John Calipari on "basketball school" comments: "I said the wrong thing"

On Thursday, John Calipari created quite the stir within the athletics department when he said he believes his team deserves a new practice facility because Kentucky is a basketball school first and foremost. The comment did not sit well with Mark Stoops, who immediately fired back on social media and today, continued on the defensive, telling reporters he will stand up for his players and program against anyone — even a fellow Kentucky coach. When asked, Stoops said he and Cal had not spoken since Cal’s comments on Thursday.

After Stoops’ remarks to the media, John Calipari broke his silence, issuing a statement on Twitter admitting fault and confirming that the two had not spoken despite Cal reaching out. Tonight, following his team’s third exhibition win in the Bahamas, Calipari went a step further, speaking to Keith Farmer.

“You know, I said the wrong thing. Mark and I will be fine. We’ll get back and talk about it. You know, I’m not real smart and sometimes it doesn’t come out the right way; that’s my Italian in me but we’ll be fine.”

Talked to @UKCoachCalipari after tonight's game about the press conference that took place earlier today in Lexington with @UKCoachStoops pic.twitter.com/dZzPxFrTRT

— Keith Farmer (@KeithFarmer18) August 14, 2022

Here is Calipari’s tweet from earlier in the day:

“I was told about comments Mark Stoops made in his press conference. I reached out to Mark Thursday & will try again. Comparing our athletic dept. to others was my bad. I have supported Mark & the football team through good and bad. I will continue to support them & cheer them on. Now I’ll do what I’ve done for 30 years: Coach my team and block out the clutter.”

Now I’ll do what I’ve done for 30 years: Coach my team and block out the clutter.

— John Calipari (@UKCoachCalipari) August 13, 2022

Mark Stoops: “We won’t be derailed”

Stoops’ initial reaction to Calipari’s comments made it clear how upset he was.

 “Basketball school?” Stoops tweeted. “I thought we competed in the SEC? #4straightpostseasonwins”

Basketball school? I thought we competed in the SEC? #4straightpostseasonwins https://t.co/xUoKmUeonH

— Mark Stoops (@UKCoachStoops) August 11, 2022

Today, when asked why he went public with his reaction, Stoops reflected on how hard he’s worked to build the Kentucky football program, a quest that still includes combating the “basketball school” narrative on the recruiting trail.

“I don’t care what anybody says about their program. That’s not my business. That’s not my lane, but when you start talking about my program and others that we compete against — me? I don’t do that. I stay in my lane. So that’s in defense of my players, defense of the work that we’ve done. Believe me. We want to continue to push, but don’t demean or distract from the hard work and the dedication and the commitment people have done to get to this point.

“Again, I don’t need to apologize for that and I won’t. But we want more and we want to continue to push that. There are so many people, so many fans, so many coaches, so many players that have sacrificed to improve at the level we’ve improved at. We all know, this program wasn’t born on third base. Some may, but I can promise you this football team didn’t wake up on third base. We did a lot of work. We did a lot of work.”

Mitch Barnhart: “An unproductive and unfortunate situation”

Kentucky athletics director Mitch Barnhart also spoke to reporters today at Kroger Field and shared his disappointment in how the whole ordeal played out.

“Comments in an interview created — in my judgment — an unproductive and unfortunate situation,” Barnhart said in his opening statement on Saturday. “I can assure you I have talked to both coaches, and they are extremely competitive, and that’s what I want them to be. I’m glad they’re competitive and they’re proud of their programs. Like all of us, they want their students and their teams to be successful. At the same time, I know all of our coaches in our entire department understand the privilege we have in this university of representing this university and this state.”

“We compete, we educate with the understanding of how privileged we are to be here and the importance and the honor and integrity that must be present to everything that we do for our university, for our state, and for our students that look to us. We all have an incredible heart and love for this university and this state.”

Moving forward, Barnhart said he hopes both coaches provide better examples for not only their players but everyone.

“As adults, we’re responsible for leading young people,” Barnhart said. “What we are doing today is laying a foundation for generational leadership. For today and for the future, adults are supposed to teach the children. However, what occurred this week is not who we are. It’s not who we want to be. And I’ve communicated that directly, and we will continue to work our way through that.”

Now, hopefully, we’ll go back to talking about basketball and football, which is what we should be doing in the first place.