SAN ANTONIO | Had it not been for the last coach to guide the Kansas Jayhawks to a national championship, Memphis coach John Calipari might not be where he is today.</p><p>The resurrection of Calipari, which coincides with the revival of Memphis basketball &#8212; as noted by the Tigers&#8217; spot in tonight&#8217;s national title game against Kansas &#8212; took shape when former KU coach Larry Brown nudged Calipari in that direction.</p><p>Calipari&#8217;s career was at a crossroads in 2000. He was working as an assistant for Brown with the Philadelphia 76ers after being fired from his previous job, quite a tumble for someone perceived as a rising star in his business.</p><p>After he rejoined Brown in the city of Brotherly Love &#8212; Calipari worked for Brown as a KU assistant &#8212; it wasn&#8217;t long before the Memphis job opened up. The school called Calipari, but he wasn&#8217;t necessarily ready to revive a career that once looked so promising.</p><p>&#8220;My initial thought was it was like Temple, a downtown campus,&#8221; Calipari said Sunday. &#8220;No disrespect for Temple, but it was not what I wanted to do.&#8221;</p><p>Calipari informed Brown of Memphis&#8217; interest. Brown gave Calipari a funny look.</p><p>&#8220;Larry Brown said, &#8216;You&#8217;re out of your mind. They tried to hire me (earlier in his career), and I really should have taken that job,&#8217; &#8221; Calipari said. &#8220;So when I went down to see the campus, I saw the campus and said, &#8216;Wow. I think we can do this here.&#8217; &#8221;</p><p>Why not? After all, Calipari had done it before. As a 30-something coach 12 years ago at UMass, Calipari led the Minutemen to the Final Four. Like an itchy underclassman who feels he is ready to jump to the NBA, Calipari took the leap his own way.</p><p>He signed to coach the New Jersey Nets, where he sandwiched one playoff season in between two clunkers. When the Nets opened 3-17 in 1998-99, Calipari got the pink slip. He went 72-112 in New Jersey.</p><p>KU coach Bill Self says that time for Calipari wasn&#8217;t indicative of his ability.</p><p>&#8220;You know, he rolled the dice and went to the NBA,&#8221; Self said. &#8220;It wasn&#8217;t like they didn&#8217;t win. You know, college guys going to the NBA &#8230; there&#8217;s not too many of them going to coach the Spurs or the Lakers when they&#8217;re loaded. They&#8217;re getting jobs maybe that the talent level&#8217;s not quite the same as those. That would be a hard gig.&#8221;</p><p>For Calipari, the aftermath of his NBA days left him flying under the radar, no longer the hot commodity that may have been able to land any job he wanted if he had remained in the college game.</p><p>Taking the job at Memphis certainly would provide a golden opportunity to prove Calipari was back. That&#8217;s because it wasn&#8217;t exactly like walking into a job at KU or UCLA.</p><p>The Tigers had some tradition, but it was somewhat buried. In the four seasons before Calipari arrived, Memphis went a combined 61-58 with zero NCAA Tournament appearances.</p><p>ESPN analyst Dick Vitale raves about Calipari, partly because Vitale has walked in his shoes. As a college coach at Detroit, Vitale didn&#8217;t secure all the top recruits, yet he still enjoyed some success. Nothing, though, like the ride Calipari is encountering.</p><p>&#8220;I&#8217;d walk in (to visit a recruit), tell him I&#8217;d want him to play for me at Detroit, and his head is down,&#8221; Vitale said, &#8220;and then Michigan walks in, and the kid&#8217;s head is like this (he holds it up high). There&#8217;s a difference, and that&#8217;s why I respect what he&#8217;s achieved. He&#8217;s busted his gut, is phenomenal with players who all they want is an opportunity.&#8221;