In Jerry Tipton’s book “Deja Blue,” only Kentucky basketball is mentioned more than John Calipari, who coached the Wildcats for 15 years.

Tipton chronicled 14 of those seasons and in his 41 years covering UK athletics he covered Calipari longer than any other coach with the Wildcats.

Tipton was old school journalism. In his 51 total years as a sports reporter, Tipton probably never wrote anything first person. In fact, over numerous shared meals across the nation, he rarely talked about himself.

The book, available at Amazon.com and Acclaim Press, is just the way he was his entire career: Objective, honest and fair.

Over the past few years, reporters have lost a lot of access to players and coaches.

The more money the coaches made the more they circled the wagons and have closed off the media and fans alike.

For Tipton, it started with Rick Pitino deciding one day to limit access to practice and teams.

Having spent many years covering Eddie Sutton and Nolan Richardson, they shared a belief that the players are the face of the program.

Since it is the players the fans come to see, it makes sense. Once while visiting Joe Kleine’s home, he could put his hands on the scrap books some fans made for him during his playing days at Arkansas. Every game. Every year. His Olympic gold medal was somewhere.

Now more than ever, it seems important the players be part of a community. They are being asked to dig deeper in to their pockets for NIL and now the out-and-out pay for play.

Calipari is like 99% of the successful coaches in this country, private. The man could run the CIA.

He is also a marketing genius. The night he was introduced as Arkansas’ new coach, he turned it into a Razorback red pep rally and it all came natural to him.

One adjustment he will have to make: This is the first school he has been at where basketball is second to football in popularity and raising funds.

Kentucky football improved while he was there, and he groused once about how much money Kentucky was spending on football.

UMass has never been a football school. Memphis wasn’t while Calipari was there.

At least for now, Razorback football is the cash cow.

For most, Calipari leaving Kentucky for Arkansas was a shock. Still is a little. He wore the blue for the past 24 years, including his nine at Memphis, and seeing him in red is still a little odd.

Tipton retired before last season and he took almost a year to pen his memoirs. Near the end of the book , he reveals that maybe it wasn’t just the Wildcats’ inability to finish strong the last few seasons that had Calipari moving 620 miles west.

Apparently, many fans never liked the one-and-done approach that Calipari made famous. Former players took exception in 2010 when Calipari announced it was the biggest day in Kentucky basketball history after five Wildcats were taken in the first round of the NBA Draft.

Former UK players, including All-Americans like Dan Issel and Kyle Macy, felt slighted, as did many others who felt a national championship was more important than the NBA Draft.

Apparently that stuck to those players even after Calipari led Kentucky to the 2012 national championship.

However, it may be the biggest mistake Calipari made was in his first 10 seasons he led Kentucky to four Final Fours and three Elite Eights. That can lead to some unrealistic expectations.

“Deja Blue” is a good read for college basketball fans, especially if they are part of the Big Blue Nation.