Kentucky head football coach Mark Stoops seems to have taken exception to John Calipari’s recent remarks as the Wildcats basketball coach lobbied for new facilities, but UK AD Mitch Barnhart believes it’s much ado about nothing.
According to Wildcats reporter Nick Roush, Barnhart blames the media and “the world we’re living in” for the supposed Calipari-Stoops feud. Saying, “You look to create stories and it becomes the fact.”
The whole situation was sparked when Calipari made a push for facility upgrades for the basketball program, citing its importance to the university:
And the reason is, this is a basketball school. It’s always been that. Alabama is a football school. So is Georgia. I mean, they are. No disrespect to our football team. I hope they win 10 games and go to bowls. At the end of the day, that makes my job easier and it makes the job of all of us easier. But this is a basketball school. And so we need to keep moving in that direction and keep doing what we’re doing.
After which, Stoops shot back on Twitter before elaborating at a Saturday press conference.
“I don’t care about anyone’s program, I stay in my lane,” Stoops explained. “But when you start talking about mine, and people I compete against, I’m going to defend my players. … Don’t demean and distract from what we’ve done to get to this point.”
Adding that, “some may, but this program didn’t wake up on third base.”