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Inside College Basketball
Updated: Saturday November 04, 2000 1:05 AM
Can John Calipari rebuild Memphis's once proud reputation? By Seth Davis
The workout was a welcome change for Calipari in another sense. In the seven months since he took the Memphis job, he has acted more like the CEO of an Internet start-up than a coach. He has been pressing the flesh in Memphis's private sector to procure, among other things, nearly $200,000 to upgrade the weight and locker rooms; access to paid summer internships for his players at Federal Express, whose national headquarters are in Memphis; and 800 parking spaces at a hospital near the Pyramid -- where Memphis plays its home games -- so students can park for free. By his count, Calipari has also borrowed eight private jets for recruiting and scouting trips. "A lot of people made the mistake of telling me, 'If there's any way I can help you, just call,'" he says. Calipari, who transformed UMass from a nonentity into a national power in the 1990s, has been dogged -- and successful -- on the recruiting front. Last Friday night a top junior college player, 6'8" center Chris Massie of Oxnard (Calif.) College, orally committed to Memphis, where he will be joined next fall by arguably the nation's top high school senior, guard Dajuan Wagner of Camden, N.J. Calipari went all out to get Wagner. Not only did he sign Wagner's best friend and high school teammate, 6'8" forward Arthur Barclay, who is academically ineligible this season, but he also hired Wagner's father, Milt, the former Louisville star, as coordinator of basketball operations, even though Milt doesn't have a college degree. Calipari's players have been privately -- and good-naturedly -- referring to him as Adolf in response to the control he has assumed over their schedules. "He told us straight-up that playing for him would be the hardest thing we'd ever do," senior guard Marcus Moody says. "He also told us that we were going to win." Whether that prediction comes true remains to be seen, but for the time being the people of Memphis, starved for a winner since the Tigers have missed the last four NCAA tournaments, appear to have embraced Calipari as their savior. The team attracted an average of 11,794 fans to the 21,000-seat Pyramid last season while going 15-16; this year more than 13,000 season tickets have already been sold. "Right now we're going on blind faith," Calipari says. Basketball is religion in Memphis, but Calipari knows that at some point faith must be rewarded, or the parishioners will go looking for another messiah. Issue date: October 23, 2000
For more Inside College Basketball see this week's issue of Sports Illustrated, on newsstands Wednesday, October 18. Click here to subscribe to SI.
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