Besides re-opening a well-worn chapter in Kentucky basketball history, Brad Calipari and John Calipari will join a surprisingly large fraternity of father-son collaborations.
Press and Pete Maravich. Al and Allie McGuire. Homer and Bryce Drew. Lon and Kevin Kruger. Greg and Doug McDermott. Dick and Tony Bennett. Wade and Allan Houston. Jerry and Danny Tarkanian. And, as UK fans know, there's also Adolph and Herky Rupp, Eddie and Sean Sutton, and Tubby and Saul Smith.
To name a few.
The late Al McGuire, who had a gift for wit, famously defined a guiding principle for when father and son want to become coach and player. The son has to be the best player on the team or the worst player, he said. Anything in between raises the specter of nepotism, which fuels grumbling by fans and teammates.
Allan Houston, who was an example of the son being the best player, said McGuire was correct.
"I think it took a little bit of the pressure off [my father] and I because of the talent level ...," he said of playing for Tennessee in the 1990s. "Because I was a starter, I think that changed everything. Just impacted everything."
To be a player of middling ability "adds a whole another layer to the dynamic with teammates," Houston said. "We were blessed not to have gone through that part of it."
Doug Barnes, once an assistant for Eddie Sutton at Kentucky, had two brushes with the father-son dynamic in his coaching career. The other came at Mississippi when he watched Ed Murphy add his son, Sean, to the team.
Before making that decision, Ed Murphy checked with several coaches. He asked each coach about the wisdom of adding his son to the team.
"Each one of them said it was a mistake, and they wished they hadn't done it," Barnes said he was told by Murphy.
Yet, Murphy added his son, who became a target of fan discontent. Sean Sutton and Saul Smith know about that. Although it should be noted that Sean and Eddie Sutton enjoyed a fruitful partnership when they later reunited as player and coach at Oklahoma State.
So why do coaching fathers put their sons in that position? Barnes suggested that each father thinks his situation will be different.
Houston offered another, much more compelling reason that had more to do with father-son than coach-player.
The time demands associated with being a coach reduce the chances to be a father as the son grows up. So the coach-player relationship makes up for lost time.
"Most people, when you're in your four years of college, you grow more distant from your father," Houston said. "But we became closer because of getting to see each other, and see each other in intense moments and being together."
His father's quiet dignity while in the often calamitous coaching environment inspired Houston. "That was, to me, more impressive than any numbers I could have had," he said.
Sean Sutton also looks back on how coach-player enhanced father-son.
"My mom pretty much raised me and my brothers," he said. "[His father] did the best he could, but, I mean, he was just busy.
"It was a great opportunity for me to spend some time with him every day."
Brad Calipari said that he accompanied his father on many recruiting trips. An annual trip to Las Vegas was a favorite. "He'd always ask me if I wanted to go," the younger Calipari said. "Of course, I said, yeah."
The next four years suggest many more trips together, plus practices and other basketball settings.
Victories and defeats aside, Houston offered advice for the Caliparis, pere and fils.
"What I would encourage them to do is use that time to grow even closer," he said. "No matter how many minutes he plays, they just get to be with each other, learn about each other, help each other, support each other.
"And that will be the memories that they have because that's only four years. You've got the rest of your life to reflect on that time and that relationship. That, to me, is the bigger picture."
Sports on 04/19/2016