John Calipari blames COVID for empty Rupp Arena seats

Rupp Arena was not sold out for the Mount St. Mary's game but fans at Rupp liked what they saw. (Jeff Houchin/Nolan Media)

For most college basketball programs, crowds at Kentucky’s games this season at Rupp Arena would have been more than acceptable. But at Kentucky — “the gold standard” as coach John Calipari often says — empty seats create questions about fan interest dropping.

Kentucky coach John Calipari has his own explanation.

“I think it’s mostly COVID. That’s what I think it is,” he said Thursday.  “One of the things a friend of mine said, ‘They only have two entrances into the building.’ We have an older crowd, if it takes 25 minutes to get into the building and do the same thing next time, ‘I might not come.’ But I think most of it is COVID driven.

“But we sold a bunch of new season tickets. Got a bunch of new fundraising. I think the positive in this is one, we need our fans, but two, we’re still going to be one of the teams that leads the country in attendance. Attendance, this COVID knocked everyone for a loop around the country. So, you could have two guys say it’s this and two guys say it’s that. It doesn’t mean that’s what a majority of people think.”

Calipari has his swag back this year and that was clear with his next statement to fans.

“If there’s season ticket – there may be season tickets available. I’ll say this, buy them because then you may not be able to get them for the next 15, 20 years. Then the people that have purchased tickets, have given a lot of money, so the fundraising and all of the other stuff. I just see it as a COVID thing that we’re going to have to work through,” Calipari said.

“But we still, we have the best fan base. If there are 500 people that say, ‘I don’t want to go, I’m too old, I’m this, I’m that, or whatever reason,’ well, 500 people bought our tickets. There are other things that you may look at, but I think we’ll be fine.

“Our fans, it’s just great to have them back. I’d say, like this game (tonight against Ohio), we need our fans at the game. It’s going to be a really hard game, hard game.”

COVID might be impacting attendance. However, I think opponents UK is playing in Rupp Arena are impacting attendance more. Fans have learned they can stay home, save money and time, and still see the game and be as true blue as ever without being at Rupp Arena for a game they know UK should easily win.

“Let me say this again, you need tune-up games. You need games where you can work through the kinks and you can still build confidence and you can have guys understand what they can and can’t do,” Calipari said

“But these are the games that you really, ‘All right, what have we learned? Where do we have to go?'”

Calipari said two exhibition games showed UK’s weakness in post defense and then 3-point defense.

“If you want to press then you better put some time in. You can’t just say, now we’re going to press. They don’t know. If you think you know, they know, as a coach you are usually wrong. They don’t know,” Calipari said.

“You can’t be good at everything. All right, what is this team going to be good at? I like that we’re fast. I like that we shoot it. I like that we can score. We’ve got to get to the line more. Why aren’t we getting to the line more?”