Basketball family reunion for UK's Calipari
@KyleTucker_CJ
LEXINGTON, Ky. — Families should be together on Thanksgiving, and because of the Hoophall Miami Invitational, Kentucky coach John Calipari's basketball family will be.
He'll face former assistant Orlando Antigua, now the head coach at South Florida, in one game Friday at American Airlines Arena, while former assistant Josh Pastner, who succeeded him as head coach at Memphis in 2009, will play Ohio State in the other game.
"To have two people who helped me build programs, that did such a great job to make me look good in Josh and Orlando, be a part of this, too, that's a big deal to me," said Calipari, who was inducted into the Hall of Fame this summer. "I'm disappointed I have to play one of them. I would rather them play each other so I could just watch the game and be proud."
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Antigua said the three old friends, who were all together for a season at Memphis before he followed Calipari to UK, will likely meet up after the teams' shoot-arounds on Thursday and "break bread." Antigua is just happy to have a seat at this table.
Kentucky has won eight national championships. Ohio State (2007) and Memphis (2008) each played for a national title in the last decade. South Florida won a total of 24 games (and lost 39) in the two years before Antigua was hired, and he went 9-23 in his debut last season.
But Calipari had some pull with this event, so here the Bulls are, getting what amounts to a home game against the mighty Wildcats.
"For us to be on that same stage, it's a huge plus for our program and university," Antigua said. "It is typical Cal. It speaks to the kind of person he is. When he talks about family, it's not lip service. He means it. You see that from his players to the people that have worked for him and with him.
"Just the fact that we're in this tournament, it's consistent with who he is."
But stepping out from under Calipari's enormous shadow can be difficult. Before leading Kentucky to four Final Fours in the last five years, he went 137-14 in his final four seasons at Memphis, making three Elite Eights and a national championship game.
So while Pastner (since taking over at age 31) has been plenty successful — at least 24 wins each of his first five seasons, including 31 in 2013 — he has not reached a Sweet 16 and last year failed to make the tournament altogether. Tigers fans are antsy.
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Pastner recently called Calipari "maybe the best coach in the game today, regardless if it's pro or college," and those are big shoes to fill.
At South Florida, while Kentucky was in the midst of winning its first 38 games last season with a team Antigua helped assemble, he suffered through an 11-game losing streak with a bare-bones roster. Year 2 as a head coach started with four straight losses (the first three by five, three and six points) before the Bulls broke through to beat a good Albany team Tuesday.
Calipari calls weekly to check on and encourage him. One of their most recent conversations was Antigua phoning to congratulate Calipari on yet another No. 1 recruiting class and victory over Duke in the same week. The Cats signed five five-star recruits for 2016, while Antigua was over the moon to have landed a single four-star.
But it was no small feat for his program to sign forward Troy Baxter, a top-100 prospect with offers from Arizona State, Arkansas, Connecticut and Kansas State. Antigua signed another four-star recruit in his first class at USF and landed transfers from Gonzaga, Maryland and Penn State.
"Both (Antigua and Pastner) are in tough situations, tough jobs," Calipari said, but "they were hired for a reason. They're good people. They're gatherers. They're great recruiters. People want to be around them. They're also great teammates. They would step back so someone else would step up. That's why our staffs were so good. Now they're doing it as head coaches, and I get to sit there and watch it, and with pride.
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"I struggle when they lose, and I'm ecstatic when they win. Both are young coaches who are as good at their age as anybody."
Before UK's loss in the Final Four, Antigua was the only coach to beat last season's Cats. He was leading the Dominican Republic national team — a gig he inherited from Calipari — and beat his old boss in a summer exhibition game in the Bahamas. But this meeting will be different, because it counts.
"It'll be weird. It'll be very strange," Antigua said. "He's someone I look up to an awful lot. It may look like a practice, I think. We'll be calling each other's plays out. But maybe not. He changes every year, adds something every year, which is one of the things he doesn't get enough credit for. He adjusts to his talent.
"Cal is the best, and this is really exciting for me and my team to have this opportunity."
The event has turned into an extended celebration of Calipari's Hall of Fame induction, which he punctuated by calling up dozens of former players and staff onto the stage at the end of his speech this summer. He cherishes chances to get the family back together, so Thanksgiving in South Beach will be special.
"There's nothing that makes me happier than the people around me stepping up and getting opportunities," Calipari said, "because if I'm doing my job, I need to be about them and their success and helping them get where they're trying to go."
Kyle Tucker can be reached at (502) 582-4361. Email him at ktucker@courier-journal.com.