Column: Calipari era hits the hardwood Friday night

For over seven months now, John Calipari has earned his paycheck from UK.

In those seven months, he’s built quite a reputation for himself and the university. He’s spent his time building goodwill for both self and school all across the state, almost as if his post as UK coach were to go up for re-election every four years.

Looking at it that way, he’s stopped just short of kissing babies and buying anti-Cardinal ads on Louisville-area television.

Calipari has also spent time across the country and even as far off as China to put a new, energized face with the program’s name, which was getting a little old and stale not too long ago.

As a result, the popular belief is that Calipari has turned this thing around. A master recruiter, they say: He’s been to China, but he found the Great (John) Wall in North Carolina.

Even more so, they say Calipari’s a marketing man: He can sell anyone on his product. He’s the Don Draper of college basketball — they even share that same penchant for fine suits and pristine hair.

Lost in it all, though, is Calipari’s coaching record at UK. As in, he doesn’t yet have one.

He’s spent all this time earning that paycheck, yet he hasn’t coached a single regular-season second on Rupp Arena’s floor, underneath all those banners and retired jerseys he’s promoted (almost ad nauseum) since his move to Lexington.

But now there will be no more book signings in Ashland or daytrips to Manhattan. From Friday until March (or April, if all goes according to plan), it’s all about basketball.

To prepare, practices have been louder and more intense, said freshman DeMarcus Cousins. Calipari even instituted a few 6:15 a.m. practices, a time of day Cousins said he had hardly ever seen before.

“It’s the greatest thing about being coach, I can do whatever I want,” Calipari said before a midday practice Nov. 5. “I can have them walk in right now and say, ‘I’ve decided we’re not practicing and I’ll see you tonight at 8.’ ”

Said Cousins: “No more chill Cal.”

After each of UK’s two exhibition games, Calipari came to the post-game news conference a totally different man than he had let Lexington see before: loosened tie, no jacket, reading glasses, his voice several tones lower than usual.

He wasn’t pushing Fords for local dealerships or singing the praises of opening an account with Central Bank, which may be the only venue in which some Kentuckians have seen Calipari speak so far. He was just talking basketball.

That’s not to say basketball season has kicked to the curb any trace of personality. In recent interviews, he’s barked like a dog, rubbed up against a scout from the NBA’s then-undefeated Denver Nuggets in hopes of stealing some of the team’s mojo, and referenced the infamous matchup between the Harlem Globetrotters and the Washington Generals.

But for the most part, November Calipari is a lot different than his offseason counterpart.

As the season progresses, his practices will get more intense. Unlike his predecessor, Calipari lets his emotions show through his hands and his tone of voice — he credits his Italian roots — and as the season goes on, the highs will be higher and the lows, lower.

Before all that, though, he has to coach his first official game. He’s coached 585 games in Division I, but No. 586 will be different. He’s no longer coaching at schools like Memphis or Massachusetts, which have loyal fan bases.

He’s now coaching at Kentucky, where the fan base is so endlessly devoted, the basketball schedule influences dinner plans, family vacations and even wedding dates.

He’s now coaching at Kentucky, in a state I’ve heard has a population not of four million, but of four million basketball coaches.

Now Calipari can really build his reputation.

Now he can really earn that paycheck.

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