INDIANAPOLIS — To hear John Calipari and Rick Pitino tell their side of story, their relationship is the same as it ever was: They’re friends.Yes, friends.That was Coach Cal’s description of the relationship of the two coaches tasked with guiding the most heated rivalry in college basketball – sorry, Duke-North Carolina — on Thursday prior to their teams’ meeting in the Sweet 16 in Indianapolis.”The stuff that they’re at each others’ throats, it’s just not accurate,” Calipari said.Not only were they not lobbing grenades at each other Thursday, Calipari said they’ve bounced information off each other during this season.”We were in touch throughout the year, back and forth,” Coach Cal said. “He’d throw something at me, I’d throw something at him. Different things about our teams.”Take that for what’s it’s worth, but it’s certain the two won’t be sharing information this week.When Kentucky-Louisville meet at Lucas Oil Stadium on Friday, the “friendship” will cease to exist for the night. At stake will be the chance to advance to the Elite Eight. For the other coach, the losing one, the season will end.So, to a degree, there is a rivalry between the two coaches. The nature of their jobs creates it.Whether there is a genuine friendship, a behind-the-scenes dislike for one another or just mutual indifference, the two must compete on a regular basis for the crown of one of the most competitive basketball states in America.It just so happens that in two of the last three seasons, the two Bluegrass titans have collided in the NCAA Tournament, only further intensifying the rivalry and spotlight on the relationship between the two coaches.”You know, I think that hurts a little because you all (the media) bait and try to get certain answers out of us,” Pitino said. “And if John says, ‘I like a certain thing,’ some people think he’s taking a shot at me, vice versa. … We understand what takes place between the lines. We understand the fans’ intensity, but we don’t personalize our battles. We understand what’s it’s all about.”Pitino said the two first met when Calipari was just a teenage camper at the Five-Star Basketball Camp. Since then, both of their careers have taken similar paths, crossing each other at turns along the way.Both made meteoric rises at schools that had relatively little success before their arrivals (Calipari at UMass, Pitino at Providence), both coached at Kentucky, both left college to try their luck in the NBA (Coach Cal with the Nets, Pitino with the Celtics), and both have taken three different schools to the Final Four – coincidently (and ironically), the only coaches to do so.During their brilliant careers, they’ve coached across from each other as heated competitors. Calipari’s UMass team lost to Pitino’s UK group in the 1996 Final Four after beating Cats earlier that season. Then the two wound up across from each other as Conference USA rivals when Pitino took the Louisville job and Calipari went to Memphis.Now, they’re the two biggest figures in the biggest rivalry in college basketball.And so, on Thursday, knowing full well where the two came from and how intertwined their history and success has actually been, the two heaped praise at one another.”I know that he’s a great coach,” Calipari said. “He’s done it at different programs. His kids play with great energy and they play with confidence, and it’s every year.”Was some of the praise an attempt to take the microscope off their relationship and, to a greater degree, the rivalry game on Friday? Maybe. But we’ll never know.And without knowing, all anyone can report is the two coaches had nothing but sunshine and roses for each other Thursday. Pitino went as far as to defend the “one-and-done” criticism Calipari gets blasted with so often for developing kids into NBA-ready prospects.”He’s one of the premier coaches in our game,” Pitino said. “Has always been. The thing that I remember most about John, because I’ve known him since he was 15, is he always didn’t have one-and-dones. He had a team at Massachusetts, and I knew where he took them from to today.”He had the least amount of talent on the court when he went out there (and still won). And he didn’t play an easy schedule. He had to take a lot of people on to get Massachusetts in the limelight. I’ve seen all stage of John’s career, and so it doesn’t surprise me that they’re well at this time.”Perception is the two coaches are heated rivals whose friendship deteriorated long ago. The two say they remain friends.”I don’t care about perception because perception is not reality. We’re friends,” Pitino said. “We respect each others’ programs very much and we’re friends in the business. And I certainly have great respect for what they’re accomplishing right now.”Whatever the case really is, they’re both in each others’ path to the Elite Eight.”We’re getting older, both of us, and I think I’m not on his mind and he’s not on my mind, so to speak,” Coach Cal said. “We all got tough jobs, what we’re doing.”