John Calipari tells Coach K he copied his one-and-done model at Duke

Mike Krzyzewski has been out of coaching since 2022 but his friendly rivalry with John Calipari continues. Coach Cal says he joined a podcast with Coach K today that will air soon, on the condition he could throw a friendly jab at the Duke basketball legend.

“He asked me to do the podcast and we had some fun with it,” Calipari said during his call-in radio show Monday evening. “If you’re gonna ask me to go on, I’m going to say something.”

The Kentucky head coach said Krzyzewski asked him about the young talent he’s got this season in Lexington and how they’re playing together. Calipari responded that it’s no different than anything he’s done in the past and the teams Coach K saw while he was in Durham.

He should know. It is the same one-and-done model Krzyzewski stole from Calipari back in the day.

“He said something about playing young players, I said, ‘Yeah, I’ve always done it. You copied us. Then you started playing young players,’” Coach Cal said. “He said, ‘I’m recruiting those same guys, they just happened to start leaving early.’ OK.

“That’ll be like the whole thing that’ll be out there, that I did that.”

Friendly jabs aside, Calipari says Coach K complimented the Wildcats and how this team is playing.

“We talked about all the stuff going on,” Coach Cal added. “He really kept saying, ‘I love your team because they’re unselfish, they pass to one another, they create shots.’ He said our big guys coming back are gonna make you a little bit different.”

The guy with 1,570 career games and 1,202 wins under his belt says Kentucky is good. Tells you everything you need to know.