A clash of two titans.
If you live in Tennessee and you can’t find any bottles of Grecian Formula at your local convenience store, it’s because two of the greasiest college basketball coaches (literally and figuratively) in the country are needing to lather it on before Saturday night’s big game.
The biggest game of the season takes place in Memphis, when top-ranked and undefeated Memphis meets second-ranked Tennessee. Neither school had really had much success on the hardwood up until the last couple of years, until Memphis’ John Calipari finally got his system and recruits installed after coaching the Tigers since 2000, and Bruce Pearl brought his run-and-gun and pressing style to Tennessee three years ago.
It is only fitting that this game will be played one day after Indiana coach Kelvin Sampson is either likely fired or suspended due to his liberal use of his cell phone for making phone calls to recruits. Oh, and that whole thing about lying to the NCAA and his school. Maybe he can throw the honorary jumpball at Saturday night’s slimefest.
Clearly, both coaches are both two of the best practitioners of x’s and o’s in the country. They wouldn’t be where they are if they weren’t. But they would both blackmail a family member if it meant getting a four-star recruit to come to their respective schools.
Let’s start with Calipari.
In 1996, he completed a miraculous turnaround at the University of Massachusetts by getting the Minutemen to the Final Four (and in the process, handing eventual national champion Kentucky one of its two losses earlier in the season). The team was led by Marcus Camby, who would go on to have a solid NBA career.
But not so fast, my friends.
Most college coaches, I would assume, should caution their student-athletes on staying away from the “wrong people” (i.e. agents). So what does Camby do? He either ignored the advice of his coach, if Calipari gave him that advice to start with, and accepted gifts from an agent. And bang, the NCAA vacated the team’s Final Four appearance.
Calipari doesn’t stick around for any of the aftermath. Like many successful college coaches, he hightails it out of the Atlantic 10 to coach the New Jersey Nets. And like most college coaches, he can’t cut it in the NBA, heading back to Memphis in 2000.
As an umpire, Calipari would likely have a small strike zone. His team is undefeated this year, and he doesn’t want any distractions to get in the way of a perfect season.
Now, on to Bruce Pearl.
Calipari’s Wikipedia page just had the nuts-and-bolts of his coaching career and didn’t mention any of his transgressions. But Pearl’s page went into sordid detail about breaking the honor code of coaching, more specifically, an incident that happened about 20 years ago.
Yes, Pearl is a showman. He wears that loud orange jacket (he says, as a tribute to late UT coach Ray Mears) when his team plays Kentucky and Vanderbilt. And he went topless last year when the Lady Vols played Duke. (OK, so he painted his chest).
But Pearl has that look about him, that just watching him coach on the sidelines makes me feel dirty. If I ever had a conversation with him, I feel like I’d have to take a long shower. And having sudden success at Tennessee has to raise the eyebrows of the NCAA just a little bit.
And he divorced his wife of 25 years last summer. Definitely a man of morality.
So, enjoy the game Saturday night. I will have it on at work, and I will also be recording it in glorious hi-def at home. It should be one of the most entertaining college basketball games in the last couple of years, as both teams have the potential to put up 90-100 points. (I can’t wait to see if Lofton can throw down 40.)
But remember, there is a reason why college basketball is the sleaziest of amateur athletics these days. And coaches like the ones mentioned above are only part of the reason.
