
Kentucky’s highly successful but controversial coach, John Calipari, should be used to being called a lightning rod by now. He has been portrayed as the most polarizing figure in college basketball since Jerry Tarkanian ever since the NCAA forced teams he coached at Massachusetts and Memphis to vacate two Final Four appearances in 1996 and 2008, the first after Marcus Camby admitted receiving $28,000 from two sports agents and investigators determined Derrick Rose had committed academic fraud on his SAT entrance examination.