Crawford | Relaxed Calipari arrives at Arkansas, hoping to renew his legacy | Louisville Sports

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — When he took the stage at Bud Walton Arena on the University of Arkansas campus for the first time as the Razorbacks' new basketball coach Wednesday night, former Kentucky coach John Calipari had a familiar look.

He looked like a president the first time you saw him after he was out of office. Like many of my friends two months after leaving media work. Like Denny Crum when I saw him a few months after he left the University of Louisville coaching position.

He looked relaxed. He looked relaxed. I expect that as time goes on, Calipari will look renewed.

I have no reason to want the best for Calipari. I wasn't close to him. I don't remember ever having a one-on-one conversation with him. However, when I saw him working the room as he has worked in so many rooms in this commonwealth, I found myself hoping that he would find some happiness at his next college stop.

This doesn't always happen. For the rare tournament coaches who move on to coach elsewhere, the rule is often that they have lived their best days, competitively speaking.

The next chapter is more condemnation than triumph. Bob Knight at Texas Tech University is the archetype. Rick Pitino won a title after leaving Kentucky, but there were tough times. But the thing with Calipari is that he still has the ability to play. He struggled in the postseason (and yes, that's what the college game is all about), but he still got great talent.

Calipari is an interesting case. He can still attract the best young players in America. The problem is that the best young players are not what is needed to win national championships anymore. You need experienced players. You need to be aware of what transfers to add, how much talent to accumulate, and how much to pay.

To some extent, Calipari still seems like a coach stuck in the old world. It speaks to the great facilities in Houston. Facilities are no longer as important as they used to be. Facilities aren't the reason Kentucky can't guard Jack Gohlke.

But even in his first appearance at Arkansas, Calipari attacked Kentucky athletics director Mitch Barnhart, as I thought when he said: “Basketball coaches win games. Coaches win championships. And you know why? Because they want to. And it's important to them.”

Salaries say otherwise. Calipari was the CEO of Kentucky basketball. Successes were his. So were the shortcomings. Let's leave it as it is. There is enough support in Kentucky to win national championships.

Other than that, Calipari reenacted some of his greatest hits for the Arkansas crowd. The lines fell with a new red color. They will continue to go down, unless Calipari can't win. Unless he can't adapt to the new landscape.

In Jim Collins' famous book, Good to Great, Kroger Grocers and A&P faced the same brutal realities in the late 1960s. Both companies have conducted research showing that department stores are the way of the future. A&P looked at the data, took into account the cost of redesigning each store, thought about having to change the way it had done business for more than a century, and then dumped the data.

Kroger looked at the same data, accepted that what it was doing wouldn't be sustainable, and began working to modernize its stores.

You know where companies are today.

When you see that the way you did things was not working, it is not the time to redouble your efforts. How Calipari responds to that reality, more than anything Calipari does, will determine his success, or lack thereof, at Arkansas.

Calipari knows who he is. In a smart move, he resisted the temptation to perform the traditional school song “Woo Pig Sooie!” hymn. He is the son of a steel worker from Pittsburgh. He doesn't need to call any pigs. This is not an image the world needs. What was needed was a confident Hall of Fame coach embracing a new chapter. That's what college basketball has got.

As for Kentucky, Calipari's parting idea was next.

“We've been there 15 years, guys,” he said. “And great times, great accomplishments – 40 NBA players, 30 kids graduated. I love that country. I love the governor. The people are the salt of the earth. They're generous. They're kind. They grew up like we did. They grew up like we did. . . . “All I can say is we loved our time there. We gave everything we had of everything we had to that job and that state and that school. So I walk away sad, but I don't know any regrets. We left nothing on the table. There's not much that “We could have tried to do it.”

Calipari said he spoke to a priest while he was in Phoenix for the Final Four and described his dilemma of choosing between returning to work at Kentucky, making the change and going to Arkansas. Calipari said his friend advised him to walk for an hour, and to remember during the first half hour that he was Arkansas' coach. On the way back, he had to think that he would return to Kentucky.

“And you will see what moves your heart and what you want to do,” Calipari said the priest told him. “And I did. And I'll be honest. When I thought about coming here, building this program and making it something special, that got me excited.”

Calipari didn't say so, but the idea of ​​returning to Kentucky to mend frustrations with fans, mend fences with officials and perhaps some reinforcements may have made him a little weary.

At Arkansas on Wednesday, Calipari shed that weight. Now we'll see how he does again without him, and who decides to pick him up in his place at Kentucky.

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