HOUSTON — John Calipari has been revered as a recruiter, praised as a motivator and lauded for his ability to put kids in the NBA.Three Final Four appearances and one startling one-month transformation later, maybe it’s due time the Kentucky coach gets the respect for what he really is first and foremost – a really good coach.”This team went from me dragging them to them dragging me,” Calipari said modestly. “That’s when I talk about they become empowered, that’s when they become special.”On the eve of the school’s first Final Four since 1998 with a team that wasn’t supposed to be in Houston, this team is special alright. Calipari had a lot to do with that. Freshmen grow and players mature, but there has to be a catalyst of growth — a ray of sunshine or a drop of water to make a seed rise up from the ground and become a tree. The most fundamental definition of a coach’s job is to develop and prepare his players for their future. In many ways, he’s like a teacher. Calipari has not hidden the fact his top priority in what he calls a “players-first program” is to do what’s best for the kids. He prioritizes it over everything else. But along the way, the ability to shape boys into men, to enhance their games and their mentality, has not only changed the individuals but changed the team. “He’s an encourager,” senior forward Josh Harrellson said Friday. “He tries to build you up from day one.”  A comparison of this week’s Kentucky team to the one that took a 17-point beating at the hands of Connecticut in November is a glimpse of how far UK has traveled this season.”Brandon Knight wasn’t Brandon Knight,” UConn coach Jim Calhoun said of the first meeting with UK. “Doron Lamb wasn’t the same player by any stretch of the imagination. I can go right through the group. (Josh) Harrellson wasn’t even a factor and now he may be the big man factor in this whole deal.”But it’s even deeper than that.Knight, who couldn’t hit a game winner to save his life in the regular season, has gained the confidence to become the best big-shot man in the tournament. He’s also learned to talk and lead. Darius Miller has evolved from a reserved, inconsistent performer to big-time, late-game playmaker. Harrellson has transformed his mind, his body and his game to help him get off the bench and become one of the best big men in the country.  DeAndre Liggins has changed from a misconceived team cancer to an emotional leader. Emotionally ravaged and pent up from the murder of his brother in 2002, Liggins has learned to trust again under Calipari and has opened up. His game has risen with his emotional development along the way.”They’re not all born on third base,” Calipari said. “Some of them are born outside the arena and trying to get into the arena to get into the dugout to get up to bat to get to third. Those kids, what happens a lot of times is, they’ve been through a lot of rough things and it’s hard for them to trust anybody. It’s hard for them to trust because they’ve been let down a lot. They’ve been sold a bill of goods and all of a sudden it’s not what they thought. And it takes time.”I think right now – and I love (Liggins) to death, I love him like a son – I think he looks at us and says, ‘I trust these people.’ Probably for the first time in his life he’s saying, ‘You tell me what you want me to do and I’m going to do it. I trust you.’ “Any player you look at, there is some form of growth. Calipari will point to the “crisis” after the Arkansas loss as to what turned everything around, but it’s really been a steady, season-long development of maturity and inspiration. Take Terrence Jones and Doron Lamb. Midway through the season, Lamb took Liggins’ starting spot and started to score in bunches. When Calipari asked him recently to go back to his role off the bench to make room for Liggins, Lamb obliged and continued to flourish.At the beginning of the year, when Kentucky first faced Connecticut in the EA Sports Maui Invitational, Jones was scoring at will and was the hottest thing not named Kemba Walker. It appeared as Jones went, so did UK.But as the season has worn on, Jones has scored less and less, taking even fewer and fewer shots. Calipari asked him to pass more, play better defense and get his teammates involved.”He asked me did I care more about winning than anything else,” Jones said. “I did whatever he wanted me to do.”It took some time, but Jones, like everybody else on the team, grew and changed. And Kentucky started to win.”At the beginning, we weren’t as good as we thought we were,” Knight said.Of that realization, Calipari said, “That’s what happens when good kids understand that it’s about our team, not just me. In these situations, kids want to be ‘the man.’ Those kinds of plays where the kids understand, ‘My role is not as important as the goal of the team,’ that’s when things go good.”

A lot of credit goes to the kids for being able to look themselves in the mirror and come to that realization. But in the end, someone had to be the mastermind to coach them into turning around to look at themselves.   “I’ve been fortunate; I’ve been blessed,” Calipari said. “The young kids that I’ve had have been good players and they’ve been good people. They listen, they respect each other, they respect the coaching staff, and it’s been fun.”