SYRACUSE, N.Y. — One of the great untold stories of college basketball is the camaraderie that exists among the fellow coaches. In a way, the coaches of college basketball are in their own fraternity.Too often, we (and by we, I mean the media), blow up the coaching rivalries (John Calipari vs. Rick Pitino, Calipari vs. Bruce Pearl) and lose focus of some of the great coaching friendships.Calipari and Bob Huggins is one of them.As longtime coaches in Conference USA, Calipari and Huggins had some pretty heated battles at Memphis and Cincinnati, respectively. That, however, never stopped the two from forming a rock-solid friendship that has lasted through time, teams and conferences.That friendship was never more evident than in September 2002. Huggins, who at the time was the head coach of the Cincinnati Bearcats, was on his way through the Pittsburgh International Airport when he suffered a serious and life-threatening heart attack.Despite their battles on the court, the first coach to fly to Pittsburgh and stand by Huggins’ side was none other than Calipari himself. Among other things, it was Calipari’s nephew in the ambulance that helped keep Huggins alive on the way to the hospital.It’s really a phenomenal story and one I would love to tell, but I think this is one of those cases when hearing the men tell the story themselves, in full detail, might be better. Here is part of the transcript from Friday’s interviews with the coaches on the heart attack incident:Question: “Would you talk about your relationship with Huggs and the incident in ’02 when a relative of yours was in the ambulance when Huggs had that problem?”Calipari: “Bob and I go way back to when he was at Walsh College. You know, obviously I say this, and I mean it, he’s as good as any coach out there. He’s a Hall-of-Famer, but he’s also a guy that would give you the shirt off his back. And when he had the heart attack in Pittsburgh airport, my nephew was in the ambulance picking him up. When they got him on the ambulance and he said, ‘Coach Huggins, you’re going to be all right. I’m John Calipari’s nephew.’ And he went ‘Oh, my goodness. I’m not going to make it.’ But he and I go way back. He’s as competitive and as good a coach as you’ll see out there.”Question: “Any truth to the rumor your relative said, ‘You can’t die yet because Cal has to beat you once?’ “Calipari: “No, Bob said that. That’s what Bob adds. He likes to embellish. I don’t know if we beat him the next year by 20 but it was shortly thereafter, the next year.”Question: “Coach, Bob Huggins’ dad told me a story one time about how when he went through the Pittsburgh ordeal, you were the first coach that came and visited him in the hospital. I was wondering if you could recollect on that day.”Calipari: “I would tell you that when I went to visit him when I heard about it, he’s a young man. And I raced out there and I can’t remember where I was, but I went in and I was the paddle burns. I just told him, ‘You know, you’re getting that second life here.’ It was scary, to be honest with you. They told me he was going to be fine. It was a scare. It teaches us to take better care of ourselves and all those things. I went out and just let him know that you know what, ‘I’m here for you.'”I saw his mom and dad were there. His wife was there. It was just a scary thing. It was really scary. We all think Bob being that big – he’s a big guy. All of a sudden this happens. I was like, it kind of blew me away. I was glad my nephew was there for him.”Question: “Bob, can you kind of take us back to when Cal visited you in the hospital and how much of that you remember, if you do, and what your thoughts were on that, him coming by?”Huggins: “Do you want to hear the whole story? It actually really is a pretty good story. I’m laying there. They scoop me up off the sidewalk and put me in the ambulance, and I’m kind of in and out of consciousness. They’re pumping morphine in you. I kind of came to and I said to — the whatever the guy is in the back of the ambulance — I said, ‘What’s the ETA?’ And he got on the thing and he said, ’22 minutes.’ I said, ‘Man, I’m not going to make 22 minutes.’ You know how they tap you on the leg and say, ‘I haven’t lost a patient.’ I said, ‘Get ready, get ready to. I’m not some old lady, man. I know what is going on. I don’t have 22 minutes.’ And so he got on and said, ‘Abort, abort, abort.’ They went to a closer hospital, which is really right where Cal grew up.”The guy in the back of the ambulance tapped me on the leg and he said, ‘Coach, don’t worry. I’m not going to let you die until Cal beats you at least once.’ “Question: “After that, when you were in the hospital, did Cal …”Huggins: “Oh, yeah. Really, nobody was supposed to be in there but family. Cal being Cal, talked his way back there. Honestly, I don’t remember a lot. I was pretty drugged up. Yet John came in and Skip (Prosser) came in. When you kind of finally come to and realize what’s going on, it means an awful lot. Cal was at Memphis. To fly in from Memphis and stop in the hospital really meant a lot.”Question: “Just to elaborate a little on that, you coaches obviously are very competitive. What did it mean to have your competitors come in to check on you in that way?”Huggins: “Cal and I aren’t that way. You say, very competitive. Tomorrow we’re going to compete like crazy. But, you know, when he was at Memphis, they beat us and I went on his TV show after the game. Actually I just walked on. He didn’t know I was coming. Just for fun. I was kind of low. I was trying to cheer myself up. We beat them and we were at the rendezvous having ribs, and Cal came in with the priest from UMass. He brought the priest in and said, ‘I brought the priest in from UMass.’ That didn’t even help. I said, ‘It didn’t help UMass either. You better get another priest'”I mean, we have fun. I think sometimes, I think the modern-day coaches, they kind of get that way. John and I have never been that way. John and I have always been friends. We play them in Springfield I think the first time we played against each other. I was in his room afterwards. And we were sitting around talking, and we’ve always been like that. John is good. John really is a hell of a coach. And he’s a guy who when coaches are down, he’ll pick up the phone and call. He’s always been very good about that.”