LEXINGTON, Ky. _ Brad Calipari is not the only coach's son on the Detroit Mercy team. Fellow guard Antoine Davis is the son of the Titans' coach, Mike Davis.
As the elder Davis recalled, the father-son dynamic showed itself like three-dimensional chess in a recent drill. Father/coach instructed son/player not to shoot a floater, but to instead drive to the basket or pull up for a jump shot.
Before the drill resumed, Mike Davis turned to Calipari. "Watch," he said. "He's going to shoot a floater, even longer than the first time."
As if on cue, the younger Davis then shot another floater.
"I said, you all are just alike, huh?" Mike Davis said he told Calipari. "Brad started laughing."
Calipari, the son of Kentucky Coach John Calipari, did not need help remembering this example of a son/player interacting with a father/coach.
"That's just believing in yourself," he said. "Knowing if somebody tells you you can't do something, you're going to go out and try to do it. Even something as small as that."
That oh-yes-I-can stubbornness contributed to Brad Calipari moving from UK to Detroit Mercy as a graduate transfer. With UK's roster bursting with talent, he made only occasional cameo appearances in games in his three seasons as a Wildcats walk-on.
"Just because a lot of people haven't seen me play that much, they just assume, you know, that I can't play," he said in a telephone interview recently. "Now that I've taken a step to come here, I can show I can play. That gives me the feeling it's time to show what I can do."
The younger Calipari can help Antoine Davis, who is a sophomore, navigate the father-coaching-son dynamic in basketball.
But the Detroit Mercy coach said there was also a practical on-the-court reason he added Calipari to the team. The Titans depended on Antoine Davis almost exclusively last season. He averaged 26.1 points, the third-highest scoring average in Division I. His 132 3-point baskets broke Steph Curry's NCAA record for a freshman. His average of 4.4 3-point baskets per game ranked second nationally. Only Wofford's Fletcher Magee (remember his 0 for 12 3-point shooting against Kentucky?) averaged more 3-point baskets: 4.51.
"If you have a chance this year, you need to watch him," the younger Calipari said of the younger Davis. "He's special."
When asked if Antoine Davis, a three-star prospect who originally committed to Houston, was Kentucky-good, Calipari said, "Yeah, I would say so. He can play."
The problem last season was opponents double- and triple-teamed Antoine Davis. Detroit Mercy won only 11 of 31 games. Detroit Mercy sees Calipari's perimeter shooting as helping spread opposing defenses, making it harder for them to concentrate solely on Antoine Davis.
"That's why it was so important to get him," Mike Davis said of Calipari. "Antoine was really aggressive offensively. This year he won't have to be that aggressive because of the guys we put around him. So he won't have to average 30 points a game for us to have a chance to win."
The Detroit Mercy coach said he'd like to see his son average six or seven assists this season. Last season Antoine Davis averaged 3.6 assists, which ranked No. 226 among Division I players.
Although it's way too early to make judgments, the Detroit Mercy coach is convinced about the younger Calipari's shooting ability.
"The one thing that really jumps up at you is he can really shoot the ball," Mike Davis said. "And when you can really shoot the ball, teams need that. He's not just an average shooter. He's a really good shooter. ... Antoine's really fond of him because he can make shots."
Once Calipari decided to play elsewhere as a graduate transfer, he narrowed his choices to Detroit Mercy and Hampton. A comfort level with Mike Davis, a family friend whose previous head coaching jobs included Indiana, UAB and Texas Southern, weighed on the decision.
"My dad trusts him with me," Calipari said. "And I trust him, too."
Although Detroit Mercy has had losing records in five of the last six seasons, the program has a basketball history. Dave DeBusschere, a key player on the New York Knicks' two championship teams of the 1970s, played for the Titans. ESPN analyst Dick Vitale was the coach in the 1970s.
Non-basketball alumni include Keegan-Michael Key of the Key & Peele sketch comedy team, novelist Elmore Leonard and former NFL coach Ted Marchibroda.
Looking ahead to this coming season, Calipari said it was "really accurate" to think he has and will play with a metaphorical chip on his shoulder. Social media helped put it there.
"You've got a lot of people who don't even play the sport that will just talk and talk and say you're not this, you're not that," he said. "Blah, blah, blah.
"But at the end of the day, what kind of helped me was seeing myself going against these (UK) guys three years in practice, and getting better each year. And it kind of showed me I can play at a high level."
And if you dare, go ahead and tell him not to shoot a floater.
