‘Platooning’ question still sensitive to Calipari

John Calipari and Dan Patrick have a long, good-natured history of busting each other’s chops. But tensions ran high between them Thursday on “The Dan Patrick Show” after the host asked the Kentucky coach if he would have been better off using a short rotation instead of a platoon in the NCAA Tournament.

“If anybody wants to question me about results, like I don’t care about results, the last six years have been a pretty good run,” said Calipari, clearly annoyed. “Now, maybe you think, Basketball Benny, I should have won five national titles and been the next John Wooden — I don’t know.”

Patrick, who attended Eastern Kentucky for two years on a basketball scholarship before transferring to the University of Dayton to study broadcast journalism, told Calipari he was simply asking a question and that he was quite familiar with being a bench player.

“You stunk as a player,” Calipari said. “This is different. These guys are good players. All 10 of them will eventually be in the NBA, so why would I choose who not to play. How about I give them all a chance to play?

“We won 38 straight games. How much did it hurt our team? No one’s ever done what we did.”

An exasperated Patrick: “Coach, all this was was a question.”

When Calipari asked why they didn’t have more time, Patrick landed a solid shot.

“I’ve got other legends,” he said. “I’ve got guys who have won national championships.”

“Who got those people on your show in the next hour? Because it wasn’t you,” Calipari shot back. “I don’t know very many people that can stand you, that if you called, would come on. So you must have some very good people working for you that people like.”

■ PEACEFUL PROTEST — The two made up on Patrick’s show Friday, claiming their little tiff was much ado about nothing.

“I had a ball,” Calipari said. “Did I offend you? I hope I did, but did I offend you?”

“Only that I sucked at basketball,” Patrick replied. “That was the only thing that hurt. ... Let’s set the record straight. I wasn’t great, but you would have recruited me to UMass had you had the opportunity.”

“I thought you were gonna say Kentucky, and I would have busted out laughing,” Calipari cracked.

■ NOT TALKING ABOUT PRACTICE — Allen Iverson was drunk during his infamous “practice” rant, according to “Not a Game: The Incredible Rise and Unthinkable Fall of Allen Iverson,” a book written by Kent Babb of the Washington Post that was released this week.

In the book, Babb writes that former 76ers coach Larry Brown suspected Iverson had been drinking before the news conference, which took place four days after Philadelphia was eliminated in the first round of the 2002 NBA playoffs.

“I assumed he went and fooled around somewhere,” Brown said, tipping his hand up like a bottle, Babb wrote.

John Smallwood, a Philadelphia Daily News reporter who was at the news conference, was convinced Iverson was drunk.

“He was lit,” Smallwood said in Babb’s book. “If he had been sober, he would have been able to get himself out of that. He never would’ve gone down that path.”

To paraphrase Iverson, we know it’s important, we honestly do, but we’re talking about drinking. We’re talking about drinking, man. We’re not talking about the game. We’re talking about drinking.

LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL