Calipari has to be emperor of Kentucky

NEWS flash: Apparently, for the second straight time, Kentuckymay have hired the wrong basketball coach.

"Long distance information, give me Memphis, Tennessee ... "

In his people-packed introductory news conference Wednesday inLexington, John Calipari said, "I'm not the grand poobah. I'm notthe emperor. That's not what I want to be."

Uh-oh.

If all UK wanted was a basketball coach, it would have kept BillyGillispie ... OK, maybe not.

The deal, on one hand, is eight years, $31.65 million plus perksfor that stack higher than the roof of Rupp Arena for Coach Cal. Thedeal, on the other hand, is that Coach Cal really is the grandpoobah, the emperor.

Whoever is the UK basketball coach is that, like it or not. TubbySmith got tired of trying to fit his more-than-solid record under astatewide microscope. That's why he bailed to Minnesota, where theFrozen Four is bigger than the Final Four.

It doesn't matter how well you coach; it's how you play the role.It's been that way since Rupp made the position into royalty in amore than four-decade span that ended nearly four decades ago.

Never mind that during Rupp's years, other SoutheasternConference schools didn't know if a basketball was blown up orstuffed. Times have changed; Kentucky attitudes about hoops haven't.Going about 20-12 and sneaking into the NCAA bracket - or, horrorsthe NIT - don't cut it.

It isn't a sport. It isn't a religion. It is an obsession. Assomeone who spent all but a few months of his formative years in theBluegrass State, I know. I went to UK. I was a basketball managerduring my freshman year.

There is a certain paranoia that always has been attached to theUK coach - whoever it has been - and for good reason. It's a dickensof a job, but "Great Expectations" doesn't quite cover it.

Calipari takes over never having won an NCAA championship, and heshould know the UK faithful is getting rather impatient because theprogram has won only two titles in the past 31 years. He'll needmore than players and the dribble drive motion offense he'll bringfrom Memphis.

Back in 1971-72 when Rupp was aging and being nudged out the door(and I was graduating), there was a situation in which it was saidthe Baron wanted young assistant Gale Catlett as his successor.

The obvious top candidate, however, was assistant Joe B. Hall,who had been on the staff since 1965, was a Kentucky native and hadplayed at UK. The Rupp-UK tug-of-war over who would succeed himbrought about the kind of stall the legendary coach never would haveused on the floor.

So Hall, tired of waiting, took the head coaching job at SaintLouis - until he was coaxed back by a job offer from the higher-upsin Lexington a week later. Hall deservedly got the UK job. Ruppreluctantly retired (only to coach later in the ABA in Memphis).Catlett went north to Cincinnati the next season for his first headcoaching job before moving to Morgantown.

That entire situation is instructive because it is the kind ofpublic soap opera that UK basketball fans have been accustomed tofor generations.

It's instructive to look back at the furor that swept Kentucky'sneighbor West Virginia when Rich Rodriguez left for Michigan.Kentucky is like the Mountain State in that it doesn't have a majorleague pro sports franchise.

So, the flagship university is the big daddy, but that's wherethe comparison stops. Kentucky basketball is Alabama football-big,and Kentuckians still expect the Big Blue to dominate in the sportas it did until UCLA and John Wooden (who once coached high schoolbasketball in Northern Kentucky) came along.

To draw on another basketball analogy that speaks volumes aboutthe hoops mindset in Kentucky, there's the recent State Tournamentat Rupp Arena.

In a four-day, eight-session span, the Sweet Sixteen attractedalmost 131,000 fans. The title game drew more than 15,000. Thosefigures pretty much double what West Virginia has for its boys'tournament, with 24 teams.

Calipari invoked the Mountain State a few times in hisintroductory news conference, which said plenty in that -transcribed - it is 10 pages, single-spaced.

He gave plenty of credit to Marshall Athletic Director Bob Marcumfor administrative support in backing Calipari as he built theMassachusetts program into a Final Four appearance while Marcum wasthe UMass AD.

The suburban Pittsburgh native spoke of how his Italiangrandparents on his father's side came through Ellis Island andlanded in West Virginia, where his granddad worked in mines and was58 when he died of black lung disease.

He talked about his mother's family being from Webster Springsand "dandelion soup ... I heard all of the stories."

His next words?

"So, I want you to know that my wife and I, I'm not the grandpoobah," Calipari said. "I'm not the emperor. That's not what I wantto be. We're regular people."

UK doesn't want a regular basketball coach. Kentucky - exceptthose in a much smaller contingent of Louisville supporters -doesn't want a regular coach at UK.

Coach Cal had better be as slick as his hair. I suspect he willbe. If not, he'll be called the first half of "poobah."