John Calipari not discussing departure from Kentucky at SEC Media Days

John Calipari is back at SEC Media Days in Birmingham but is not in his usual color of blue. You can now find Calipari wearing red as he is the head coach of Arkansas, replacing Eric Mussleman. After 15 seasons with Kentucky, a new era is beginning for both the Wildcats and Calipari.

But 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.”

Calipari went on to mention the potential number of NCAA Tournament bids the SEC could produce, going as high as “10 or 11.” No easy days are ahead when grinding through the conference schedule, especially playing outside of Fayetteville.

“Every game we play on the road is going to be ridiculous,” Calipari said. “I mean, our home sites, in this league, ridiculous… You got coaches and players that are all on the top of their game.”

If there is a time where Calipari will have dialogue about his Kentucky departure, it might be right before Arkansas faces them. Saturday, Feb. 1 will be a massive one in college basketball as Rupp Arena welcomes their former head coach back. It will be the first Calipari vs. Mark Pope showdown and likely far from the last.

But for now, Calipari’s focus is on what the SEC can produce on the court this season. Plus the Arkansas program he has taken over, hoping to be one of the potential double-digit teams to make the NCAA Tournament this season after missing out last year.