It was April 2006, and McGrady was a freshman guard on the Memphis basketball team. Tigers coach John Calipari had called a team meeting, and many of the players feared the worst.

It was all over the Internet, being mentioned on television and sports talk radio. N.C. State was looking for a new coach. NCSU chancellor James Oblinger and athletics director Lee Fowler had flown to Memphis, Tenn., to meet with Calipari. The next day, Calipari and his staff made a late-night flight to Raleigh to check out the RBC Center and other basketball facilities.

"We were hearing so many things through the media," McGrady said Sunday. "We didn't really know what was going on.

"Everybody was nervous. Everybody had a nervous look on their face when we went in for the meeting. We needed to hear it from him."

Calipari was being offered big money. There was talk of the financial package paying as much as $2 million a year. Would he turn that down? Could he?

The answer, of course, was yes he could. He would.

"Everyone was like, 'Thank God,' " said McGrady, the brother of NBA star Tracy McGrady. "Coach didn't keep anything from us. He told us everything that was going on.

"He said it was real nice of [N.C. State] but that Memphis was the place he wanted to be. He said he loved us, that we were his guys, and he didn't want to go anywhere and start over."

N.C. State later would hire Sidney Lowe. Calipari went on to build what he now calls his "dream team," one that's 38-1 and will play Kansas tonight for the national championship.

Calipari doesn't like to talk of those April days two years ago that his top assistant, Derek Kellogg, calls a "crazy time." He prefers to talk about his players, about the University of Memphis, about what a national championship would mean to the school, the community.

"It would be a great thing," Calipari said Sunday. "It would be great for our players, our staff. But our city, our city.

"There's nothing that could bring our city together like it, that could create hope for a lot of young kids. There's so much good stuff that could come from this game, this team."

Sitting in that team meeting in 2006 were Joey Dorsey and Chris Douglas-Roberts, Antonio Anderson and Robert Dozier. In the end, it was too much for Calipari to leave.

"Plus, Coach Cal kind of runs Memphis," McGrady said. "He has a lot of respect in Memphis. He's made his mark, he's winning.

"I don't think he wanted to go to another city and start over."

And perhaps not with two Hall of Fame coaches, North Carolina's Roy Williams and Duke's Mike Krzyzewski, not far outside the city limits.

Calipari has long called Larry Brown his mentor, and the former college and NBA coach -- and former UNC player -- has always offered career advice. Brown certainly weighed in on the N.C. State situation.

"N.C. State is a great, tradition-rich program," said Kellogg, a Calipari assistant the last eight years. "They have an outstanding campus, they play in one of the greatest leagues in the country.

"But on the flip side, Coach feels like he can make a difference in Memphis. He has a special bond with these guys. We treat them like a family.

"The biggest thing was, I don't think he wanted to leave his family and go and start over. When it all came down to it, he wasn't leaving those players. He just wasn't."