Calipari on bandwagon fans after back-to-back big wins

Swaggy Cal is back, my friends.

After Kentucky’s 71-58 win over Louisville, John Calipari was in rare form in the postgame press conference, taking a subtle shot at fans that gave up on the team after the loss to Seton Hall.

“I’ve got a good team. I’ve had a good team. I know our fans have loved us. All season, our fans have bragged about these kids and talked — what? — about how good — there was no room on the bandwagon.”

A beat later, he quipped, “What happened?”

A few minutes later, a reporter followed up, asking Cal if he will welcome bandwagon fans back on board.

“Was it?” Cal said when asked if the bandwagon line was factious. “What happened?”

Jokes aside, he said he’s not letting a small percentage of fans — aka the haters — steal his joy.

“Look, the fans that have really followed how I’ve done this for ten years never leave. The fans that are mad that our kids are in the NBA making $1.5 billion, they’re not changing. The reality of it is the fans that really follow us, they know this is a process. We’ve had teams that went until late February before they got it. And our fans stuck with it. The others they were chirping and doing their thing, I don’t pay attention to it. If it gets crazy, I’ll say Eric, ‘Is there anything I need to deal with?’ ‘Nah, there’s nothing.’ I don’t watch it, I don’t read it. So, if you’re on the internet or you’re sending me emails. I don’t have email so you can’t send me email. If I need to talk to someone, I go in the bathroom and I turn the water on. You’re not emailing me. You’re not — I don’t need the Twitter, the Facebook. I don’t read it. If I need it, he’ll say it. ‘Yeah, it’s duh-duh-duh.’ What? ‘They’re mad at duh-duh-duh.’ What? It kind of makes me laugh.

“We have the greatest fans. Let me say this: as a coach, Kentucky is, like, what you want. You never have to sell a ticket. You never have to worry about people being excited about games. You could play in a storm and there’s 20,000 people in that building. You know that the hardcore people adopt these players and they become their sons and grandsons. But you also know that there’s a small percentage of them out there that are crazy. I don’t pay any attention to them. Now, here’s a good thing. They’ll never steal my joy, they never will and I don’t listen to you so you make yourself angry and go crazy, make yourself angry and go crazy. And I’ll be smiling. Why’s he always smiling? That guy smiles all the time.”

He’s baaaack.

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