By Bill Koch
The Cincinnati Enquirer

When Memphis athletic director R.C. Johnson was looking for a basketball coach to replace Johnny Jones, he called University of Cincinnati coach Bob Huggins.

Johnson was friends with Huggins from Johnson's days as the Miami University athletic director, and he valued his opinion.

"I said, 'I need somebody who can come in here and compete with you,' " Johnson said. "I told him I was looking at John Calipari. He said he wouldn't be a good one, so I knew right away that he would be a good one."

Three years later, Calipari has the Tigers, who play UC on Saturday at The Pyramid in Memphis, in the Top 25 with a 19-5 record, and in first place in Conference USA's National Division.

UC, meanwhile, is struggling through its worst season in 12 years with a 16-8 record. The Bearcats are unranked and essentially out of the running for an eighth straight conference title.

Clearly, Calipari and Louisville's Rick Pitino were hired to end Huggins' and UC's dominance in the league. For one year season, at least, they have succeeded; the Tigers are ranked No. 24 and the Cardinals are No. 11.

But is this an aberration, or have both programs caught up to Huggins and the Bearcats?

"That remains to be seen," Huggins said.

The UC coach says he takes the competition with Calipari and Pitino personally because it's his job.

"I'm supposed to win," he said. "That's why they pay me."

But he says his close friend Calipari, who never has beaten Huggins in five tries dating to his days at Massachusetts, takes it more personally.

"I never looked at it like it's me against him," Huggins said. "It's his team against my team. If it was him against me, we'd win forever because he couldn't play."

Huggins, Pitino and Cali-

pari have the three highest national profiles of the coaches in C-USA. To a large extent, those three form the national identity of the league, even though Marquette's Tom Crean and Charlotte's Bobby Lutz also are outstanding coaches.

Jay Bilas, an ESPN college basketball analyst, says it's premature to say anyone in C-USA has caught up to Huggins, much less surpassed him, based on one season.

Next season, UC's talent level will be significantly better, with a recruiting class that has been ranked among the nation's top 10 by recruiting analysts. With Pitino and Calipari further along in their rebuilding projects, 2003-04 will be a better indicator of whether they have passed UC.

"Have they caught up?" asked Bilas. "They're competitive. But Calipari hasn't been to the NCAA Tournament yet. Pitino was in the NIT last year.

"Huggins has dominated that league. If you gave them the team that he's got this year, let them coach it and see if they can win the league with it."

Calipari is quick to concede that his program has not yet achieved the level that UC's has under Huggins, despite what the rankings say.

Memphis is about to end a six-year NCAA Tournament drought, while UC appears on its way to its 12th straight tournament appearance. The Bearcats have won seven straight C-USA titles; the Tigers have yet to beat UC in three tries since Calipari returned.

That's why Saturday's game against the Bearcats looms so large for the Tigers, whose coach has targeted Huggins' program the same way he pointed to John Chaney's Temple program when he coached UMass in the Atlantic 10.

"We're not to where Cincinnati is, no," Calipari said. "We haven't beaten them yet. This happened to us at UMass against Temple. We were 0-22 before we beat Temple, then we beat them 12 out of 14. You've got to crack that barrier."

Memphis has come close to beating Cincinnati under Calipari. The Tigers lost in overtime at Shoemaker Center last season and by one at Memphis the season before that.

"We've never been quite as tough physically or mentally as his teams," Calipari said. "That's where we need to go."

E-mail bkoch@enquirer.com

Up next for UC

Cincinnati at Memphis

When: 9 p.m. Saturday

Where: The Pyramid (20,142), Memphis, Tenn.

TV: ESPN.

Radio: WLW-AM (700).