Memphis vs. Kansas

Memphis coach John Calipari played point guard at UNC-Wilmington as a freshman and sophomore from 1978-80 before returning to his native Pennsylvania’s Clarion State for his junior and senior seasons in 1980-82.

After Calipari’s playing days were over, his coaching career started. In 1982, Calipari went Midwest to become a graduate assistant under coach Ted Owens at Kansas University, where the first basketball coach in school history was Dr. James A. Naismith — the game’s inventor.

“I went out there with two pairs of shoes, three pairs of slacks, a blue blazer, three shirts and two ties, happy as hell,” said Calipari.

After Calipari’s first year, Owens was replaced by Larry Brown, who had a decorated past as a player, assistant and head coach. Before arriving in Lawrence, Brown was a point guard under Dean Smith at North Carolina, a gold medalist for the U.S.A. National Team at the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo, an assistant coach at UNC and the head coach of four different teams — the Carolina Cougars (ABA), Denver Nuggets (ABA-NBA), UCLA Bruins (NCAA) and New Jersey Nets (NBA).

In order to learn from one of the game’s top minds in Brown and be a part of one of the richest basketball traditions in the country at Kansas, a young Calipari did whatever was asked of him.

“I would serve peas or corn. ‘What would you like? I’ll be there early for practice if you want to do some extra shooting. What would you like, peas or corn?' That’s what I did,” said Calipari.

“It was tough for a 25-year-old because you’re not going to hang around the students; you didn’t have any money to go to the country club. … I just got into basketball.”

From humble beginnings, Calipari rose through the coaching ranks, leaving KU in 1985 to become an assistant under Paul Evans at Pittsburgh. Then, in 1988, the “Coach Cal” era started at the University of Massachusetts, where he coached for eight seasons.

After leading UMass to the Final Four in 1996, Calipari went to the NBA as coach of the New Jersey Nets. Although Coach Cal led the Nets to a winning record and a berth in the 1998 NBA Playoffs, his head coaching career in the Association was a short one.

Following one year as an assistant to his former Kansas boss Brown — the 1999-2000 campaign with the Philadelphia 76ers — Calipari returned to the college game.

In 2000, the University of Memphis hired Calipari. And the rest is history.

In eight seasons with Coach Cal at the helm, the Tigers have a 219–64 record, with four NCAA Tournament appearances including this year’s run to the national title game against Kansas.

During Calipari’s 16-year college coaching career at Memphis and Massachusetts, he has accumulated a 412-135 overall record with a 23-9 mark over 10 NCAA Tournament appearances.

But things may not have turned out the way they did had Calipari not started from the bottom and worked his way to the top. One win away from being at the pinnacle of his profession at Memphis, a career grew from humble roots at Kansas, where a then-grad assistant did hard work for little pay and less glory.

“You know what?” asked Calipari. “It was the greatest time of my life.”

Self Obsessed

The season after John Calipari left Kansas for Pitt, current Kansas coach Bill Self joined Larry Brown’s Jayhawk staff as a graduate assistant. Now, the talk surrounding Self is less about where he came from and more about where he may or may not be going.

Billionaire oil tycoon and Oklahoma State alum T. Boone Pickens wants to bring a top coach to Stillwater. Rumor has it, Self — who played basketball for the Cowboys from 1981-85 — is atop Pickens’ short list of candidates.

Pickens is also likely to offer more money than any other school can compete with. Having already donated $165 million to the OSU athletic program, Pickens is a man of action and he means business.

Having come to power and fame through mergers, acquisitions and hostile takeovers, the 79-year-old Pickens has trouble taking “no” for an answer. Despite the speculation, Self is not thinking about any school other than Kansas, which is attempting to win its first national title since 1988, when a Larry Brown-coached “Danny Manning and the Miracles” squad won it all.

“I haven’t been concerned about (Oklahoma State) being a distraction. It doesn’t register with our players. To be real candid, it hasn’t registered with me,” said Self.

“We’ve had a lot of people that have put in a lot of time and effort to get to this point. Our players have worked their tails off.

“There’s no way I’m going to let anything like that distract me right now. No way.”

Common Ground

This season, Memphis and Kansas have played four common opponents — Texas, Oklahoma, Arizona and USC. In fact, all four teams made it to the NCAA Tournament. Against similar competition, the Tigers were 4–0, while the Jayhawks were 4–1.

Stat Keeper

38 — Memphis wins in 2007-08, setting a new single-season NCAA record.

36 — Kansas wins in 2007-08, the most in the school’s history (since 1898).

35th — Anniversary of the UCLA-Memphis title game in 1973, an 87–66 loss that is the closest the Tigers have come to winning a national championship.

20th — Anniversary of Kansas’ 1988 national title, when coach Larry Brown and forward Danny Manning led the Jayhawks to an 83–79 win over Oklahoma.

1 — Wins needed by John Calipari to tie Larry Finch (220) as the all-time winningest coach in Memphis basketball history.

0 — National titles won by coaches John Calipari (Memphis) and Bill Self (Kansas) entering this year’s NCAA Tournament final in San Antonio.