John Calipari considers if SEC is a football or basketball conference, recalls viral comments at Kentucky

John Calipari isn’t making the same mistake twice. While still at Kentucky in 2022, the Hall-of-Fame head coach kicked off an internal struggle against UK’s football program after referring to the university as a “basketball school.”

On Monday, Dan Patrick recycled the question, but on a grander scale, asking Calipari if the SEC is a basketball conference now. The Arkansas head coach was hilariously cautious with his answer.

“You trying to get me in trouble? Last time I said something like that, people went nuts and made me find out they’re investing in what they want,” Calipari said. “Look, I told our baseball coach, who’s No. 1 in the country, and right there, they’re going to win a college world series. Every game they played every weekend, they knew they could win or lose.

“What about football you want, you say? Vandy? ‘Well, we got Vandy.’ Yeah, go play Vandy. Go play them now. ‘Uh, well, we could play Mississippi.’ Yeah, go play Mississippi. Play Arkansas, Tennessee, and you get beat. I mean, that’s what happens. Well, now basketball’s the same way, and it’s top to bottom.”

The SEC saw an influx of talent this season. With the rise of NIL and the transfer portal, SEC programs had more weapons than ever at their disposal to bring in elite players. In turn, programs that haven’t been historically successful boasted some of the best teams in the country this season.

In fact, the SEC had a record 14 teams make the NCAA Tournament. The previous record was 11 teams, which the Big East recorded in 2011.

Calipari intimately understands how talented the SEC was this season. Arkansas began conference play with an 0-5 record and had to claw its way back into NCAA Tournament consideration.

“Our bottom two teams would have finished in the top half of most leagues,” Calipari said. “We were 0-5 to start, and I knew we weren’t bad — well, I wasn’t sure — but we were 0-5, and we survived it. And now, it looks as though, how many SEC teams are in the Sweet Sixteen?”

The SEC has a record seven teams in the Sweet Sixteen. Moreover, there is at least one SEC team left in each of the tournament’s four regions. Thus, there’s a chance the Final Four could be completely comprised of SEC squads.

Of course, John Calipari is just worried about his team making it to the next round. On Thursday, Arkansas will square off against 3-seed Texas Tech at 10:09 p.m. ET. The game will air live on TBS and TruTV.