Shams Charania: John Calipari, Mitch Barnhart relationship was broken beyond repair in August 2022
When John Calipari was originally announced back as the Kentucky head coach, he went on local television to do a spot with athletic director Mitch Barnhart. The two seemed cordial with each other and ready to help move the program in the right direction. Despite a heartbreaking NCAA Tournament loss, Barnhart was backing Calipari.
Move forward a couple of weeks later and the two are no longer working together. Calipari will be coaching at Arkansas next season and Barnhart now has a coaching search on his hands. It’s not something anyone expected after the television appearance from the duo.
The relationship officially broke off on Tuesday but according to The Athletic‘s Shams Charania, everything can be traced back to Aug. 2022. Calipari was pushing for a new facility, even fundraising the money himself. Barnhart was not up for the project though, wanting to make improvements instead of starting from scratch.
“That relationship was broken beyond repair in August 2022, while Calipari was with his team on an exhibition tour in the Bahamas,” Charania said. “He’d been pressing Barnhart about the need for a new practice facility and even rounded up millions of dollars in pledges from his former players in the NBA to help fund it. But Barnhart would not budge, insisting that a then-15-year-old Joe Craft Center needed only to be refreshed, not replaced.”
Meanwhile, Barnhart helped direct money to other sports for new and upgraded facilities. Calipari publicly spoke on the situation around when The Athletic reported his relationship with Barnhart was “beyond repair.” He did not understand why UK officials were against building something new for basketball.
“Everybody should be behind this,” Calipari said in Aug. 2022. “Our administration. Look, our baseball facility might be the nicest in the country, and I’m happy about that. Our football facility, we spent $200 million. Soccer, unbelievable. Now, the track—I love it. And now, I would say, the administration should be like, we’re doing this.”
Facilities aside, Calipari had the opportunity to leave well before August 2022. The Athletic says he “regrets” not taking the UCLA job back in 2019, a role eventually filled by Mick Cronin. Kentucky offered a 10-year $86 million contract, something the Bruins could not match.
Calipari decided to stay and five years later, the marriage between him and Kentucky is now over.
The relationship with Barnhart might have been broken but Calipari still had a great deal of regular-season success the following two seasons. Kentucky went a combined 45-22 and made the NCAA Tournament as a six-seed in 2023 and three-seed in 2024.
Not advancing to the second weekend on either occasion, especially this last year, began the drama surrounding Calipari’s future with the Wildcats.
Arkansas now gets to call Calipari its head coach, causing a massive shakeup in the college basketball world, and Kentucky will have somebody new on the bench for the first time since 2009.