John Chaney threatened to kill John Calipari 30 years ago today after UMass win vs. Temple

Thirty years ago today, John Calipari’s UMass team defeated Temple 56-55 in a matchup of top-15 teams jockeying for NCAA Tournament seeding, with Minutemen guard Mike Williams draining a shot the final seconds to hand his team a thrilling win in front of a national television audience.

Of course, it’s what happened after the game, not during it, that most people remember.

During Calipari’s postgame news conference, Temple coach John Chaney stepped in and initiated one of the most famous altercations between coaches in college basketball history, a tirade in which he most notably threatened to kill the future Kentucky basketball coach.

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Though accounts of may vary, the most common story is that Chaney had been informed by one of his assistant coaches that Calipari had been speaking with an official in a hallway inside the Mullins Center — UMass’s home arena — after the game. Atlantic 10 Conference commissioner Ron Bertovich confirmed that such a meeting took place, noting in a statement that "one of the game officials exited the officials' locker room. … Coach Calipari made one comment to the official and the official responded. The entire conversation lasted less than one minute and voices were never raised."

Upon hearing of the encounter, Chaney was enraged, storming into the back of the arena’s media room and berating Calipari in the middle of his news conference.

“You don’t say s--- to officials without me being involved in it,” Chaney said. “You got a game that was given to you by the officials right here with GW (George Washington University) on three bad calls, OK? And you send your guys out there pushing and shoving.

"The guys did a hell of a job. You had the best officiating you could ever get here. And for you to ride them, I won’t be a party to that. I just got my ass blasted for giving them hell down in West Virginia. And here, you did a hell of a job riding them today. Three class guys, and you pick them out here and single them out.”

Calipari tried to interject, but that only escalated tensions, with Chaney marching toward the podium where Calipari was standing while saying “Shut up, goddammit!”

Several onlookers stepped in before Chaney could reach Calipari, including a handful of his Temple players. Then, the legendary coach delivered the day’s most famous line.

“I’ll kill you!” Chaney said. “You remember that. I’ll kick your ass. Kick your ass! You’ve got a good team, and you don’t need that edge. That’s why I told my kid to knock your f------ kid in the mouth!”

Here's a clip of the 1994 incident (warning: explicit language used):

Chaney was ultimately suspended one game for the incident.

UMass vs. Temple rivalry

Chaney’s tirade came at a time in which UMass and Temple had become powers not only within the Atlantic 10, but also nationally, with their paths often crossing in high-profile contests.

The Minutemen had long been an afterthought in the Atlantic 10 and its forerunner, the Eastern Athletic Association, with 11 consecutive losing seasons from 1978-79 through 1988-89. Temple, by contrast, had established itself as the Atlantic 10’s preeminent program, with Chaney leading the Owls to 16 NCAA Tournaments in a 17-year stretch from 1983-84 through 2000-01, a run highlighted by five Elite Eight appearances.

Temple had dominated UMass, defeating them in each of their first 21 meetings. But with the hiring of a then-29-year-old Calipari in 1988, the Minutemen’s on-court fortunes quickly changed. By Calipari’s second season, they had a winning record and by his fourth, they went 30-5, cracked the top 20 of the national rankings and made their first NCAA Tournament since 1962.

When the two sides met on that fateful February day in 1994, Temple was No. 8 in the Coaches Poll while UMass was No. 12, with several future NBA players on the rosters of both teams — Marcus Camby and Lou Roe for the Minutemen, and Eddie Jones, Aaron McKie and Rick Brunson for the Owls.

The two sides met again 11 days later in Philadelphia, with UMass again winning by one, and then again in the Atlantic 10 championship, which the Minutemen won 70-59.

Both teams earned high seeds to the NCAA Tournament — UMass was a No. 2 seed, Temple a No. 4 seed — but both lost in the second round, the former falling to Maryland and the latter getting knocked off by Indiana.

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John Calipari record vs. John Chaney

Calipari went 12-10 in 22 all-time coaching matchups against Chaney, going 9-11 against him while at UMass and 1-1 against him while the coach at Memphis.

John Calipari relationship with John Chaney

Though their most public moment together was one of acrimony and very nearly violence, Calipari and Chaney actually became friends in the years that followed.

“I’ve never rooted against him,” Chaney told Grantland in 2012. “That ‘discourse’ that we had years ago, it’s all been buried in the sand. Later that year, he and I got together for a fundraiser at the Meadowlands and he and I raised about $50,000 for juvenile diabetes. As far as how he is perceived by others, I really don’t have a comment about that. All I know is that he is a good coach, that he recruits hard, and that he gets great players and those great players always leave him as better players than they were when they arrived.”

Chaney retired from Temple in 2006. His 741 career victories rank him 49th among all men’s college basketball coaches at any level of the sport.

When Chaney died in 2021 at the age of 89, Calipari mourned the loss, noting that “being able to compete against the best at a young age gave me a great opportunity to grow and learn.”

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Remembering the time John Chaney threatened to kill John Calipari