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Dick Weiss

Cal and Skal

 

INDIANAPOLIS—  John Calipari has been officially voted into the Naismith Hall of Fame. 

 No argument there .

Calipari has coached three different schools — UMass, Memphis and Kentucky– to NCAA Final Fours and he has won a national championship with the Cats in 2012. He has built a perennial national championship contender  in the Bluegrass taking Kentucky to four Final Fours in the past five years.
Ironically, Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan whose Badgers defeated Kentucky, 71-64, in the national semi-finals here and advance to last night’s championship game against Duke was also a candidate for the Hall, but he  fell short of the 18 of 24 votes required for enshrinement..
There should be room for both of them.
Calipari may have the more glitzy resume. He has accomplished  enormous success at Kentucky with out of the box thinking,  zeroing in on recruits that are  one-and-dones and sending 19 Kentucky players to the pros since 2010. Calipari had  seven players, including 6-11 freshman forward and potential top overall pick Karl-Anthony Towns– who declared for the draft this spring. 
Ryan has taken a quieter approach, winning four national Division III championships at Wisconsin-Platteville and coaching Wisconsn two 14 consecutive appearances in the NCAA tournament while advancing to the Final Four the past two years without any players who were McDonald’s All Americans. 
“If I’m not at Kentucky, I’m not sure this happens,”’Calipari said. “When I was coaching UMass and Memphis, 0always felt I was at the little kids table. I  always dreamed at sitting at the big table where I’d have a chance to carve the turkey. I was 50 and had been coaching 20 years when I finally got a big job. Now, I’m fighting for the knife.”’  
Calipari has made the most of it  and, despite the disappointment of Saturday night’s 71-64 loss to Wisconsin in the national semi-finals at Lucas Oil Stadium, he sounds like he has finally put off dreams of returning to the NBA away and will stay put in the biggest fish bowl in college basketball even if it means replacing Towns, 7-0 junior Willie Cauley-Stein, freshman forward Trey Lyles, sophomores Aaron and Andrew Harrison, 7-0  sophomore Dakari Johnson, and freshman guard Devin Booker from a 38-1 team that finished two games short of a perfect 40-0 season.
Calipari was heavily rumored for the Cleveland job last June after LeBron re-signed with the Cavs, but reportedly took a pass. 
“I spoke with one owner last year and came away feeling the only thing I  could do in the NBA was make players more money and win championships,”  he said. “Here, you can change kid’s lives and improve the lives of their families by getting them contracts in the NBA.”
Calipari has already validated himself by showing the skeptics he can win the big one and  then being elected to Naismith, something he  never thought  would happen on the first ballot. “When I got the call  from Jerry Colangelo, I was driving and I had to pull off the road,” he recalled. “I told him I’ll have to call you back in a minute. It was surreal for me. He’s a guy I have so much respect for and it me proud of what I do. It’s not something I ever thought would ever happen.
“I feel like a phony because I  don’t see myself this way I went around the room. I see Coach (Denny) Crum and anytime we went head to head he beat our brains in. I saw coach (Lute) Olson and every time we went head to head he beat our brains in. I saw coach (Jim) Calhoun (his long time nemesis from the University of Connecticut),, now I did beat his brains in.”
That comment drew plenty of laughter from the assembled media in the breakout room.
“I had to do it,” Calipari said.
The official announcement came just two days after one of the most catastrophic losses of Calipari’s s career.
“Thank god the hotel didn’t  have windows that opened” he joked.
“When we went up four late in the game, I figured the game is over,” he added. “I figured we’re going to win. I was sick at the end. Now, I know just how Bo felt walking off the floor when we beat his team last year in the national semi-finals.”
Caliipari , Nike global guru George Raveling, former NBA and ABA stars Dikembe Mutombo, Spencer Haywood, JoJo White and Louis Damper and NBA official Dick Bavetta were all scheduled to be introduced at  the national championship game between Duke and Wisconsin.
“I expect to be roundly booed,” Calipari said. “The day when I go to an opposing gym and aren’t booed, I’ll know  it’s time to retire.  As soon as that’s over, I’ll walk down that ramp and catch a flight to Lexington.”
Calipari was and he did.
He said he had no intention of watching the  game. It is too painful.. Besides this was the 67-year old Ryan’s chance to shine  along with Mike Krzyzewski of Duke in the national spotlight..     
  . . .
Skal Labissiere is a walking miracle.
The 7-0 University of Kentucky recruit from the Lausanne Collegiate School I Memphis came dangerously close to becoming another casualty five years ago when a 7.0 magnitude earthquake that hit Haiti, rocking the neighborhoods  close to  Port-au-Prince, the capital of that Caribbean nation.
Labissiere had just come home after practice for dinner with his family. When he arrived his father Lesley was repair a small hoop outside the family home. His mother was in the living room and his younger brother was on the balcony. Labissiere was in the kitchen washing up when the house started to shake.
He and his brother ran to their mother just because the shock waves level the home, burying them under the rubble. The only room in the house that wasn’t completely destroyed was the living room, which was shored up by a computer desk.
The three were buried for an agonizing two and a half hours before they were rescued. “I thought I was going to die. We could hear a lot of noise above us and we didn’t know if anyone heard us. Finally, my father heard my mother and ran to get help. He and two friends just started digging. I remember saying to my dad,” You promised you would get me to the NBA.”
Labissiere’s leg had been awkwardly pinned under a wall and couldn’t walk for two weeks. He spent most of the time in bed recuperating.. thinking about shattered dreams.
When Labissiere was just 11 years old, he gave up soccer to pursue the dream of becoming an NBA  player. He knew in order to achieve his ultimate goal he would have to go to school in the States where he would learn the game and play against upgraded competition. But he had no means of getting there.
That’s when Joseph Hamilton, the 34-year old husband and father of three boys stepped in to hep. Hamilton ran a non-profit organization called Reach Your Dreams, which placed talented youngers from disadvantaged nation’s in schools in America and he offered Labissiere a chanc to attend Evangelical Christian Academy in Cordova, Tenn. Labissiere enrolled in eight grade and two years later, he led his team to a state Division II championship.
Labissiere only dreams about playing for Kentucky ever since he watched a film on the Cats with Nerlens Noel. Calipari heard about him and attended his first varsity game as a sophomore, offering him a scholarship.
“It was a dream come true,” Labissiere said.
Labissiere has since transferred to Laussane for academic reasons. He played for the Reach Your Dreams Academy  team and emergd as the second best prospect in the Class of  2015 behind 6-9 Ben Simmons, an Aussie import  who is the most complete player  in high school basketball. Both were invited to participate for the  International Select team at the Nike Hoop Summit in Portland.
After a week, there was a split among NBA scouts as to who would be the first pick in the 2016 NBA draft.
Labissiere had 21 points, 6 rebounds and six blocked shots as the Internationals defeated a squad of USA McDonald’s all Americans, 103-101, at the Moda Center in Portland. Simmons, who will attend LSU had 13 points 9 rebounds and 9 assists.
Labissiere is arriving at Kentucky at just the right now after a mass exodus of players. Calipari has developed a unique way to reloading with young players who has high NBA first round potential.   Others have followed his example.
This year, Krzyzewski followed in his footsteps, delving into the stockpile for USA Basketball talent for three blue chip prospects– 6-11 Jahlil Okafor of Chicago,  6-8 forward Justise Winslow of Houston and point Tyus Jones from Apple Valley — who all declared for the draft after leading the Blue Devils to a national championship       
The decisions  by stars at two of college basketball’s blue bloods– Duke and Kentucky– have  further destabilized the college game, forcing both programs to reload. Kentucky signed Labissiere point guard Iasiah Briscoe of Roselle NJ Catholic and 6-10 Ty Weiyard of New Zealeland.
Duke signed a pair of McDonald’s All Americans- 6-5 guard  Luke Kennard of Franklin, Oh. , arguably the best high school shooter in the country; and 6-8 Chase Jeter of Bishop Gorman in Vegas.
All five played in the Hoop Summit, which is rapidly becoming the best post season high school event in the country.
And both teams figure to start life in the Top 5 again.
But Labissiere could have the biggest impact of them all because he is driven by something bigger than the game. He wants to return to Haiti to and serve as an inspiration to youngsters that you can overcome a mission impossible if you put your mind to it. 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

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Dick Weiss is a sportswriter and columnist who has covered college football and college and professional basketball for the Philadelphia Daily News and the New York Daily News. He has received the Curt Gowdy Award from the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame and is a member of the national Sportswriters Hall of Fame. He has also co-written several books with Rick Pitino, John Calipari, Dick Vitale and authored a tribute book on Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski.

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