Will BBN be Rooting for John Calipari or Rick Pitino Today?

John Calipari says he has always looked up to Rick Pitino. (Vicky Graff Photo)

Normally a second-round NCAA Tournament game between Arkansas and St. John’s would not get a lot of attention from Kentucky fans. But when the coaches are former Kentucky coach John Calipari and Rick Pitino, that’s different.

Five years ago all of Kentucky would have been pulling for Calipari and Arkansas to beat Pitino and St. John’s. Two years ago I think it probably would have been the same.

However, when the two teams play today, I think the majority of Big Blue Nation will be for Pitino who is now fully back in the good grace of most Kentucky fans.

Pitino said after his team’s win Thursday to set up this match he had nothing against Calipari.

“John was at Kentucky, (I was) at Louisville. It’s normal. I have always had great respect for John. We have not seen this size and athleticism all year. Creighton has a 7-1 center but athleticism wise, we have not seen this year. We know what we’re up against, obviously,” Pitino said.

“I don’t go against coaches, we go against teams. He doesn’t have to worry about me. My jump shot is long gone. We’re preparing for his players. He’s preparing for our players. John and I don’t play one on one anymore.”

Overall, Calipari is 16-12 against Pitino going into this afternoon’s game. Calipari has the 13-9 edge in college — including 8-2 when Calipari was at UK and Pitino at Louisville — and they were 3-3 in NBA games.

Calipari said his relationship with Pitino is “fine” and recalled how they both worked in the Five-Star Basketball Camp.

“I have always looked up to him because when I was a camper he was a counsellor. When I became a counsellor he was a speaker,” Calipari said. “I will study what he’s doing. I always do. Watch what he’s doing, how’s he doing it? But there’s the formula, whether it’s me or him or another coach, the relationship with the kids to get them to play hard and play with a winning attitude, that’s something he’s always done.

“Again, understand I don’t know how long he was at Louisville when I was at Kentucky, but you’re not going to be friends when you got those two jobs. You’re not going to be enemies, but if he’s real good, you’re like, sheesh, and if we were real good, he’s probably saying, ugh. But that’s, you know, I respect coaches. I respect coaches that can really do this well and if you can do it over a long, long period of time, I really respect you.”

Okay, believe what you want. So how does Calipari think  him and Pitino are most alike and also most different?

“We both have big noses so that’s one. He has Gucci shoes and I have itchy shoes so we’re different there,” Calipari joked Friday. “I don’t know. We’re all going to be judged 50 years from now on what we did and how we did it, but I hope years from now people will say they both get their teams to play hard at a competitive level.

“Do we do it different? Yeah, I guess. I am who I am. Like it or not, this is who I am and how I deal with kids. We’re all different with that.”

How does Pitino think they are alike but also different?

“I certainly have great respect for him, but we’re not really close. Everybody tried to talk that way. It was just a Kentucky-Louisville and Louisville-Memphis thing. We don’t know each other’s wives or children. We’re not really close friends,” Pitino said. “Like (Kansas coach) Bill Self and John have a very close relationship.  I don’t know a whole lot about him except he’s a terrific basketball coach. I don’t think we have been to dinner one time in our lifetime.

“We’re both Italian, we both love the game. I think that’s where the similarities end.”

Pitino did endorse a young Calipari when Massachusetts, Pitino’s alma mater, was trying to decide whether to make him its head coach many years ago.

“First of all, I didn’t like what was being said about him back then because some people were pushing other coaches and UMass was in dire straits. They couldn’t come up with the money to pay the coach. They had no budget, nothing. They really fell on hard times. I thought John was the one guy that could resurrect the program,” Pitino said.

“Now, I will say this: I didn’t think he could get it to be number one in the country because I know where they came from. It was a remarkable thing. I have always said there’s three programs I always remember that just went from nothing to the top and that was Tark in Vegas, Jim Calhoun at Connecticut and John at UMass. You look at UConn today and say, of course, but back then, it wasn’t that way. They all got to be number one in the country.”

Pitino went on to say he felt Calipari was “head and shoulders above everybody else” when Mass was looking for a coach.

Now the two Hall of Fame coaches who both have national championships and don’t like each other no matter what they might say publicly will battle today in a game that is going to have a lot of Big Blue interest.