Apr 6, 2014 4 min read

Back in 1977, I was working at my first full-time job in the newspaper business as the sports editor for The Record, a weekly newspaper near the Greater Pittsburgh Airport.

One of my main beats was covering the Moon Area High School Tigers, and it’s there where I first encountered John Calipari. Yes, the same John Calipari, who’s leading the Kentucky Wildcats into the NCAA’s Final Four this weekend.

It would be great if I could say that we went on to become great friends, and we’ve stayed close over the years, but nothing like that happened.

Still, I have some very fond memories of covering Calipari for two years. He was the starting point guard for the Tigers as a junior, and he could pretty much do it all. He could shoot, drive, pass, play defense, and overall was a great floor leader.

But what impressed me the most about Calipari was the way he handled himself off the court. Most teens are shy and reluctant to say anything about themselves. Calipari, though, was by far the most talkative and mature high school player I ever interviewed.

I accompanied the Moon team on several bus trips during those years, and we sat together, talking at length about basketball. He was very knowledgeable, with some strong views on how the game should be played. He also seemed genuinely interested in what I had to say, and the result was some good conversations that I still remember some 36 years later.

Of course, I’ve followed his career with great interest over the years. He was an assistant coach at Kansas and Pitt before taking over at the University of Massachusetts. He followed that up with jobs with the New York Nets and the Memphis Tigers before becoming the coach five years ago at Kentucky.

He’s definitely been a winner everywhere he’s been, however, both Massachusetts and Memphis had to vacate Final Four appearances because of rules violations involving star players. Calipari himself wasn’t implicated in either of the cases, but some maintained he ran loose programs which fostered bad behavior.

Calipari has also found himself in the middle of the current controversy involving the NBA’s recent stipulation that players attend at least one year of college before turning pro.

Calipari has made no apologies for trying to get as many great players as possible to attend Kentucky even if it’s only for one year. It’s been a success so far as Kentucky made it to the Final Four in 2011 before winning the tournament a year later.

Whatever happened in the game last night against Wisconsin, which ended too late for me to include in this column, will only see more people line up on either side of him.

Easily the most polarizing coach in the college game, people either love him or hate him for his unabashed acceptance of the “one and done” rule.

However, what I like most about Calipari was how he handled himself last year when his Wildcats were injury-ridden and failed to make the NCAA tournament. He opted to play in the NIT, but the Wildcats couldn’t play at home, because Kentucky was hosting the opening round of the NCAA tournament.

NIT officials arranged for Calipari to return home for a game with Robert Morris in Moon Township. Calipari was more than happy to oblige, telling everyone how he liked returning to his roots.

I remember in particular reading a story about his high school coach, Bill Sacco, who I also covered and who was a big help back in those days. Sacco talked about how Calipari still kept in touch with him, which I found pretty cool.

As everyone knows now, Robert Morris played great and upset Kentucky 59-57. After the game, Calipari showed some character by praising Robert Morris, even noting it would have been a shame if a last-second shot by Kentucky had won the game, because the Colonials were the better team that night and deserved to win.

That told me everything I needed to know about Calipari. I still can’t believe a player I covered and got to know to some degree wound up coaching at such a high level. He was nice kid then, and apparently he’s he a nice guy now. And it’s good to know that not all nice guys finish last.

Mark O’Keefe is the editorial page editor for the Herald-Standard. He can be reached by email at mo’keefe@heraldstandard.com, by mail at 8 Church St., Uniontown, Pa., 15401 or by phone at 724-439-7569.