Vicky Graff Photo
Who said Kentucky athletics director Mitch Barnhart and UK basketball coach John Calipari don’t get along?
Apparently so many have said it and believe it that it did not take Barnhart long to point out that was not accurate during an appearance on WLEX-TV’s “BBN Tonight.”
Both Barnhart and Calipari joined host Keith Farmer in a rare joint public appearance together. Of course, the friendly relationship with WLEX probably made it easier for the two to agree to the interview after another disappointing March for Calipari’s team.
Farmer correctly joked to start the show that it was nice and unusual to see them together.
“That is a little bit of the misinformation,” Barnhart told Farmer. “I say this jokingly and seriously, he (Calipari) has been married 40 plus years. I have been married 40 plus years. We have been together for 15 (years), so I think we know how to manage relationships. We are sort of like semi-married at the end of the day.
“The notion that we have no relationship is garbage. The way we have gotten through 15 years has been pretty good. We have had our highs and lows and some things have not gone exactly the way we wanted but by and large I am sitting next to a guy I brought here 15 years ago and we have been just fine.”
Barnhart emphasized he lets his coaches coach with over management from him.
“I try to let them do their work and stay out of their way,” Barnhart said. “Do I wish I could be around more? Yeah. I will work at that. That is on me. At the end of the day I trust him to do his job. We always want to make adjustments to get better. So let’s put the notion of no relationship out the door.”
Calipari added “there are so many things out there that aren’t accurate” that it would be impossible to defend everything.
“You have to let it go. Hopefully people will look at it and say they have done a lot of good together,” Calipari said. “There have been some really high highs and low lows. That is part of athletics.”
11 Responses
I used to love the Dallas Cowboys but developed a huge dislike for Jerry Jones. I can’t stand how the man runs things.
Now I’m a Bengals fan.
No one at UK seems to car about our great basketball tradition and winning games and championships.
After 52, years im checking out. I’m going to make UCONN my new team in college basketball. They have a coach and AD that are all about winning and are establishing an incredible program there.
I can see them passing us in NC’s. Best part is they are still playing and I get to watch them tonight while Cal and Barney fondle one another.
Just me, I’m UK number 1 by a lot, after that I’m all in on SEC. Now it is BAMA & UT still playing.
BBN doesn’t have to take this slap in the face and do nothing. Stop buying season tickets. Stop going to the games. Stop watching them on TV. Turn off your radio. Cut ties with the University of Kentucky until they fire Barnhart and Calipari. They brought this on themselves. I will not watch our once proud tradition devolve into the next Indiana!
Adou Thiero is leaving Kentucky. Tell me that there isn’t a clusterfuck going on with the basketball program. The FRAUD is the one who should have left!
The only physical player we had.
The fraud and his financial minion AD have robbed UK of the legendary UK BB program and mega-millions of dollars. When either of them opens their mouth, a flood warning should be issued because it will just be an overflowing seeer of lies.
I no longer read their lies. They are thieves and should be investigated by the very best Private Investigators in the nation.
The relationship – the fraud owns the AD.
Medical Alert…
Are the rumors true that every UK administrator who has turned a blind eye, or even worse – endorsed the fraud & his financial minion AD – are lacking a pair. How can such feeble administrators stay in their big lying jobs? Is the UK Board of Trustees also getting some secret bonus $$$ from the AD ???
Anyone who lies for 10+ years and has no conscience surely has a lot of skeletons in the closet.
UK BB is gone. It needs some great former players to take over the entire UKAA. Pay Pat Riley & Dan Issel big money to head up a complete overhaul of every position in the UKAA until the stench is gone.
Well, the decision is clearly that Cal returns. It is good that UK is clearly behind him, and doing their end to help the coaches have an optimal off season and 2024/25 season. I’m 100% UK sports #1 no matter the low points! Although Billy G. year 2 was a heck of a test!
This is as bad or worse than Bily Clyde was…he didn’t have any talent. Calipari is a joke of a coach and now he is laughing all the way to the bank.
Triple B..I don’t think it is clear that UK is clearly behind Cal. I am sure if a poll were taken it would show that the majority were ready to let the Fraud hit the exit. When you take a look at the remaining coaches left in the big dance, the ones that still out performed UK this year, and the other coaches out there that have clearly done better than UK with much lesser talent, it would show that Cal would have to be in bottom 50% with coaching acumen. we have been screwed for at least one more year.
It obviously isn’t about basketball anymore at the University of Kentucky. This is all part of a "bigger agenda" where major colleges and universities are concerned in terms of the liberal woke political ideology—-this is about taking away the history and tradition of the UK bball program as generations of fans know it and recognize it, just as the history and tradition of every other institution and legacy in this country has been taken away. This woke political movement has hit the education system just as hard as it has the government and military–and this UK president is the first in school history to not play some kind of a role or part in the athletics dept as all other past presidents have (this was a pre-orchestrated move and hire, he was not brought in or intended to be involved in athletics, he was responsible for overseeing and ensuring the woke movement within the school). Then u have the most weak, spineless, thin-skinned AD in history who was already "politically correct" in his behavior, personality, and the way he conducted himself publicly and with the media, before all of that became more mainstream. But now he has a president who has instituted that very mentality within the university, so B Marnhart has been able to relax and he who he is and who he wants to be, ever since ol ELI came in and took over (and that’s basically the equivalent of his own "lifetime contract"). Then u have the self-proclaimed and contractually-made KING—the BARACK OBAMA of basketball coaches—once B Marnhart was ensured his own lifetime contract, he then passed it on down to Barack Calipari so that he could sit back and never have to stress over the bball program anymore, and could focus on all the other Olympic sports, which he has always cared more about from the start anyway, and then know that his own legacy would be protected—while the Barack Obama of coaches could proceed with his politically correct one-and-done, NBA draft prep camp of making kids rich and changing families’ lives, all while embracing a new culture at his disposal to work with of individual players getting paid via NIL deals and "collectives", and basically being yearly free agents due to the transfer portal. Then the Barack Obama of bball coaches publicly stated the given nickname in 2021, while during a time of extreme turbulence, unrest, and toxicity within the country and within society, tainted the religiously and passionately followed pastime and sport in the state, and gave the ultimate middle finger to the entire state and the entire fan base by taking a knee and instructing the team to take a knee during the national anthem before a game at FLA, and in the middle of a season that resulted in the worst record in the history of KY BBALL. At a time when a state, a country, and a fanbase are all already hurting and suffering for a variety of reasons and factors, and they’re trying to release some of those feelings of anger, hurt, or frustration by following one of their favorite pastimes in UK BBALL which is not supposed to REMIND US OF ANYTHING POLITICAL, the Barack Obama of bball coaches goes and ruins that for all of us too with his public showing of bowing to the establishment and being politically correct and remaining everybody all over again of everything they’re already trying to forget, and dragging something that is held in special regard and high esteem by a fan base and a state into the mud with him, and the mockery of a country we have become. And thats where John Vincent Calipari lost me. He had already lost me as a bball coach before that—but after that middle finger to the fan base, he lost me as as a person, at least the person i would choose to represent the University of Kentucky. The man can have his political beliefs–thats a freedom we are ALL "supposed" to have in this country—-but he can’t expect to unite a fan base or a program or a state by a public move like that that was in such poor taste–and the timing couldn’t have been worse–but he knew that, and thats why he did it when he did. That was his statement to us of if ur gonna be on board with me and MY BBALL TEAM, then this is the way it’s gonna be. And if u don’t like it, tough–get out, we don’t want u. And this represents everything that has been going on in this country for the last 5 yrs. Anybody find it interesting that the worst 5-yr stretch in KY BBALL came during this same period? That 9-16 finish that season was just the perfect microcosm of that kneeling, and it was the confirmation of the statement that KING CALIPARI was making then: that THIS is what is important to me–its not YOUR PRECIOUS BBALL PROGRAM that I care about, it’s all this other bullshit that I’m going to put ahead of being a bball coach on my priority list–and u will just have to deal with that. That’s exactly the statement that was made that day, and I have never forgotten it, nor ever will, and i have never supported Calipari at KY ever since and I never will. But I will always support KENTUCKY–the KY blood in me will never die. And that’s what Calipari disgraced for me that day and for thousands of others too I know–the KY blood. What it means to be a Kentuckian. Calipari’s time here will eventually die, as will Barnhart ‘s, and even the president’s…..but KY will never die. It probably won’t ever look the same going forward thanks to all the damage that has been done, and that has been ALLOWED to be done by this president, and this athletic administration. But u see the point of how this has been a perfect storm over about 15 years’ time period involving the 3 most powerful people at the University of Kentucky, that has come together to result in the total complete disarray and dysfunction, and complete and total disarray of a bball program, that we see today–and all from a politically motivated agenda that in the end is bigger than the sports programs, or the state–its on a national level and worldwide as well–but when u look at everything that has taken place here in the last 10 yrs, it all makes sense when u look at it through that political lens. Entirely too many years of all of that power going completely unchecked and having no oversight at all whatsoever. I’m inclined to agree with what LB or one of our other guys said about there really should be an investigation into all of them–that would be about the only thing that could stop them now–and we might be in shock of what would be found out. Might be worth it—clean house like Little Brother did–sometimes that’s the only right answer!!! Because it’s politics that run UK athletics now.