The more you hear John Calipari talk, the more you understand that he has a tendency to, well, exaggerate. There are tons of examples, whether it’s saying that Doneal Mack led the country in points per minute last season (he wasn’t even close) or even on Saturday when he told the Marshall media that the Tigers were getting 17,000 in the building for Christian Brothers.
Here’s another one, courtesy of the Seattle Times and Bud Withers, their fine college basketball writer. In the article, Withers writes about the success of Memphis, Vanderbilt and Tennessee, and he gets Calipari talking about the differences between the schools, the philosophies, recruiting and a number of topics. But, for the sake of accuracy, we must point out that Calipari gets a few things wrong. A couple highlights:
– Tennessee, he says, is a full eight hours across the state from Memphis.
Well, I’ve driven the Memphis-to-Knoxville route. I drive like a normal person, and I can make it easily under six hours. But, I guess if you factor in a long lunch at the Loveless Cafe and the time change, it might take you eight hours. You could maybe even squeeze in a tour of the Jack Daniel’s distillery.
– “They’re closer to Washington, D.C., than they are Memphis,” he (Calipari) says.
Sorry, coach. According to Google maps, D.C. is 493 miles from Knoxville. Memphis, according to the same map, is 391 miles from Knoxville.
– Calipari notes Memphis is the only college program in the country that regularly shares an arena with an NBA team.
Is there a new building in Milwaukee? Maybe I didn’t get the memo.
– Memphis schedules Tennessee; in fact, Calipari says the Vols, who visit Feb. 23, will be “the most talented team to come into our building” in his eight seasons there.
This, of course, is all a matter of opinion. And there’s no doubt UT is talented. More talented than the 2005-06 Texas team with P.J. Tucker, LaMarcus Aldridge, Daniel Gibson and A.J. Abrams? More talented than Louisville’s Final Four team with Francisco Garcia, Larry O’Bannon, Taquan Dean and Ellis Myles? More talented than the 2002-03 Illinois team with Brian Cook, Dee Brown, Luther Head, Deron Williams, etc.?
I’ll admit, you can at least debate the last one. But the other three are clear exaggerations. These aren’t malicious exaggerations, but it’s always fun to point them out.
in Tiger Basketball
Responses to “Cal likes to talk and talk”
January 17th, 2008 at 1:09 pm
Dan,
When you took this job, did the Commercial Appeal tell you that the job required you to wear a messy hairstyle like Gary Parrish? You are sooooo lucky to have the Coach Cal to quote everyday. Atleast he’s not boring.
January 17th, 2008 at 1:24 pm
okay, so he gets some things wrong. Cal had probably haeard the “closer to D.C.” thing before, but the actual reference is it Tri-Cities. So his geography of Tennessee is not quite right.
And so he forgot about the Milwaukee Bucks…I am sure many people in Milwaukee don’t consider the Grizz as an NBA frachise, either.
And so he is trying to out Pearl the Pearl…remember last years lack of respect thing?
January 17th, 2008 at 3:17 pm
Dan, you left out the falsehood about UT getting tons of funding from the state. The UTAD gets exactly $0 from the state of Tennessee. It is entirely self-funded. Cal knows this. He needs to quit complaining and start backing up his “we get anyone we want from Memphis” line (Thaddeus Young, Wayne Chism, Elliot Williams?)
January 17th, 2008 at 3:21 pm
Dan,
You have unbelievable access to the BEST team in the country and the BEST coach in the country. Most of the people who read your reports and comments do so, not because they like your style of writing, it’s because they love Cal and the Tigers. Be careful not to get yourself in a crack with the Tiger faithful. I- for one- was not enlightened or amused by your pointing these things out. C’mon- you were doing so well!!!
January 17th, 2008 at 4:18 pm
hey Jim, go back and look at Tennessee@Knoxville’s athletic budget from a year or two ago, when they had to borrow money from the main university to balance their $70M+ athletic budget.
Research how the bulk of phase 2 of the Neyland renovation is being funded. (I’ll save you the time–$14M of the $18M is coming from the Tennessee Secondary School Bond Authority. The bond issue is supposed to be paid off by stadium revenues over the years, but the money is still technically coming from the state. If Tennessee@Knoxville defaults on the bond payments, what is the state going to do, tear out part of Neyland?)
And Cal is generally complaining about the discrepancy in funding between the academic sides of Tennessee@Knoxville and The University, which does exist.
January 17th, 2008 at 5:10 pm
I agree D, Cal is not really talking about funding of atheletic departments, but the University as a whole. Note the comment about real-estate investment as his example.
State funding of current educational expenses per student is fairly equal, but the level of investment in programs for UTK is astronomically higher (space institute anyone?).
And by the way, the UT system’s administrators and their support staffs (specifically including athletic directors) are paid for by the state.
January 17th, 2008 at 9:20 pm
Haha… do you guys not know why the state of Tennessee witholds funding from Tiger high???
I believe it was something Jesus said about casting pearls before swine. Hahahahaha!!!
But seriously, for Memphis to be considered by the SEC, the first thing they need to do is get the Liberty bowl out of the ghetto by claiming manifest destiny around the UofM campus and getting for than 1000 MEMPHIS fans to come to the game. Instant revenue guaranteed and recruits will notice.
Sorry guys, but the SEC helps those who help themselves. Btw, get that dumbazz out of the mayor’s chair while you’re at it.
January 19th, 2008 at 10:36 am
Tom Harrison, what are you afraid of? The truth? Was there one thing written in Wolken’s blog that was not true?
January 19th, 2008 at 3:38 pm
Dan & Chris,
Tom Harrison is not afraid of anything. He’s asking the same question that I have been asking on the CA Message Board, this blog, to Dan Wolken directly and to Gary Robinson, Sports Editor:
Is there anything wrong with some POSITIVE REPORTING?
I keep being told that Dan is not a cheerleader. He is not a critic then, either, right? If you want to blunt his being a homer, shouldn’t his negativism be muted, too?
Coach Cal is colorful, passionate and driven. People like that splinter facts all the time. Quite frankly, I will give him a pass on the geography lessons as long as he puts a winning product on the floor and graduates his players. He is doing both!
I am of the opinion that with all of the developing angles in U of M basketball this year, devoting a blog to this topic is downright offensive and disrepectful. I’m with you Tom - Dan was doing a good job but he really fell off the wagon with this piece of garbage.
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