SANDESTIN, Fla. -- The cell phone in John Calipari's bag makes a noise and he says with a sly grin that it's his Twitter account going off and he needs to answer it.
By Richard Mackson, US Presswire
Wildcats head coach John Calipari waves to the crowd as he cuts down a piece of the net after winning the 2012 national championship.
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The comment brings a chuckle of amusement from the guy sitting behind him, Kentucky basketball media relations coordinator Dewayne Peevy.
And it should.
Calipari spends about as much time on social media as the average person does brushing their teeth at night. He points to a nearby closed laptop in an interview room set aside at the SEC's spring meetings earlier this week.
"If he slid it over ,I probably could get that top open," Calipari said. "Probably. But more than likely I could not turn it on. So I don't listen to it, I don't read it, I don't care."
Kentucky just won a national title a few months ago. You would think it would be a time of glee. But Coach Cal never seems to get a break. He's a cheater. He's a bad game coach. All he does is recruit one-and-done players who don't go to class.
Can't win.
But Calipari only shrugs and laughs. He knows who he is and where he wants to go. That seems to be enough -- no matter what anyone on the Internet thinks of him, good or bad.
"If there's something I need to know I get my own family (to tell him), if it's something that is vicious and I need to get a lawyer or something (Peevy) will tell me. He'll say, 'Cal, you need to deal with this one,"' he said.
Calipari mildly confesses he's happy he doesn't have to deal with being asked why he hasn't won a national title. Got one now, after this past season. And he could care less who wants to take a pot shot at how he won it -- with an influx of freshmen on a yearly basis who, thanks to the NCAA and NBA rules, must stay one year then can bolt for the pros.
"I've said the same thing over and over," he said. "It's not my rule and I don't like it at all. I even have solutions for it that I've put out publicly. But the national media want to play that negative card. They don't want to put out there what I'm saying."
Calipari wishes he had at least a couple of years with his players to help get them better prepared for life and whatever comes with it. What does he really care about? He offers a story.
"DeMarcus (Cousins) mother calls me in tears: 'Coach you won't believe this, I'm looking at the ninth hole,"' he begins.
Calipari responds: "What are you talking about?"
The mother's response: "DeMarcus bought me a home and I'm looking out at the golf course."
Calipari starts to smile, a little.
"What -- you golf now?" he recalls of his response.
"No," the proud mother replies.
Then Calipari jokes: "Well, why did you buy a home on the golf course for gosh sakes?"
He pauses and smiles at the story. It's got nothing directly to do with basketball. It's about overcoming social status to reach a better life.
"He bought her a home and (she said), 'I can't believe it, this is all I worked for, two jobs trying to raise these kids by myself. It's over, I'm now through my son able to live our dream,"' Calipari recalled being told. "Tell me, does that every get old?
"If I'm doing it just for me? What's next? You hear what I'm saying? I look at this and say, 'Who are the next group of families and young people that we can help their lives change."'
Cousins was one of those one-and-dones now in the NBA. There's a bunch more before him and a bunch more coming in the June 28 draft.
Anthony Davis, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist and Marquis Teague are all freshmen who declared and will go in the first round, workouts in the next few weeks with teams being a final determining factor for most. Davis should go No. 1 to New Orleans. Kidd-Gilchrist is projected to go in the top five and Teague in the bottom of the first round.
All told, Kentucky could have six players taken. Sophomores Doron Lamb and Terrence Jones are lock first-rounders with the lone senior -- Darius Miller -- the one who could fall to the second.
So Calipari is fired up. He's ready for the draft that will change lives. He's ready for another season to change some more.
Calipari has another group of certain one-and-dones coming in and another group certain to contend for another title. He knows there will continue to be doubters. He knows there are those who don't like his methods. And he doesn't seem to really care.
"I have a sign that goes all along my wall (in his office) that reads in big letters, 'Coach the team,"' Calipari said. "All this other crap, can I be honest? To come here right now to this part of this (a media appearance at the SEC meetings) really to me it's like going to the dentist. Do we want to do an all-access? No, do it at another school. But seeing those kids, Darius Miller and Eloy Vargas walk, get their college degree, knowing that we had a 3.2 grade point average as a team, 10 players over a 3.0, knowing that the three freshmen finished the term -- all of the term -- in other words two of them had four classes and one of them had five classes and they finished them all over 3.0.
"The point of, 'Well they don't go to school,' that's a bunch of crap. That's a bitter old man wanting to act like you can't do this stuff and that's not true. But again when you are changing cycles in families lives that's the excitement in this. If we win another (national title), fine.
"Everybody thinks that at Kentucky you have to win a national title every year. The reality is then we would have won 40. We didn't win 40, we've won eight. You win them about every 13 or 14 years. But they want you in the hunt. Alabama football, Florida football, they want you in the hunt. If you are in the hunt there will be a small percentage upset but the reality of it is they want us in the conversation in recruiting, they want us in the conversation that you have a chance. They have a right to do that."
So to all the tweets and blog postings and radio call-in doubters, Calipari has a message: He says he won't be listening. Or reading. Or caring what you have to say.
What he thinks about is changing lives. And those who think his recruitment of one-and-done players is negative to college hoops might consider this -- in a year, a coach can do a lot.
Ask the Cousins family how they enjoy the view of the golf course.
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