Well, it happened.

Calipari led a Memphis basketball team back to New York and Madison Square Garden for a little unfinished business in its second straight appearance in the National Invitation Tournament semifinals.

The Tigers defeated Temple 78-77 in the semifinals then cruised to a 72-62 victory over South Carolina to capture the University's first post-season title in any intercollegiate sport.

• Calipari served as assistant coach under Ted Owens and Larry Brown from 1982 to 1985.

Memphis also captured Conference USA's National Division title with a 12-4 record. The Tigers rolled off a school-record 10 consecutive wins to begin Conference USA play. The U of M would end up winning its division by three games.

Without starting forward Kelly Wise, who suffered a late-season strained right knee, Memphis lost three straight games in February but rebounded to win at South Florida then posted an 88-61 win against DePaul in front of a national CBS television audience to capture the divisional title.

Memphis closed out the regular season playing at Cincinnati with a conference title on the line. The U of M played the eventual NCAA Tournament No. 1 seed even for 40 minutes before losing to the Bearcats in overtime, 80-75.

A former KU assistant who is a long-shot for the position.

But the Tigers played the hand they were dealt and ran the table en route to an NIT championship.

Calipari's second Memphis team had a reputation for defense and became only the third team in 38 seasons to hold opponents under 40 percent shooting for the year (.395). The squad was just the second in the past 25 years to out rebound opponents by greater than five boards per game (+6.6). Memphis's defensive 29.3 three-point field goal percentage also led C-USA.

For a second straight year, Memphis set a school record for attendance, drawing 349,737 fans for 21 home games (16,654 average).

Capping off the season was a Victory Parade down Memphis's most famous street and a presentation of the NIT trophy to Memphis Mayor Willie Herenton's office.

• Diogu lifts Devils past Memphis (3-21-2003)

By wins, Calipari has the fifth best career start in NCAA history through both nine and 10 seasons. The top 10 lists includes Kansas' Roy Williams, Kentucky's Tubby Smith, Syracuse's Jim Boeheim and former UNLV coach Jerry Tarkanian.

Calipari will begin the 2002-03 season already among those coaches listed for the top 10 career starts through 11 collegiate seasons.

The Memphis Beginning

In an instant, John Calipari had the city of Memphis abuzz about Tiger basketball.

Local television and radio stations went live at the press conference to introduce Calipari as the University of Memphis' 16th head basketball coach on March 11, 2000. He was introduced to an overflow audience of fans in The Pyramid's Tiger Club Room later in the day.

In a matter of a few hours, the University of Memphis had seized March Madness. With his down-to-earth demeanor, his knowledge of Memphis basketball history and his expectations for the future of the program, folks left the Pyramid that March afternoon knowing Tiger basketball was in good hands.

And in his first year, Memphis exceeded expectations. The U of M won 20+ games for the first time in five seasons, posting a 21-15 record. The Tigers advanced to the Conference USA Tournament semifinals for the first time since 1996 and capped the year with a third-place finish at the TiVo NIT.

For the first time since becoming a charter member of C-USA, Memphis swept four, two-game series against National Division opponents. In Calipari's two seasons the Tigers now have swept eight, two-game series.

How Calipari had his first Tiger team playing at season's end was a far cry from the U of M's 4-8 start. Memphis played three NCAA Sweet 16 teams during the opening weeks of the season and five others which advanced to post-season play during the first weeks of the season.

Memphis would roll off eight consecutive wins to begin the new year and were in contention all season for a league championship. The U of M finished the season just a game out of first place, marking the squad's highest finish since capturing a share of the inaugural conference title in 1996.

In Calipari's first season, the U of M also broke both the season total (290,864) and season average (17,110) records for paid attendance.

In The Community

Calipari's endeavors in the community and on the University of Memphis campus have rivaled the strides the Tigers made on the court during the coach's first two seasons.

Last fall he teamed with Philadelphia 76er Allen Iverson and Reebok to unveil the first of several new I3 basketball courts which they are building throughout Memphis and Shelby County. The first dedicated courts are located near downtown at Foote Homes and Dixie Homes.

"One thing that brings this city together is Memphis basketball," Calipari said at the dedication. "We want to reach out in our community. And we're going to try to make this community proud."

Calipari, Iverson and Reebok are expected to build 10 and 15 courts throughout Memphis and Shelby County in the next two years.

The inner-city basketball court project is just one of many charitable endeavors Calipari has been involved in since becoming a member of the Memphis community.

Calipari has made several financial contributions to the University and has been honored by the Friends of the New McWherter Library on the U of M campus. He presented the U of M a check for $40,000 which resulted from a partnership between Calipari and Pace Cooper, president and CEO of Cooper Companies, the owner of the restaurant, Cal's Championship Steakhouse in the Hilton East Memphis.

At the conclusion of his first season at Memphis, Calipari joined several area business leaders to form the Y.E.S. Foundation, an organization designed to educate middle school students about the importance of academics and athletics. Y.E.S., an acronym, for Youth Education Through Sports, held its first camp on the U of M campus in August. Over 25 schools are taking part in the program.

Also on campus, Calipari has been responsible for raising money and making donations for improvements at the U of M's tennis complex, air conditioning in the Elma Roane Fieldhouse and having courts resurfaced for use by Memphis students for outdoor basketball.

Calipari has founded a program called NetWorks. The program brings together business leaders from throughout the community to network, find employment opportunities and place former U of M players following their playing careers.

Early in his tenure at the U of M, Calipari began developing a relationship with Memphis-based FedEx. The past two summers the overnight courier has employed Memphis student-athletes in its internship program. It is a program where the Tigers gain valuable experience in an area related to their field of study.

Prior to Memphis

Calipari returned to college basketball last year after working the previous season as an assistant coach with the Philadelphia 76ers and two-plus seasons as the head coach of the New Jersey Nets.

Prior to moving to the NBA, 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 10 Conference play.

In addition to five straight NCAA Tournaments, UMass also made two appearances in the NIT during Calipari's eight-year tenure, advancing to the NIT Final Four in 1991. The 1990-91 season was the first of six straight seasons under Calipari in which the Minutemen won at least 20 games.

Calipari's personal 20-win streak reached the seven-season mark as his first Memphis team won 21 games last year.

In his final season at UMass, Calipari was named the 1996 Naismith National Coach of the Year and The Sporting News Coach of the Year. He was also named the Atlantic 10 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, 1995-96 season, Massachusetts 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 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, posting 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.

Calipari left UMass in June of 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 with the club's highest league finish. 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, who Calipari was an assistant for at Kansas.

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).

The 42-year old native of Moon, Pa., lettered two years at North Carolina-Wilmington before transferring to Clarion State. He was the starting point guard at Clarion during the 1981 and 1982 seasons, leading the team in assists and free throw percentage while averaging 10 points per game. The Eagles were ranked in the Division II Top 20 both years and participated in the 1981 NCAA Division II Tournament.

Calipari and his wife Ellen have two daughters, Erin Sue and Megan Rae, and a son, Bradley Vincent.

—Courtesy of Memphis sports information