John Calipari
From Hoopedia
John Vincent Calipari (born February 10, 1959, in Moon Township (a suburb of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States) is a former professional and current college basketball coach. Since 2000, he has been the head coach of the University of Memphis men's basketball team. Calipari lettered two years at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington before transferring to Clarion University of Pennsylvania, where he graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Marketing. He played point guard at Clarion during the 1981 and 1982 seasons, leading the team in assists and free throw percentage.
From 1982-85, he was an assistant coach at the University of Kansas under Ted Owens and then under Larry Brown. From 1985-88, he was an assistant coach at the University of Pittsburgh under Paul Evans. From 1988-96, he was head coach at the University of Massachusetts. From 1996-99, he was head coach and Executive VP of basketball operations for the NBA's New Jersey Nets. During the 1999-2000 season, he was an assistant coach for the Philadelphia 76ers under coach Larry Brown, before moving on to his current position at the University of Memphis.
Calipari and his wife, Ellen, have two daughters, Erin Sue and Megan Rae, and a son, Bradley Vincent. He was inducted into the UMass Athletics Hall of Fame and the National Italian American Sports Hall of Fame in 2004.
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Assistant Coach
Calipari began his coaching career at Kansas as a volunteer assistant under Ted Owens. In 1983, he was hired as the recruiting coordinator at the University of Vermont, but was swayed back to the nation's heartland when Brown was hired as head coach at KU. He spent three seasons at Kansas (1982-85) before another three-year stint as an assistant coach to Paul Evans at Pittsburgh (1985-88).
UMass Head Coach
Calipari built a basketball program from the ground up at the University of Massachusetts (1988-96).
During an eight-year stint at UMass, he took the Minutemen from being a team which had struggled in the Atlantic 10 Conference to being a national powerhouse. UMass went to five-straight NCAA tournaments (1992-96), advancing to the Final Four in his last season. UMass advanced to the NCAA Sweet 16 on three occasions and two Elite Eights. The school became just the second NCAA Division I program to win five-straight regular season and conference tournament championships.
Calipari compiled a 193-71 record (.731) during his career at Massachusetts, including a 108-44 mark (.684) in Atlantic Ten play.
In addition to five-straight NCAA Tournaments, UMass also made two appearances in the NIT, advancing to the NIT final four in 1991. The 1990-91 season was the first of six-straight seasons in which the Minutemen won at least 20 games.
Calipari's personal 20-win streak has reached the 13-season mark as all seven of his Memphis clubs have won 20-plus games.
In his final season at UMass, Calipari was named the 1996 Naismith National Coach of the Year and The Sporting News National Coach of the Year. He was also named the Atlantic Ten Coach of the Year for the third time in four years, as well as Basketball Times East Region Coach of the Year.
During the Minutemen's 35-2 season in 1995-96, UMass posted wins over Maryland, Wake Forest, Georgia Tech, Syracuse, Virginia Tech and Louisville. UMass ended the regular season ranked No. 1 in the nation in the final regular season poll after being the top-ranked team for nine weeks earlier in the year. The Minutemen also won their first 26 games of the season, setting a school record for most consecutive wins.
In addition to his National Coach of the Year honors in 1996, Calipari was a Naismith Coach of the Year finalist in 1994 and 1995. He was the USBWA District I Coach of the Year in 1993.
Calipari's accomplishments are made even more impressive when you consider what he started with at UMass. Prior to his arrival, UMass had suffered through 10-straight losing seasons.
At 29, when he was named head coach, Calipari began to build a program from the ground up, going 10-18 his first season before posting a 17-14 record his second year and receiving a bid to the National Invitation Tournament (NIT). UMass made a late season run in 1991, advancing to the NIT's Final Four.
The Minutemen won their first A-10 championship in 1992 with a 30-5 record, including a 13-3 mark in league play. With a 77-71 overtime win over Syracuse in an East Regional second-round game, UMass made its first Sweet 16 appearance.
Off the court, UMass' graduation rate for its basketball players was close to 80 percent.
NBA Years
Calipari left UMass in June 1996 to become Executive Vice President of Basketball Operations and Head Coach of the New Jersey Nets. He led the Nets to a second-place finish in the NBA's Atlantic Division and the playoffs in 1998, ending a five-year postseason drought for the franchise. The Nets' 17-game turnaround from the previous year was the best that season in the NBA.
He joined the Philadelphia 76ers coaching staff in 1999, rejoining Philadelphia coach Larry Brown, for whom Calipari was an assistant at Kansas.
Memphis Head Coach
In Calipari's first seven years as head coach at Memphis, he won 181 games, posted seven straight 20-win seasons and earned seven consecutive postseason bids. He set the school record with 33 victories in 2005-2006, and tied it in 2006-2007. Calipari's 181 victories and 25.9 wins per year are the most by a Tiger coach in his first seven seasons. The seven consecutive 20-win seasons are the most for the Tigers since 1982-89 and the seven consecutive postseason appearances are the most in school history. He was named Conference USA Coach of the Year in 2006.
Calipari has been largely credited with not only revitalizing the Memphis program, but also re-energizing the city's love affair with Memphis Tigers basketball. He has built a national program by recruiting blue chip players from all across the country, such as Derrick Rose from Chicago (IL), Shawne Williams from Memphis (TN), Darius Washington Jr. from Orlando (FL), and Dajuan Wagner from Camden (NJ).
At Memphis, Calipari has popularized the Memphis Attack offense that was invented by Pepperdine basketball coach, Vance Walberg.
On January 21, 2008, Calipari led the Tigers to the #1 ranking in the Associated Press Poll for the second time in school history. Calipari won his 200th game as the Memphis head coach on Saturday, January 26, 2008 with a 81-73 victory over the Gonzaga Bulldogs, reaching that milestone faster than any Tiger mentor.
