Column: Calipari earns high marks 6 months later

Six months ago Thursday, John Calipari was introduced as UK men’s basketball head coach.
You think Cal will be called into Mitch Barnhart’s office Thursday for a progress report?

It may be tough to judge progress on how he’s done so far. After all, he is a basketball coach and his team hasn’t played a single game yet.

But wasn’t so much of the reason for Billy Gillispie’s dismissal unrelated to basketball?

In that case, maybe we can judge Calipari. So if Barnhart conducts a six-month progress report, how will it play out? Surely he’ll look at those non-basketball factors on which Gillispie struck out so badly.

Consider this the six-month evaluation of Calipari.

Ambassador for the program

If you ask Barnhart, he’ll tell you UK basketball is bigger than any one person.

“Kentucky basketball influences when weddings are held and causes its followers to get in a car and drive 12 hours to Omaha on a Monday night,” Barnhart said on March 27, referring to UK’s National Invitation Tournament appearance last season against Creighton.

In his first six months, Calipari seems to have a pretty good grasp of that. Even the day he showed up, he wasted no time in expressing how much basketball means to this state.

“First of all, let me thank Dr. Todd and Mitch for giving me this opportunity to coach the Commonwealth’s team,” Calipari said at the April 1 news conference.

It was a pretty good first impression, I’d say. Even better is the job he’s done since then to maintain that impression.

Better than Gillispie, Calipari understands that he not only is the face of the university, he is likely the most well-known person in Kentucky. He’s also well on his way to becoming the most well-liked.

In August and September, he spanned the entire state on a two-week book signing tour, building up goodwill for the program and for himself. His trip started in Lexington, spanned nine more Kentucky cities, and also featured stops in Cincinnati, New York and Boston.

All along the way, he proudly represented the university and embraced fans from all over. And in case Cal didn’t know before, he knows now: UK fans are all over.

Those fans appreciate his willingness to accept a little spotlight, even if it isn’t explicitly spelled out in the contract (or the memorandum of understanding, for that matter).

Calipari has met a bit of controversy, though. In an effort to publicize the program and “get all the way to the White House,” Cal sent a No. 44 UK jersey to President Barack Obama.

Although it seems like a nice gesture, some Big Blue fans in this red state didn’t appreciate the notion. Calipari apologized to fans who read too deeply into the whole thing, and that was that.

Either way, the way Calipari has spent his time promoting the program and serving as an ambassador, it feels like he’s been in town longer than six months.

Grade: A

Recruiting

Calipari came to town with a plan to succeed.

“There’s three keys to winning championships,” Calipari said April 1. “The first thing is, have really good players. The second thing is have really good players. And I hate to tell you, that’s the third thing.”

So far, so good.

Before so much as moving into his house in Lexington, Cal lured John Wall, DeMarcus Cousins, Darnell Dodson and Eric Bledsoe to UK. He also held over Gillispie commit and Kentucky native Jon Hood.

The Cats’ recruiting class went from outside the top 20 by most straight to No. 1 by most.

No. 1 by a longshot, at that.

Because of Calipari’s recruiting, Sporting News ranked the Cats as No. 2, with just one of last year’s starters (Patrick Patterson) projected to start this year.

Hard to do better than that, let alone in just six months. Just make sure those players take their own SATs.

Grade: A+

Media relations

As much as Gillispie shied away from speaking to the Rotary Club and inevitably shooting Central Bank and Paul Miller Ford commercials, I feel his biggest fear was speaking to the media. Yet he had to do it three or four times a week, at least.

Gillispie seldom made himself available, and his quick tongue made it tough to ask him anything without risking an embarrassing response.

So far, Calipari hasn’t held many news conferences. But he’s been receptive and thoughtful when he has met with local media. At least he hasn’t been rude.

Again, so far, so good.

Now, Calipari does have a little mean streak in him reserved for his detractors. In a story on Yahoo Sports, Calipari reacted to one reporter whose name was not disclosed:

“There’s one guy I don’t like,” Calipari said. “I know he’s a scoundrel. If I keep reading it, I’m going to punch him right in his mouth if I see him. So I’m better off not reading it.”

Maybe a knee-jerk reaction, maybe not. Either way, he’s not afraid to speak his mind. Gillispie was, no matter how he felt.

Broken down that way, it looks like Calipari’s done a pretty good job so far. As long as he keeps it light instead of heavy when he gets criticized.

Grade: B

Considering how Calipari’s stayed in the spotlight even during the offseason, it’s hard to imagine he hasn’t yet coached a single second of UK basketball.

Cal’s staying in the news with recruiting trips and book tours, and he’s staying in the fans’ minds with Twitter, his shiny semi-premium Web site, Papa John’s coupon codes and anything else he can get his brand on.

If you ask me, he can’t do much more to emphasize that where Billy Gillispie failed, he will succeed.

At his next progress report, Barnhart and Calipari should have a bit more to talk about, and they’re both chomping at the bit for it.

James Pennington is a journalism senior. E-mail jpennington@kykernel.com.