Video interview with John Calipari and Del Harris at the bottom (courtesy of Preston Spradlin)

John Calipari has faced a bevy of daunting coaching tasks during his 20-plus years as a head coach in college basketball and the NBA.

He took a mid-major program at Massachusetts to the Final Four, bounced back from a termination with the NBA Nets, laid the foundation at Memphis and twice started over from scratch at Kentucky.  But none of those coaching jobs can compare to the one he’s facing with the Dominican Republic National Team, Calipari said by phone Friday.

A day after his Dominican Republic team dropped a 70-64 decision to Brazil, the team’s second straight loss at the Jenaro “Tuto” Marchand Cup, Calipari expressed both his frustrations and encouragement for the job he’s undergoing in South America.

“This is the biggest challenge that I’ve ever had in my coaching career,” Calipari said. “I’ve had to coach new teams every year, but I at least knew who the players were. I had more time to work out the kinks and figure people out and I had a basic knowledge of some of the guys on the team. We had months. Last year at Kentucky it took us three or four months before we figured it out. Here we’ve had three weeks. That means you’ve got to go through the ups and downs of this.”

Calipari was forced to hit the ground running with his first international coaching job.

The Dominicans arrived in Lexington at the beginning of August for a two-week training camp at the Joe Craft Center. In that time, Calipari had to evaluate his talent, teach his system, trim the roster and then prepare the team for the Marchand Cup and 2011 FIBA Americas Championship in late August.

Calipari understood the task that lay ahead when he signed on in the spring, but expectations for his new team were bolstered when the Dominicans shocked a group of NBA pros made up of former Kentucky players in a pair of exhibition games on back-to-back nights.

As impressive as the victories were, they may have created a sense of false hope. Then and now, Calipari has been quick to point out that the collection for Kentucky players had little time to prepare for the exhibition matchups.

“The games in Lexington and Louisville were not real games,” Calipari said. “We’ve played two real games here. We’ve gotten better, but we’re not close yet.”

Two games into the Marchand Cup, Calipari said he and his players are still adjusting to one another.

“The way that I coach is not a system,” Calipari said. “We play aggressive, we scramble defensively, we rebound the ball and we share the ball. But exactly how we play depends on the personnel. Every year I’ve coached it’s been a little different even though I teach the dribble-drive.

“Teaching the dribble-drive to this group has really benefitted the team and individuals. Al (Horford) and Charlie (Villanueva) are driving it and Francisco (Garcia) is being forced to drive the ball. It’s not what they do naturally but it’s made them better. But we’re still figuring out how to play to make sure we’re getting good shots every time down.”

The Dominican Republic closes out its Marchand Cup run Friday night against Canada before heading to Argentina for the 2011 FIBA Americas Championship, an Olympics qualifier. Both teams are in search of their first wins in the tournament.

“The game with Canada is going to be a hard game, too,” Calipari said. “Canada is a good team.”

Coach Cal staying in touch

Even with the toughest coaching job of his career on his hands, Calipari has made time to focus his attention on his full-time gig back in the states.

Calipari got his Kentucky team on a teleconference Thursday for the first time as a team. The UK coach briefly addressed his expectations of the players as they begin classes and individual workouts. Coach Cal said he plans to do a teleconference with the team once a week until he returns from his duties in South America.