Steve Serby

Steve Serby

Sports

Fans see Kentucky-Louisville as the ultimate passion play

INDIANAPOLIS — In and around Louisville and Lexington, Friday night’s epic showdown between Louisville and Kentucky is another Dream Game, when Lucas Oil Stadium will transform into a rowdy, raucous chapel for apoplectic fans of both schools. The winner goes to the Elite Eight. The loser goes home to outrage and sorrow.

The protagonists in the latest and greatest college basketball holy war are no longer Mike Krzyzewski and Dean Smith, the passion play has moved from Tobacco Road to the old Kentucky homes — one in Louisville and one in Lexington — where Rick Pitino and John Calipari eat, sleep and breathe Commonwealth superiority.

Pitino’s mandate at Louisville is to bring home a back-to-back national championship, and to make sure Calipari doesn’t deny him. Calipari’s mandate is to bring home a second national championship in three seasons, and to make sure Pitino doesn’t deny him.

They have known each other for 40 years, they have both found the NBA unconquerable, and the fact they now coach 80 miles from each other means that every day they find themselves standing at the intersection of heaven and hell. Especially Friday night.

“People grieve for a year after the game,” Calipari said. “People celebrate for a year after the game. I’ve tried to not make it bigger than it is, but it doesn’t work. …

“It doesn’t matter what I say. But I have told the team, ‘We will not make this game bigger than it is.’ It’s an NCAA Tournament game, we got to play a basketball game against a really good team.”

It is the maniacal fan base of each school that make it bigger than it is.

“This week what I told them is, ‘Don’t watch any TV,’ ” Calipari said. “Watch the History Channel, watch Biography, watch the Military Channel, watch movies, and don’t read anything, don’t look at anything. It has no bearing on this game we’re about to play. Let’s just focus on that.”

It is the championship expectations of each school that shape the relationship between these two great coaches, whatever it truly is. Pitino is a Hall of Famer and Calipari will be. Pitino is 61, Calipari is 55. Pitino played at UMass. Calipari coached at UMass. Pitino coached Kentucky to the 1996 NCAA title and beat Calipari and UMass in the Final Four. Calipari beat Pitino in the 2012 Final Four, and most recently on Dec. 28.

Perhaps the passing of time has mellowed them to a degree. Perhaps they are not the Sunshine Boys.

Pitino: “We’re friends. … We respect each other’s programs very much. … I certainly have great respect for what they’re accomplishing right now. … But it really doesn’t matter what the perception is because perception is not reality in this world.”

Calipari: “I would say we’re friends. We were in touch throughout the year back and forth. He’d throw something at me, I’d throw something about him, different things about our teams. One, we’re getting older, both of us. And I think I’m not on his mind and he’s not on my mind, so to speak. We all got tough jobs what we’re doing. I know that he is a great coach. He’s done it in different programs … His kids play with great energy and they play with confidence, and it’s every year. And so the stuff about, you know, ‘They’re at each other’s throats.’ It’s just not accurate.”

Just don’t expect to see them sipping mint juleps together at the Derby.

Pitino was asked if coaching inside such a basketball-obsessed state hurts, helps or has no effect on their relationship.

“I think it hurts a little bit,” he began, “because you all bait and try to get certain answers out of us. If John says, ‘I like a certain thing,’ some people think he’s taking a shot at me or vice versa. It’s really not. We’ve talked together about that. He’s the total opposite of me with social media. I know he believes in it, and he knows I don’t believe in it. So we’re not taking sides on that. … We understand what takes place between the lines. We understand the fans’ intensity. But we don’t personalize our battles.

“We understand what it’s all about.”

The heavyweight championship of Kentucky.