Kansas meets another familiar face

Monday, April 7, 2008

SAN ANTONIO – The Jayhawks may have traveled almost 800 miles to San Antonio, but they can’t seem to escape their program’s past.

First, the Jayhawks faced and defeated former Kansas head coach Roy Williams. Now they’re up against former Jayhawk assistant coach John Calipari, head coach at Memphis.

Photo by Jon Goering

Memphis coach John Calipari talks with reporters during a press conference Sunday afternoon at the Alamo Dome in San Antonio. Calipari's Tigers will face Kansas in the championship game Monday night.

But the matchup between Kansas and Calipari doesn’t trigger the same resentment among fans as Williams’ appearance on the opposing bench. In fact, Calipari versus Kansas seems like a lovefest compared to the return of Roy.

“I’ve known ‘Cal’ for quite some time,” Kansas coach Bill Self said. “I was actually a player (at Oklahoma State) when he was starting out coaching at Kansas. He had got a job at Pitt right before I got there as a graduate assistant, so our paths never crossed as far as working, but everybody knew Cal and liked Cal.”

Calipari started his coaching career as a volunteer assistant coach under Kansas coach Ted Owens in 1982. The 24-year-old earned money by working as a trainer while he assisted Owens to get a foot in the door of the coaching profession.

After leaving Kansas in 1985, Calipari shot through the coaching ranks. He led the University of Massachusetts to the Final Four in 1996 before taking over as the New Jersey Nets head coach later that year. After New Jersey fired Calipari, former Kansas coach Larry Brown hired Calipari as an assistant with the Philadelphia 76ers.

“Larry Brown reached out to me and was saying, ‘Come on down here and join me,’” Calipari said. “What it did for me – it starts to bring you back.”

Calipari parlayed his job in Philadelphia into his current gig atop the Memphis totem pole. Since arriving at Memphis, Calipari has won more than 75 percent of his games and captured three Conference USA titles.

For the second straight game, Kansas meets a coach that helped craft its basketball history. Saturday the Jayhawks didn’t do Roy Williams any favors. Despite Calipari’s warm memories of Allen Fieldhouse, Kansas will try to send him home unhappy Monday night.

—Edited by Sasha Roe

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