcosm of everything thatís right and wrong in college basketball ó a coach-driven game where good leaders can elevate programs and players to new levels but the road to success often produces its fair share of cringeworthy dealing.
Calipari leads the fourth-seeded Wildcats (29-8) against Calhoun and the third-seeded Huskies (30-9) in the second semifinal today. Both coaches coaxed a turnaround out of their young, struggling teams to make unexpected trips to the gameís biggest stage ó the third for Calipari and fourth for Calhoun.
On the eve of the game, their histories were as lively a topic as the success of their teams.
One of the first questions Calipari fielded Friday was whether he is the 2000ís version of former UNLV coach Jerry Tarkanian, a coach who did a lot of winning in his day but did it with his phone number firmly entrenched on the NCAAís speed dial.
The question slid off the Wildcats coach as smoothly as good Kentucky bourbon.
ěI respect everything that Jerry did ó his kids, how they played, all those things,î Calipari said. ěBut, no, I think Iím the 2011 John Calipari. I donít know what that means, and I hate to talk in the third party. But I am who I am.î
Unlike Calhoun, Calipari has no qualms about how many of his players have had startlingly brief college careers.
He is back in Houston, where three years ago he won two games at the regional to lead Memphis to the Final Four, only to leave that school a year later, just as the program was running into NCAA problems involving the recruitment of Derrick Rose.
Calipariís first Final Four visit, with Massachusetts back in 1996, also has been scrubbed by the NCAA. Which led to another tongue-in-cheek question: How does it feel to be coaching in your first Final Four?
ěI donít deal with that,î said the 52-year-old coach, who spent four years in the NBA between his stints at UMass and Memphis. ěWeíve been here three times. Those players played those games and did what they were supposed to.î