Coaches of UK, UConn are focus

Associated Press

HOUSTON

Nobody will dispute that they are great coaches, and the latest evidence lies in the teams they guided to this year’s Final Four.

Nobody will argue that John Calipari and Jim Calhoun are saints, either.

The men on the sidelines for the Kentucky-Connecticut Final Four matchup have had their share of trouble — with each other, the programs they run and the NCAA.

They are a microcosm of everything that’s right and wrong in college basketball — a coach-driven game where good leaders can elevate programs and players to new levels but the road to success often produces its fair share of cringeworthy dealing.

Calipari leads the fourth-seeded Wildcats (29-8) against Calhoun and the third-seeded Huskies (30-9) in the second semifinal tonight. Both coaches coaxed a turnaround out of their young, struggling teams to make unexpected trips to the game’s biggest stage — the third for Calipari and fourth for Calhoun.

The so-called problems between the two began during Calipari’s UMass days, when the coaches were on top of each other in neighboring states — one trying to protect his turf and the other trying to carve out his own. Things got testy during the recruitment of Marcus Camby, who wound up choosing UMass and whose issues there eventually landed the school on probation.

Both coaches acknowledged the relationship got off to a rough start.

“I mean, the northeast, you’re so tight, you’re right on top of each other, that it is a competitive environment,” Calipari said. “Our radio shows and television shows are in each other’s states, in our cities. That’s how it is there.”

This season at UConn was played under the shadow of an NCAA investigation into the recruitment of a player named Nate Miles, who wound up getting expelled from school before ever playing a game.

The probe — ugly, but the first in Calhoun’s 25 years at UConn — resulted in sanctions that include Calhoun’s suspension for the first three games of next season. If, that is, the coach decides to return. He has had a slew of health problems over the past eight years and now enjoys spending time with his grandchildren as much as the players he coaches.