By JOSH NEWMAN
Kentucky head coach John Calipari was in a reflective mood on Tuesday, and with good reason.
The University of Kentucky head coach will enter the Naismith Hall of Fame on Friday in Springfield, Mass. Calipari’s first-ballot induction will mark the 56-year old coming full-circle as he began his head-coaching career up the road from Springfield in Amherst at the University of Massachusetts in 1988.
“Ellen and I, our first press conference when I was hired by UMass was at the Hall of Fame,” Calipari told reports in Lexington on Tuesday. “That’s where they did it, but it was at the old Hall of Fame. I’ve been back a lot. The new Hall of Fame I’ve been into probably four, five or six times. It’s surreal based on the fact that I’ve been there when different people were inducted. Was in the whole setup, and then all of the sudden you turn around and it’s happening to me.”
Calipari’s tenure at UMass was unlike anything the school, or the Atlantic 10 for that matter, has seen since. Under his watch, the Minutemen went 189-70 in eight seasons, advanced to the Sweet 16 in 1992, the Elite in 1995 and the Final Four in 1996.
The 1996 Final Four appearance, plus the one with the University of Memphis in 2008, were later vacated by the NCAA.
Including the two vacated Final Fours, Calipari is one of just two active head coaches (Rick Pitino) to lead three different schools to a Final Four. His official win-loss record stands at 593-176, but is 635-178 with the 1996 and 2008 seasons.
“I’ve been at great schools,” Calipari said. “Kentucky changed everything for me. All coaches wait on that call from one of those schools. When I got the call, I looked and it became, ‘You’re on the biggest of stages now. You were always trying to build programs from scratch. You were trying to take programs and create relevance. You were trying to coach at places that never got their due or respect they deserved even though they were No. 1 in the country. They never did.'”
Calipari will be introduced Friday night at the Hall of Fame by Larry Brown, Julius Erving and Pat Riley.
Photo: USA Today Sports
