Posts Tagged ‘John Calipari’

I think I’ve made my disdain for the University of Memphis Tigers basketball program pretty well-known. So when I got a text message from my dad last night in the middle of the Lakers-Nuggets game alerting me of the allegations against the Tigers, I must admit I got a kick out of it.

The Tigers’ best season, where they won 38 games and should have won a national championship (thank you Mario Chalmers), now apparently will be null-and-void.

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Then I’m walking in Memphis
Walking with my feet ten feet off of Beale
Walking in Memphis
But do I really feel the way I feel

• “Walking in Memphis” by Marc Cohn

Well, it seems that Bruce Pearl will be staying in Knoxville for the foreseeable future, which is good.  The question, however, remains: What are we to make of this “Memphis Incident”?

For starters, I am greatly relieved that Bruce Almighty will still be wearing orange next season.  That is the good news, not that there is necessarily some “bad” news, but keeping Pearl on the sidelines in Knoxville is definitely very good.

That said, what exactly are we to take away from the brief and furious flirtation (so brief and furious that I never even got a chance to comment before it ended) with the notion that Coach Pearl might bolt to the Pyramid City to take the reins as head coach of the Memphis Tigers?  The real answer is probably “nothing.”  Still there are a few thoughts that jump out to me—random observations, I suppose—which seem relevant, if less than timely.

Bruce Pearl is Happy at Tennessee…

It seems to me that Bruce Pearl sent two messages yesterday.  The first is a very positive one, namely that he is happy as coach of the Tennessee Volunteers and has no desire to leave behind what he has begun.  Bruce Pearl likes it here.

Why do I say that?  Well first of all is the obvious: he is staying here.  More importantly, however, is the what he said in his public statement last night.  To me, it makes it clear that Pearl is truly happy to be at Tennessee.

I truly love my job, and I want it to be clear that I’m not interested in any other job.  There’s no place in the country I’d rather be than the University of Tennessee.  My children are happy here in the Knoxville community—one is in high school, one is in middle school and two are currently attending the university.

My staff and I are building a consistent top-25 program and I’m honored and privileged to serve the greatest fans in the country. Tennessee has all the resources necessary to win championships, from our recently upgraded facilities to our ability to schedule.

It’s great to be a Tennessee Vol!

• Bruce Pearl commenting on rumors of him leaving Tennessee | UT Sports.com

Now in the era of sports double-talk and lip service (See Bobby Petrino at any point in his career), it is rarely advisable to take public professions of loyalty at face value.  I understand that.  Still, there are different degrees of lip service and there are different types of coaches.  Pearl’s statement was anything but tepid—it was largely unequivocal and pointed.  In other words, he could have simply said “I’m staying,” and left the other assurances out of the discussion; he didn’t.

Second of all, for reasons unknown to me (considering I have never met Pearl), I trust the man.  Maybe that owes to the side of him that exudes infectious enthusiasm about everything to which he is tied; maybe it is because of his well documented history of loyalty at Iowa and Wisconsin-Green Bay; maybe it is because he is a con man and I’m snowed.  Regardless of the reasons, Pearl is unique in my mind because I do believe that he is both loyal and trustworthy as a coach.  My gut tells me that if he was not happy and was considering a move, while he might not come out and say it, he would similarly not effervesce about how much he loves it at Tennessee.

Furthermore, if he had wanted to leave, it would have been hard to argue with his decision given the suggestion that Memphis was prepared to offer up to $ 3.25 million a year (approximately $ 1.25 million more per year than his new contract is reported to provide).

Thus, I believe him when he says that he never intended to leave, and that he truly loves coaching the BasketVols.  If he truly wanted to leave, he would have.

Yeah, yeah, I know—I’ve obviously been drinking the Kool Aid…

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It’s finally a done deal. The delusion is going to be at an all-time high – and for Kentucky basketball fans, that’s saying quite a lot…

UNRELATED YET IMPORTANT UPDATE (1:20 p.m., March 31st): Georgia still needs a coach, and is trying to get Missouri’s Mike Anderson. I don’t see why Anderson, who’s also rumored in the potential replacing of Calipari at Memphis, would go to Georgia, but who knows. Calipari, Donovan, Pearl, Anderson, Stallings and Horn in the same division next year? Wow.

UPDATE 2 (12:15 p.m., March 31st): This little bit is just too interesting and kinda funny to pass up, from Geoff Calkins at the Commercial Appeal. Interesting because it’s not 110% believable and funny because the particular donut shop was/is a cool hangout place for my friends and I in high school and now over breaks and the like (after 11 p.m. you can get half a dozen donuts for $1).

UPDATE (6:25 p.m.): ESPN is now getting in on the fun, saying the reported deal is for 8 years at $35 million – still over the $4 million mark.

If you’ve been just about anywhere on the internet on a sports website today, you’ve probably seen the John Calipari-to-Kentucky news. It’s to the point now where it’s all but official

Some major sites like USA Today and SI.com are coming out in the last hour or so and saying the same thing. Good ol’ Channel 5 in Memphis says it’s a done deal, and the Tigers’ Rivals site says so as well. Interestingly, in that article, it says Kentucky is paying Calipari $40 million over six years. For those of us not good at math, that’s, oh, $6.67 million PER YEAR. I heard on the Sports Animal here in Knoxville about an hour ago Jimmy Hyams say he heard the same information in talking with Ron Higgins, who’s with the Commercial Appeal in Memphis.

For comparison sake, Pete Carroll at USC and Nick Saban at Alabama make $4 million a year, give-or-take. Florida coach Billy Donovan is the nation’s highest-paid basketball coach at roughly $3.5 million.

Hey, can you blame me for turning down $6 million a year?

Again, I have seen nothing official on this as of 5 p.m. Eastern, so if this turns out to not be true, then all this commentary is obviously irrelevant.

Now this is not Tennessee news, but it’s certainly Tennessee-related and I would even say I care more than most being from Memphis and having the disdain for both the Memphis and Kentucky programs that I do. You have a coach that’s easy for us Vols to dislike, going from the in-state rival – and a rivalry that’s grown into one of the bigger basketball rivalries for Tennessee and Memphis the past four years – to the historic conference rival in big, bad Kentucky – one that at least has become much more competitive recently (thank you Bruce Pearl).

For me, it’s more reason to hate Kentucky. Yes, hate is a strong word. But much like the case with Alabama, Florida and Georgia in anything, if Kentucky lost every basketball game for their rest of time, I would enjoy it. Seeing them in the NIT and reading the thoughts of the crazier side of their fanbase on Rupps Rafters talk about being in the NIT? Loved it. Likewise, seeing Missouri eliminate the Tigers in the Sweet 16 last Thursday was enjoyable for me.

Now throw in Mr. Calipari, who’s dislike of and disrespectful attitude toward Tennessee and Pearl was a major reason for my dislike of the Tigers, joins Kentucky. As if they shouldn’t already be, you have to put Kentucky now as Tennessee’s biggest basketball rival now, right?

I don’t see much of a change recruiting-wise. The Memphis-area will still be hard for the Vols to recruit, like it is for both football and basketball. Calipari recruited nationally at Memphis (not many players from Memphis on the roster), and he will do that at Kentucky as well. So that doesn’t change.

And finally, I’ve read that Tennessee needs Kentucky to be good, because a strong Kentucky makes the SEC look stronger and more respected. I think that’s garbage. Kentucky is a rival. How can anything that’s good for them – and this is certainly excellent for the Wildcats – be good for Tennessee? If Tennessee keeps playing a tough schedule and wins 25 games and sweeps the SEC regular season and tournament titles in a given year, they’re going to get a high seed regardless of Kentucky or the rest of the league. (Signed, Memphis and C-USA).

On one hand, this hire by UK is scary – Calipari was their ultimate dream hire, and his recruiting ability and style has much more of a probability of success than failure. On the other hand, I say bring it. Bruce Pearl vs. John Calipari twice a year (or more) now? I can go for that…

– … to me.

Images Courtesy of: AP/ Daylife

To many of you and to many Vols fans, Saturday afternoon is just another basketball game. Sure it’s a big one: national TV, against a cross-state rival who’s reloading after nearly winning a national title last season with a coach who’s easy to dislike. But for me, it’s different. It’s the Memphis game. Probably the single game I want to win this season.

So why is Saturday afternoon not just another Tennessee basketball game, you ask? What is the big deal with Memphis? Well for one, as you may know I’m from the great city of Memphis. I grew up in the Memphis/Shelby County area and have been around that university and athletic program and their fans my entire life. That’s the easy answer.

But it’s more than that. Sure, I could now go into my reasons for really really not liking the Tigers (and almost did), but they don’t get a post like Alabama did. You see, Memphis (the university) and I have a history. We go way back. To 1996…

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Pretty much sums it up, don’t you think?

I’m not trying to rub salt in the wounds of the Memphis faithful, or be overtly nasty — I was kind of pulling for them just so Tennessee could say they beat the National Champion three years in a row. Be that as it may, the Memphis Tigers lost to Kansas in convincing Memphis style — a/k/a by being completely unable to hit free-throws down the stretch. So much for Calipari complaining about the media harping on the Tigers for their abysmal free-throw percentages this season. It was only a week or so ago that Calipari said:

It’s almost to the point of, “Do you really even know what my team does well or doesn’t do well?” Or is it because you don’t know. You just say, “It’s free-throw shooting. That’s all I’m going to talk about”

Well, Coach, we all now know that you can’t hit your free-throws in the most important game of the season and if you had, then Beale Street would be happy right now. Why is that?

It’s because free-throws matter!

Similarly, the coaching in the last few minutes of regulation was … well … I’m not sure there actually was any. Why you don’t foul Kansas and give them two (and hope to win by one) as opposed to letting Mario Chalmers launch a three-pointer to send the game into overtime, is beyond me.

In the end, however, the Memphis players are to be saluted for playing with a lot of heart and determination. They gave it their all, and despite some of Calipari’s statements to the contrary, they did everything they could to win against the Jayhawks. As Josie over at Only in Memphis pointed out, Calipari “will do anything to win, except coach.” I think Josie may be on to something there.

If those Memphis kids could just get them a coach, they could really be something amazing…

And Now for Something Completely Different…

On another note, part of the reason I have been so hit-or-miss this past week in posting has been due to a constant series of problems I have had with my blog posting software — Windows Live Writer. Needless to say, I have — at times — been a bit aghast at the rapid deterioration of an hours worth of writing into little more than a pop-up telling me that an error has occurred…

Thanks for the freakin’ news flash!

Not to be deterred, I have, in the meanwhile added a little something to the right sidebar which allows me to have links which are constantly updated on the fly. It’s the box called “Links & Lies … LIVE!” It lives right over there on the side for those of you who have a difficult time with directions (>>>this way >>>).

Anyway, hopefully I will be able to find a decent desktop blog editor which is reasonably portable in the near future. I welcome any suggestions from anyone who knows of a good application to use. Until then, I guess I’ll just have to use the native Wordpress version.

… sigh, I so hate being made to adhere to rules.

Enough complaining, damnit! Let’s all pull for Pat Summitt and the Lady Vols tonight as they take on the Stanford … whatever they are calling themselves these days … in the National Championship game.

You know, if Pat keeps this up, she’s eventually going to run out of fingers for rings…

– Go Figure …

Image Courtesy of: Memphis Commercial Appeal (Mike Brown / Mark Webber)

Well, once again I have added to the conversation over at Rocky Top Talk. This time a little look into how Tennessee values Bruce Pearl, as compared to other coaches — including it’s own.

While not as acerbic as my usual posts, this one was tough — and (cringe) actually resembles a real report by a real journalist. I actually had to do some research and find sources and things. I hate it when I can’t just make baseless allegations grounded on nothing more than the empty space between my ears. What is the world coming to?

Anyway, if you feel like giving it a look, just click the following link: How Much is Winning Worth?.

At any rate, I should be back on Gate 21 full time sometime in the near future (not that anyone cares).

– Go Figure …

Well, I’m not going to re-hash what everyone else has already said, but this weekend it’s on! The No 2 Tennessee Volunteers take on the No 1 Memphis Tigers at the FedEx Forum in Memphis. It’s guaranteed to be a fabulous game, and hopefully Bruce and the Barbarians will get the train going and show the Tigers who is boss.

For a little breakdown, info, and fun, check out these posts:

• Bruce Pearl’s Letter to John Calipari and a Stat Breakdown for Memphis and Tennessee — Rocky Top Talk
• The Break Down, Part I, Part II, and Part III — The Bruce Ball Blog

It’s going to be huge, and everyone in the nation is watching! Let’s get the Train Going!

Go Vols, Beat the Mem-puss-es!!!

– Go Figure …