John Calipari makes case for Bellarmine to be eligible for NCAA Tournament

After Kentucky defeated Bellarmine 60-41 on Tuesday night, Wildcats coach John Calipari had a message for the NCAA. Bellarmine is not allowed to participate in the NCAA Tournament until 2025 thanks to a strange rule that forbids teams who have recently transitioned into Division I competition from earning a bid for the first five years.

The Knights made the move over from Division II in the 2020-21 season, and last year won the Atlantic Sun Conference Tournament. However, due to the aforementioned rule, they could not go to the Big Dance, or even the NIT.

That led John Calipari to call for a change to the rule, should Bellarmine pull off the feat and again win their conference tournament this season.

“Let me just say this: Scotty (Davenport)’s done a great job with that program,” Calipari said postgame. “What’s disappointing (is that) if they win their league tournament again, they can’t get in. Here’s what I would say, and I’ve said this many times: If you do things for the kids, you’re never wrong. If you’re doing stuff based off, ‘Well, that’s the rule,’ well, we had a rule that they changed because a player went on TV and said, ‘I’m starving and I don’t have money to buy a hamburger,’ and all of a sudden the rules changed within a week.”

Kentucky and Bellarmine were tied at 21 at halftime on Tuesday before the Wildcats pulled away in the second half. Antonio Reeves led the charge with 18 points.

Bellarmine is off to just a 2-6 start this season, so it will have a long way to go to even get to a point where it could earn a Tournament bid. However, the Knights, which are located in Louisville, certainly have the support of Calipari.

“I understand that there’s a rule that Bellarmine’s gotta wait eight years, whatever it is,” the coach said. “Change it. It’s not right for the kids. They should be able to be in the tournament if they do what they did. They’re well-coached, they’re great kids. I hope people we reconsider changing the rule. You changed that rule. …So hopefully this will be reconsidered. They’re tied with us at halftime and we’re supposed to be one of those teams.”