John Calipari jokes about taking Covid test to get out of SEC Media Day

New Arkansas head coach John Calipari was quick to make his feelings about attending SEC basketball media days this week known, joking that he took a Covid-19 test to try and get out of coming.

Shortly after shutting down any talk about his departure from Kentucky, Calipari made his quip. And he acknowledged it did have the potential to come around and bite him.

So yesterday, I probably shouldn’t tell you this, but I did a Covid test. Because I thought if I have Covid, I wouldn’t have to come,” Calipari said.

He added further that his wife got in on it and told him he was going to have to go.

“My wife called me and said, ‘Not happening, you’re going tomorrow,'” Calipari said.

And he did get into his current level of disdain for the event and how it’s become less of a necessity as the league works to sell its brand and programs.

“So I’ve been to a lot of them and it’s something we have to do,” Calipari said. “And they were really important before, because we had to promote our league in basketball. No one looked at us — now, all of sudden, we’re like it in basketball, too. So yeah, it’s not really changed. But the importance of it has always been, let’s get the word out. Let’s brag about each other. Brag about the coaches and the players. And really tell the story about what this has become. The investment people make in basketball has changed drastically on the campuses. Drastically. Facilities, home court advantage and the investment that they’ve made in recruiting and travel and all the things that make the league special, across the board, these schools have made that kind of commitment.”

Calipari didn’t speak at length about his Kentucky departure

When facing the media on Tuesday, Calipari had no interest in discussing his old team. He claims to have spoken on the matter enough and if anything else was asked, a lot of the answer would be the same information. Calipari’s hiring was made official on April 10, just over six months ago.

Instead, Calipari is wanting to talk about the strength of the SEC this season and what Arkansas has to offer ahead of the 2024-2025 season.

“Here’s what I would say to everybody,” Calipari began. “I’ve talked about why I did what I did, I’ve talked at length about it. So, what I want to do today is talk about the SEC. This league has gotten ridiculously hard. I want to talk about my team, my roster. But I’ve talked about all that (Kentucky) stuff. You can look it up and see what I’ve said, it’s going to be saying it over again.”