John Calipari defends controversial SEC Tournament take: "Should be a lot of guys not caring."

John Calipari has never been a fan of the SEC Tournament and is not afraid to double, triple and quadruple down on that take — he does it every year at this point. Remember his words after Kentucky’s road win at Tennessee to wrap up the regular season a year ago?

 “You know the only tournament that matters to me. After this weekend, that tournament,” he said.

As Arkansas prepared for its first trip to Nashville with Coach Cal leading the charge, like clockwork, he stuck to the script. Unsurprisingly, the quote went viral in the basketball world with passionate haters — many supporting his former team.

“I don’t care about the conference tournament,” Calipari said going into the 2025 SEC Tournament. “Which is why we won it so many times because I could care less. The tournament that matters is the NCAA Tournament.”

Then came his debut with the Razorbacks, his new team squeaking by No. 16 seed South Carolina 72-68 to open the event in Nashville. Leading by as many as 20 in the second half, it got down to two in the final minute before Arkansas closed out the win.

Afterward, Calipari was asked about his thoughts on the SEC Tournament and why he couldn’t care less about it. His response? Well, his resume speaks for itself, he says.

“Not quite. Every tournament we go in, we’re doing it for one reason: We want to win games to build up our seed. Now, along the way, for a guy that does not care about conference tournaments — I’m guessing it’s 15 or 16 (I’ve won) — if you don’t care, the kids don’t care, no one cares. Then I’m a magician. How about maybe you’re taking the pressure off the kids? This is just another thing for us to get better and improve ourselves.

“Then along the way, you know what, you’re reaching for stars, you grab a moon, all of a sudden you’re standing there with the trophy. So yeah, it matters. We got to play.”

The topic clearly struck a nerve with Coach Cal, who asked the Kentucky-based reporter if he would ask the same question to Florida coach Todd Golden — who lost Micah Handlogten in the SEC Tournament championship a year ago — about his motivation to win and the risk vs. reward of this event.

“Now, there was another coach in this league that said, ‘I’m not sure I really want this tournament because last year we got a guy hurt in it. I’m not sure how I feel,'” Calipari said. “You’re going to ask him that same question, aren’t you? His team was one of the best teams in this league. He’s saying, ‘We got a chance to win a national title.’

“This league has been a meat grinder. Is it going to be any different here? No. We want to win every game we play. But I don’t need the kids, ‘Got to do this.’ You don’t. You don’t. There’s the next tournament. Then you win it anyway.”

His rant continued, highlighting the postseason success over the course of his Hall of Fame career and explaining that others should follow his lead.

“It would be nice to win it again. I don’t know exactly how many of those we’ve won. How many?” he said. “Somebody told me 87 tournament games. For a guy that doesn’t care (smiling). I think it is. I don’t know. You’ll have to look. They tried to tell me yesterday. I don’t know.

“I think it’s about almost an 80 percent win (rate). For a guy that doesn’t care, should be a lot of guys not caring.”

I’m sure Big Blue Nation won’t have anything to say about that.