Philly’s Bruiser Flint makes himself at home at Kentucky | Mike Jensen
Flint and John Calipari reunited in Lexington after a quarter-century. "This is different. The pressure here … Indiana is a different-level place. But the expectations here are even higher."
LEXINGTON, Ky. — Bruiser Flint could be mayor here.
Not yet maybe, just soon. Let the Kentucky Wildcats go on a real March ride, the sky becomes the limit, including for Philadelphia’s contribution to this current Big Blue enterprise.
“People told me it’s different when we’re winning,” Flint said, jumping in his SUV after practice. “Sure enough.”
He meant the whole civic spirit. Flint himself hasn’t noticeably changed since he coached Drexel, from 2001-16. He’s not the type to seek out adulation. He is the type to engage with the person right in front of him. Pulling out of the parking lot, Flint slowed one conversation … hold on. A man and a woman were working the front of the lot before a Kentucky women’s game. Mayor Flint stopped, rolled down the window. “Hey man,” the gray-haired man fairly shouted. “How you doing?”
Pleasantries exchanged for 30 seconds, Flint moved on, heading for a downtown restaurant. That stop and talk was a small thing, but when you’re seeing how James “Bruiser” Flint fits into the Wildcats enterprise, it should not be dismissed. Into the restaurant, more pleasantries, from the parking valet to the wait staff, all the way to the table. Walking by wearing his gray UK gear, Flint didn’t turn patrons’ heads so much as their eyes.
It is different when they’re winning.
Last season, Flint’s first here after moving down from Indiana University, the Wildcats were 26-11, Southeastern Conference Tournament champs, an NCAA Sweet 16 team. Maybe eye-turning stuff, no failure, but not head-turning by UK standards.
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Right now, John Calipari’s outfit is ranked fourth nationally, 21-4 overall … so Final Four or even national title dreams don’t seem misplaced. Officially, Flint is Associate to the Head Coach. His real role might be Calipari whisperer and interpreter.
“They all say, if anybody wants to get anything done, I’m the one who talks to him,” Flint said, laughing, talking in his office. Calipari had just left the premises.
Maybe their reunion seemed inevitable, after Flint had worked as Calipari’s top Massachusetts assistant, then his successor at Amherst, before Flint’s run as Drexel’s head coach, and two seasons as an IU assistant. They’ve stayed close, but they were officially apart for almost a quarter of a century.
Maybe if Drexel had gotten a fair shake a couple of times from the NCAA Tournament selection committee, this reunion never would have taken place, Flint moving up to the Power 5 as a head coach. It turned out the way it turned out. There’s definitely a role for Flint here, and it isn’t just as a friendly ambassador. Anyone who played for Flint could tell you about his seriousness of purpose.
“This is a different animal, working here,” Flint said. “I thought Indiana was different. This is different. The pressure here … Indiana is a different-level place. But the expectations here are even higher. You see it through the fans, in the media. I know they talk about winning at Indiana, too. But they don’t put the same pressure on the players. They don’t do to the players what they do here sometimes. I don’t know about Alabama football …”
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There are more players there. Sure, if you’re the ‘Bama QB, all eyes are on you. At UK, maybe that’s the comparison. If you’re on the court, you’re the ‘Bama QB.
“The pressure to perform here, in terms of you being a player, really high,” Flint said. “Because everybody is hyped to come in and be the next [one] and he’s rolled them out. He’s had a lot of success at that.”
He felt bad for some of the guys last season, Flint said.
“You can get buried here a little bit,” he said.
Think Eagles in Philly.
“No, seriously,” Flint said. “This is the state’s pro team. People will tell you, when Kentucky plays, the town shuts down.”
He likes the personal fit here.
“It’s more of a city,” Flint said of being in Lexington. “Bloomington is a college town. It reminds me almost … not the same neighborhood, but almost feels like you’re at Temple. Just because you’re in a city. That’s the feel I get. I was surprised. A decent-sized university in a city.”
He doesn’t deny that the one-and-done culture has had its impact locally.
“That’s a big thing here,” Flint said. “My dentist, she says to me, ‘I used to have season tickets, but I gave ‘em up.’ I was like, ‘Why?’ ‘I like to get to know the players for more than six months.’ That’s huge here. What are you going to do? That’s the lay of the land now.”
This season, the mix is interesting. Kentucky’s top scorer is a third-year Wildcat, Oscar Tshiebwe, followed by a first-year freshman who plays beyond his years (TyTy Washington), a graduate transfer from Davidson (Kellan Grady), another third-year Wildcat (Keion Brooks), and a Georgia transfer (Sahvir Wheeler.) Sophomore Lance Ware from Camden has been a frontcourt contributor off the bench.
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“This year’s been good,” Flint said. “We’ve got really good players. Not only that, they’re really good kids. Everybody likes ‘em. They go out in public, people love ‘em. They handle themselves well. That makes a big difference.”
Did he think they’d be better this season?
“To be honest with you, in the summertime – I ran a lot of the workouts – I said to myself, ‘If we can be good on defense, I thought we could be good,’ " Flint said, mentioning that the best Calipari teams are good defensively. “That was the only thing. I knew offensively – you could tell in the summer, we were going to be better on offense.”
Is Calipari different since their UMass days?
“We’re older now,” said Flint, who is 56; Calipari turned 63 last week. “I tell people all the time, you all think this guy is crazy. We were in our 20s. He’s mellowed a lot since then. Some of the stuff, I laugh a lot. The players say, ‘Why are you laughing at him?’ I say, ‘Yo, I heard this 30 years ago.’ I heard this same [stuff].”
For instance …
“I always tease him about this,” Flint said. “He used to say, I’ve been wrong, but I haven’t been wrong since …”
The part that’s changed, Flint said, Calipari used to say he hasn’t been wrong since 1972. Now, it’s 1982.
His own role changed this season — less recruiting, but still consigliere. The best thing Flint himself probably did, he said, was sit out a year after being let go at Drexel. Still drawing a salary, he visited a lot of practices. He doesn’t think he’d be able to do it the way he does it now without that year. He learned to be a sounding board for Archie Miller at Indiana, and for the assistant coaches at both places.
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“One of the things I always tell people, in the end, the head coach coaches the team,” Flint said. “Some of these young guys, they don’t understand that the head coach, in the end, he’s going to do what he’s going to do, because it’s on him. You all have to understand that. Whether you like it or not, it’s on him. If he changes the play seven times, that’s his right to change the play seven times.”
As a head coach, Flint famously coached his players hard, but he makes the point that you can do that if they know you care about them off the court.
“Now, all my former players call, leave a message, ‘Hey [John Chaney’s favorite expletive], call me back,’ " Flint said, laughing.
He’s paying attention to all his guys, calling or texting players maybe once a week, getting notifications for final scores from Wagner, Rider, La Salle, Albany, University of the Sciences, all the spots where former players and assistants are working.
He reads the Philly sports page every morning, debates his uncles about everything. (“You’re bringing up that coach stuff,” they’ll tell him.)
“Everybody knows how I am,” Flint said of his roots. “They’ll call me every time something goes on. You see this, you see that. My mom, she calls — you see this? Calvin, he calls ...
“He calls me every morning between 8:30 and 9,” Flint said.
The back left office in the Wildcats basketball suite has photos of the usual collection of Kentucky stars drawing your eye from the hallway, but on top of a cabinet, not in the straight line of vision walking in, there’s a little proof of the resident’s roots: a Jimmy Rollins bobblehead.
Flint also used to have a Carson Wentz bobblehead up there.
“Had,” he said. “Threw it away.”
That all came up at dinner. When the meal was done, Mayor Flint headed back to campus, to the women’s game. No need to wait for his car. It was already parked in front. It is different here, when they’re winning.