Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 26, 1992 TAG: 9203260105
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BILL BRILL SPORTSWRITER
DATELINE: PHILADELPHIA LENGTH: Medium
UMass gets no respect.
UMass shouldn't be here.
What is a UMass, anyway?
"It gets a little tiring," the UMass grad said Wednesday. "All that stuff about no respect.
"They're not David. They're in the Sweet 16. They may not be Goliath, but they're sure not David."
Rick Pitino, the speaker of those words, has a vested interest in his alma mater's basketball team. His Kentucky Wildcats play UMass tonight in the NCAA East Regional at the Spectrum. Top-ranked Duke plays Seton Hall in the second game of the regional.
Pitino knows John Calipari, the UMass coach. He was on the selection committee that hired Calipari, then 28, four years ago.
He even played UMass this season. The game, of course, was at Rupp Arena. Pitino isn't about to visit "The Cage," the 4,000-seat arena where UMass plays.
Before that game, Massachusetts arrived at Kentucky after a 19-hour flight from Anchorage, where the Minutemen had just won the Alaska Shootout.
Kentucky won, predictably, 90-69.
If UMass pulls off the upset - the high-profile Wildcats are favored by four points - Calipari's team will be one step from the Final Four.
But to hear the coach and the players talk Wednesday, you'd think nobody believes they're any good.
Jim McCoy, the all-time UMass leading scorer with 2,285 points, said: "Absolutely, we don't get any respect. We hear that it's hard to get up for UMass.
"We beat Oklahoma, we beat Iowa State, and we still didn't get any respect. When we beat Syracuse [to advance to the regional], people said Syracuse didn't play well.
"When we lost at Kentucky, everybody said we can't play with the big boys. We got a lot of criticism. We'll see what happens."
Calipari, his own commitment to the UMass program often questioned, agreed. "We use that to prepare."
This is the last of the four years in Calipari's contract, and he's heard the stories about him leaving. He was supposed to go to Wichita State, which hired Scott Thompson, the coach from Rice. He was supposed to to to Southern Cal, and the job wasn't even open.
Then, with a grin, he said, "There are a couple of other jobs out there."
Calipari has worked for the original moving-van coach, Larry Brown, at Kansas.
Everybody expects Calipari to leave because UMass is not in the basketball mainstream.
The Minutemen have one previous NCAA appearance. In 1962, a 15-9 squad was beaten by New York University by 20 points in the first round.
Their most famous player - their only famous player - was Dr. J, Julius Erving, who lives in Philadelphia and will cheer for his alma mater tonight.
But Calipari has delivered the goods, as he promised, when, upon being named the youngest coach in Division I, he said four years ago that he'd take the program to new heights.
His teams won 10 games, then 17, then 20. This team is 30-4.
"No one will play us," Calipari said. "In order to get Oklahoma [to play in Springfield], I had to guarantee two road games."
The problem, Boston writer Bob Ryan said, "is that John doesn't understand that absolutely nobody in Massachusetts cares about the state university."
There were eyebrows raised when UMass was given a No. 3 seed in the NCAA field, and permitted to play at nearby Worcester, Mass., where it admittedly had a large following.
"We were sixth in the RPI ratings," Calipari said, not revealing who told him what the NCAA computer rankings showed. "We deserved a No. 2 seed.
"But I didn't think we'd command the respect from the [NCAA basketball] committee. I thought we'd be a four or a five.
"Was I surprised we got a three and played in Worcester? Absolutely. Did we deserve a three? Absolutely. We've proven we deserved it."
McCoy, one of four starters who scored more than 1,000 points, said he's amazed at how far UMass has come in such a short period.
"Did I think we'd be here? No way. Four years ago, I didn't think I'd be here. I was thinking about transferring where someone would come see me play.
"We had to beg people to come see us. We were lucky if we could get 200."
Now, the Minutemen are two victories from playing before 50,000 in the Minneapolis Metrodome.
by CNB