High school coach sensed a like-father-like-son path for Brad Calipari

Brad Calipari, who Kentucky announced Thursday was returning to the program as a graduate assistant coach, started his high school playing career at Lexington Christian Academy.

Then-LCA coach Brad Carter recalled sensing then that Calipari would follow his father’s career path.

“You never had to go over things twice with him,” Carter said earlier this year. “He was always looking at it from a coach’s perspective, and very inquisitive.”

Carter saw shooting as Calipari’s top talent as a high school player. But Calipari wanted to be a pass-first point guard (aka coach on the floor).

Because of a knee injury, Calipari watched many of LCA’s games one season from the bench. Carter recalled postgame dinners with his father, Curtis Carter, who served as a voluntary assistant coach for the LCA team.

While eating, the elder Carter would wonder aloud about coaching alternatives that might have worked in the game. The son suggested that such advice would have been better served if it had been given during the game.

“And him going, ‘Well, Brad mentioned that (coaching strategy during the game),’” Carter said of how he remembered his father’s reply.

Time demands

One early concern about name, image and likeness is whether college athletes already carrying a heavy load as players and students could be overwhelmed by the additional time demand of being commercial spokespersons, autograph signers, etc.

Former Nebraska football player Blake Lawrence said that concern was based on a “myth.” He is the co-founder and CEO of Opendorse, a company looking to help athletes and coaches deal with NIL.

On a teleconference called by The Drake Group, which lobbies for reform in college athletics, Lawrence said that in the first seven weeks of NIL, about 80 percent of NIL compensation came from social media activity.

“These aren’t your granddaddy’s endorsements,” he said on a recent teleconference. “Like, these are not commercials and video shoots and billboards and appearances and autograph signings.

“These are one-click-on-your-phone-and-make-$1,000 types of opportunities. And that’s what’s happening in markets today.”

How lucrative?

Julie Sommer, a four-time All-American swimmer for Texas, now works as a lawyer in Seattle.

On another teleconference called by The Drake Group, she spoke of how lucrative NIL deals have been so far.

In July, athletes received an average of $471 per deal, she said. Some deals for athletes with the higher profiles reached six figures.

Sommer also said that 88 percent of the July deals were driven by social media. The majority were with football players.

UK basketball players are staging the first of two collective NIL opportunities this weekend. Before a news conference Friday promoting the first, reporters were asked not to ask the UK players how lucrative the NIL deals would be.

Pay for play?

A recent teleconference featured an engaging debate about the future of college sports. But there was a consensus view: support for athletes profiting off their names, images and likenesses as long as this stopped short of athletes becoming employees of schools (i.e. a formal system of play for pay).

Big East Commissioner Val Ackerman spoke of several possible unintended consequences if schools directly pay athletes: Minimum wage? Overtime pay? Unionization? Worker’s compensation? Multiple unions on a campus based on individual sports?

“How that gets managed would be cumbersome,” she said. “This is all evolving by the day, by the week, by the month.”

Dirty word?

Andrew Zimbalist, the president-elect of The Drake Group, said reform might be more likely if the term ‘NCAA’ is not even mentioned.

“Some say the name of the association should be changed,” he said.

Zimbalist added that the term ‘NCAA’ by itself ”has become irreparably toxic. So, maybe we need to sort of dissolve it and come up with a different brand.”

Former Ohio State running back Maurice Clarett was asked if the NCAA could be trusted to lead an evolving effort to remake college athletics.

“God bless the NCAA,” he said, “but I wouldn’t want them to continue to be in charge of what’s going on.”

‘Job One’

Whatever the future holds, Big East Commissioner Val Ackerman said that the highest priority should be on continuing the NCAA Tournament more or less in its present form.

After noting the financial windfall created annual by the NCAA Tournament, she said, “I hope we can continue the NCAA Tournament — men and women.”

Then, Ackerman added, “there’s great value in having 32 conferences, not 10, involved in this event that captivates the American public every March. Keeping that intact, I think, is Job One.”

Second home

Like his father (Milt Wagner) and his now highly-regarded-as-a-prospect son (Dajuan Wagner Jr.), Dajuan Wagner is a product of Camden, N.J.

Hosts of a recent podcast asked him about the transition from New Jersey to Memphis when he played for John Calipari.

“It was different, but it was Camden,” he said. “It was in the South. They do things differently. But it was the trenches. It was Camden. So I felt at home.

“And they love basketball down there, man, and there’s some good people down there. That’s my second home.”

‘Wow’ moment

With Kentucky playing Southern this coming season in the first game of the “Unity Series,” that prompted a look at how the Jaguars did last season. The 8-11 record included a 103-76 loss at Iowa.

Luka Garza had 41 points in the game.

“I knew he was good,” Southern Coach (and former UK player) Sean Woods said. “But I didn’t know he was that good till we played them.”

That Garza had similar games against other opponents en route to being named National Player of the Year provided perspective.

“You saw him do it against everyone he played,” Woods said. “You’re, like, wow, he is that good.”

‘Meant to be’

During the McLendon Foundation’s Inaugural Leadership Weekend gathering, Harvard Coach Tommy Amaker credited John Calipari’s “brainstorm” for leading to the Minority Leadership Initiative program.

The UK coach said the program to help minority candidates gain access and opportunity for careers in athletics took only five weeks to establish.

“It just fell into place,” Calipari said, “and it was meant to be.”

Preaching teaching

During his appearance via Zoom at the Inaugural Leadership Weekend gathering Thursday, Tommy Amaker pointed out that it was his mother’s 83rd birthday. He said his mother was a school teacher for 50 years.

“I am proud to say I’m a teacher …,” Amaker said of his role as a coach. Then he told the audience of Minority Leadership Initiative Future Leaders, “never lose an opportunity to teach.”

Weighty subject

ESPN analyst Fran Fraschilla answered a recent phone call while — to put it mildly — on a walk. He said he was on his daily 7.2-mile walk.

If that doesn’t sound challenging enough, he was walking in the Colorado Rockies.

“Half of it up a mountain,” he said of the walk that usually takes about two hours.

Fraschilla, who turns 63 on Monday, said he used to jog five miles a day. Hip surgery led to a transition to walking.

Fraschilla said he had lost about 15 pounds. Then working on NBC’s coverage of Olympic basketball this summer caused a setback. Because of the 13-hour time difference, NBC set up a 24-hour commissary for staffers working the Tokyo Games remotely.

Fraschilla’s weight increased by five pounds.

Happy birthday

To UK Director of Athletics Mitch Barnhart. He turned 62 on Friday. … To Brenna Stewart. She turned 27 on Friday. … To Bob Guyette. He turns 68 on Sunday (today). … To Morakinyo “Mike” Williams. He turns 33 on Sunday (today). … To retired referee Tony Greene, who now works as the coordinator of men’s basketball officials for the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. He turns 72 on Sunday (today). … To Lukasz Obrzut. He turns 39 on Tuesday. … To Jim Andrews. He turns 70 on Wednesday. … To Kofi Cockburn. The one that got away turns 22 on Wednesday.