WATCH: John Calipari hilariously interjects Kenny Payne's 'basketball state' comment
The Kentucky and Louisville men’s basketball programs are two of the most storied college basketball programs in the country, and especially in Kentucky’s case, are synonymous with their prowess on the basketball court.
That notion has ruffled some feathers in the Bluegrass, but new Louisville head coach Kenny Payne, a former UK assistant under John Calipari who spent the two years as an assistant on the New York Knicks, must not have gotten the memo that Kentucky has slowly shifted into a football state as of late – at least in Lexington.
“This is a basketball state, it’s the best of the best,” Payne said.
“Careful,” Calipari quickly responded.
Calipari’s hilarious interjection to his former assistant is a callback to his brief conflict with UK football coach Mark Stoops last month.
During Kentucky’s offseason scrimmages in the Bahamas, Calipari advocated for a new basketball facility. The UK coach said that if a ‘football school’ like Georgia or Alabama needed something renovated, it would be done, and it should be the same with so-called ‘basketball schools,’ aka Kentucky.
Stoops, and many in the football program, took offense to that and the situation was made public. Calipari has since apologized and the two have seemingly brushed the situation under the rug – at least publicly.
Mark Stoops on John Calipari’s ‘basketball school’ comments: We won’t be derailed
The Big Blue Civil War has only just begun, it seems. Kentucky football coach Mark Stoops addressed the situation publicly for the first time since John Calipari’s comments that UK was a “basketball school.”
During a press conference Saturday afternoon, Stoops said that he’s “done” with the situation and has addressed it with his players, though he hasn’t talked to Calipari directly about the situation. Now, his number one focus is getting his team ready for the season opener on Sept. 3 and nothing will derail the Wildcats this late into the offseason, especially right in their own back yard.
Still, Stoops found a second to throw in a back-handed comment, “some may, but this program didn’t wake up on third base.” The football coach is seemingly referencing the basketball program’s blue-blood status, while UK football has been a historic SEC bottom-feeder.