63-year-old John Calipari is making the most of his days as a coach

The day-to-day grind of being a college basketball coach is difficult for anyone. Between practice, film, scouting, game-planning and traveling, downtime is hard to come by just preparing for one game. Factor in recruiting, and it’s an endless cycle of work for a coach.

Now imagine doing it all as a 62-year-old in his 40th year as a coach.

That’s the position Kentucky’s John Calipari is in, who is now in his 30th year as a head coach at the collegiate level. He spent eight years at UMass, nine years at Memphis, and is in his 13th year at Kentucky, racking up a total of 808 wins in the process. When you count his seasons in Lexington as “dog years” as Calipari does, the mileage adds up especially quickly.

How does the Kentucky head coach do it?

“I get pretty well set in a schedule in what I do every day and how I do it,” Calipari said Friday. “And I go to bed early.”

As “set” as he’d like his schedule to be, it tends to get out of sync often, especially during the season. This past week is a great example of just how chaotic things can be and how quickly new tasks can be added to his daily docket. Traveling to the Northeast to recruit, Calipari stopped in to see several former players in Philadelphia for the 76ers’ game against the New York Knicks.

“Wednesday was a tough day because I had to get up in the morning — you guys know I go to mass,” Calipari said. “I was in Philly so I went to mass. I go grab my coffee, go work out, then had to drive an hour and a half to New Jersey, north, to watch a practice.”

That practice was a pretty important one, traveling to Camden to see five-star junior DJ Wagner. He balanced time with the prized guard prospect and a trip to Philly to see Tyrese Maxey, Willie Cauley-Stein, Immanuel Quickley and Julius Randle all play, with Nerlens Noel and Kenny Payne also on New York’s bench.

“Got back in the car, drove an hour (and) 45 (minutes) to go see a game, watch that, got back in the car. (Then) I watched the second half of the 76ers-Knicks game because I could get there in time. And then I’m in bed by 11. That was a hard day for me. But that was an unusual day for me.”

A normal day? He’s getting back in the gym — his own personal gym. Calipari has gotten into a consistent training regimen, one that features daily weightlifting. By doing so, the UK head coach’s mind stays clear, even after 40 years in the coaching game.

“Normally I’m on a set schedule with what I do,” Calipari said. “A big part of that is, what I do in the morning refreshes me and gets my mind right. And then I work out, you know? I lift weights and do that, I know you can’t tell. Oh I lift, though. You can’t really see it, the shirt kind of hides the (muscles) [laughs]. So you can’t see it.”

Like most people, though, Calipari is human and enjoys a good meal at dinner. It’s his one downfall, he says.

“The problem I have is I’m great all day until I eat dinner,” Calipari joked. “And then I eat like I’m going to the electric chair tomorrow. And that’s a problem. I wish I could stop, but it’s how I grew up and it is what it is [laugh].”

Whatever keeps him at Kentucky the longest.