Details emerge about Mitch Barnhart and John Calipari's meeting

We know the result of yesterday’s meeting between Mitch Barnhart and John Calipari: Calipari will return for his 16th season as Kentucky Basketball’s head coach. But what really went down in the Joe Craft Center? Matt Jones shared what he’s hearing to open this morning’s episode of Kentucky Sports Radio.

Jones said there have been a lot of mixed messages coming out regarding the meeting from both sides, but he believes staff changes, both on the coaching side and behind the scenes, will occur, along with more transparency on how the program operates.

“These are the two things I definitely happen,” Jones said. “There are going to be some changes in how the basketball program is run, and who’s doing it. There are going to be some people who have been there a while who will not be there next year.”

“There will be a change with at least one assistant and there will be some names that maybe you all don’t know but are the people who run the place.”

Jones used Kyle Tucker’s feature on the dysfunction within the basketball program from last fall as an example of what Barnhart says must change moving forward. The article featured anonymous comments from former staff members detailing how poorly things were run.

“The last three years, it has been an organizational disaster,” Jones said of the program. “Leave aside what you see on the court. Just the way things run there have been way out of whack.”

“It’s disorganized. It has led to problems off the court, where, just in the NIL world, nobody is sure what to do. I mean, who do you call? People with loose lips would tell players they’d get this but then they were never really gonna get that. It was just an organizational disaster.”

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And then there is Calipari himself, who has become more and more isolated over the years as trusted staffers and advisors have left his side.

“To get to Cal, you had to go through one person, and if that person didn’t like you, well, sorry,” Jones said. “That’s just the way it goes and it was a disaster and anyone if they are honest, anyone associated with UK basketball would tell you that’s true. They all would tell you. People who, Cal is one of their best friends, if you got them on a lie detector [test], they would tell you that place was run about as unorganized as possible. And almost all the off-the-court problems go to that.”

The dysfunction got worse this year, and Jones said getting things in order is the other demand Barnhart made yesterday.

“I think Mitch, to his credit, has come in and said, that ain’t happening anymore. We, UK Athletics, are now going to go back to what we do for every other program, which is make sure this is run in an organized manner and you don’t get to do it as your own fiefdom anymore.”

“For years, it was on its own island that operated like a well-oiled machine. Now it’s on its own island where it’s Lord of the Flies. I think Mitch is saying that island is now gone. We’re going to organize this like we do football, like we do like every other sport. And I don’t think Cal loves that but I don’t think he had a choice. Because even he knows it can’t be like it was.”

Will those demands be met? Only time will tell.