Moon's John Calipari chases NCAA Tournament victory for Kentucky without losing sight of his roots

Five years ago, John Calipari signed a 10-year, $86 million contract extension to remain Kentucky’s coach for the remainder of this decade.

He sat inside PPG Paints Arena on Wednesday — not far from the brightly lit floor where Kentucky (23-9) will play Oakland (23-11) on Thursday in an NCAA Tournament first-round game — and remarked, matter-of-factly, that 58 of his Kentucky players have earned $4 billion in the NBA.

“Not million, billion,” he said. “I mean, it will be $6 billion in the next two years.”

Money matters, of course, in the current era of big-time college basketball. Yet it doesn’t diminish Calipari’s fondness and respect for growing up in Moon, where his father worked in the J&L Steel Mill — so close to the blast furnaces that he thought he might die, Calipari said — and the family was forced to do layaway four and five months in advance just to have nice things.

“That’s how we got Christmas,” he said.

“Someone said, ‘Did you go to a hockey game?’

His response: “Where would you get the money to go to a hockey game?”

Thank goodness for Uncle Joe, who had two Steelers season tickets for years and allowed young nephew John to tag along a time or two.

“None of us had much, but we never did without,” Calipari said, proudly.

Growing up in Western Pennsylvania meant a lot to the Hall of Fame coach with 855 victories in 32 seasons at UMass, Memphis and Kentucky. Calipari loves coming back home where he still has plenty of aunts, uncles and cousins.

“My high school teammates are still my best friends,” he said. “They still come to the games, and they say, ‘You know, we were all brought up the same way.’

“Our fathers were laborers. Mom raised us and (encouraged) hope and dreams and you can do whatever. And, you know, you were taught, there’s nothing in this world that’s going to be given to you. You’re going to have to go take what you want, and if you don’t work, you will not eat.

“That was the famous line.”

There are a variety of logistical and basketball priorities on Calipari’s to-do list this week, but he said he may allow himself time to briefly step away from the demands of his job.

“I’ll probably take the tour of my grandparents’ house and my other grandparents’ (house) and our house where I grew up and the (Moon) high school,” he said. “I normally come back and do the whole drive.”

He even put in a call to Mike Tomlin, a good friend. He hoped the Steelers coach — or “Stillers,” as Calipari noted Pittsburghers call them — had time to speak to his team before the game.

“He’s at a pro day somewhere, can’t do it,” he said.

Meanwhile, Calipari reminded reporters of the city’s sports history.

How many college basketball coaches getting ready for the NCAA Tournament this week referenced Bill Mazeroski in their pregame news conferences?

How many are friends with former Pirates manager Clint Hurdle?

How many know “jagoff” is not a curse word, but you still don’t want to be called one?

How many know it’s “pop” in this town, not soda?

Calipari, 65, actually played a part in one bit of Pittsburgh sports history. In 1988, he helped recruit Sean Miller, Bobby Martin, Jason Matthews, Darelle Porter and Brian Shorter to Pitt, perhaps the greatest freshman class in Pitt basketball history.

“I have a picture (of those players) in my office in Kentucky,” he said. “They’ve all stayed in touch. What a great group.

“Sean (now the Xavier coach) was like family. Darelle always wanted to come (to Pitt). As a matter of fact, we signed him before he took an official visit. Bobby wanted to come to Pitt. Brian Shorter, I had known since he was (much younger).”

Calipari gave head coach Paul Evans credit for recruiting Matthews, who was from Los Angeles. But the young assistant made at least one cross-country flight to lure Matthews east.

“My time at Pitt was special to me,” he said. “It’s when I got my first full-time job. You know, coach (Roy) Chipman hired me. Coach Evans kept me.

“And, then, I got hired by a school (UMass) that I don’t think anybody wanted the job.”

These days, Calipari tries to instill in his players the “blue-collar” work ethic that pushed his dad into the steel mill.

“Most of them are fighting for their families,” he said. “And in these kind of tournaments, they understand you’re fighting for each other.”

Which is pretty much the lessons he was taught through the 1960s.

“If you want to be better than somebody else, you better work,” he said. “That’s Pittsburgh.”