John Calipari jokes with Mark Pope, "Don't you ruin my program, man."

The Mark Pope interview with Matt Jones is a gift that keeps on giving. There are so many small nuggets embedded in the 45-minute conversation that you can find a new hidden gem on every re-listen. One such chunk of gold came when Pope was talking about the high expectations of Kentucky. He knows Kentucky should be the best at everything and win championships. He then dropped a quote from a conversation he had with John Calipari:

“[Winning championships] is what all our former players, former coaches…you know what, you know, that’s what Cal expects! I mean, Cal is at Arkansas, and he’s like, ‘Don’t you ruin my program, man. That’s the best program in all of basketball.‘”

Mark Pope | Kentucky Sports Radio

As Matt Jones is wont to do on occasion, he cut Pope off and diverged to a different subject, but I couldn’t help but smash the rewind button and listen to that again. Pope seemingly revealed a conversation he and Calipari had where Cal jokingly (and this was clearly said in a joking manner by Calipari; don’t go claiming I am trying to start a war here) gave Pope a big-brother type of warning.

What I found revealing is that Calipari clearly feels pride in what he accomplished as Kentucky’s head coach for 15 years. His last few years were sloppy, and his exit wasn’t exactly the storybook ending he dreamed of, but referring to Kentucky as “my program” shows he still loves this university. And his big-brother-like protective warning of, “Don’t ruin it,” shows that he wants to see it remain on top of the college basketball hilltop.

Big Blue Nation got a sense of Cal’s love and respect when he made his return to Rupp Arena as the Razorback head coach holding a rolled-up program in honor of Joe B. Hall. It was a nice nod to the respect he has for the history of the program, a history that he is now part of.

It is easy to project the bitterness of the separation onto Calipari, effectively assuming he feels the same frustration we do. While I’m sure he feels a certain level of resentment about how everything went down, if what he said to Mark Pope is any indication, Cal still loves Kentucky.