Mitch Barnhart, John Calipari reveal specifics of their meeting after early NCAA Tournament exit
When John Calipari met with Kentucky athletic director Mitch Barnhart on Monday, many believed Calipari had coached his final game for the Wildcats.
Instead, Barnhart asked how he can help Calipari to get Kentucky back to its historical winning ways, setting the stage for year 16 of the duo’s partnership. After all, the Wildcats have been a top three seed in the NCAA Tournament during both of Kentucky’s first-round exits over the past three seasons. They weren’t exactly projected to lose those games, as all signs had pointed toward deep runs for the Wildcats basked on their regular season performance.
Barnhart opened up to BBN Tonight‘s Keith Farmer during his exclusive interview with the duo, letting the public in on what was discussed between he and Calipari after the initial shock of losing to Oakland wore off.
“Cal averages 27 wins a year since he’s been here,” Barnhart told Farmer. “We got to a spot this year — we had some incredible victories. And then we get to March and we stubbed our toe a couple of times and there’s no mystery in that. We’ve had a couple of times down the stretch where we want to be better in March. There’s no mystery in that either.
“Our fans know what the standard is. We know what the standard is and that’s part of it. The mantle we’ve been entrusted with is critically important to both of us. And so we talked about that. [We talked about] how do we change that dynamic in a world of NIL and transfer space and the portal older rosters. We talked about the roster. We talked about toughness, we talked about defense.”
Calipari expanded on what Barnhart said, saying that he’s already taking the next steps to reach out to his current players and figuring out if they’re going pro, hitting the portal or are staying put. Once he knows that — he can start digging inside the transfer portal to look for veteran platers, which it seems Barnhart wants to be made a priority moving forward.
After all, Calipari has had success with veteran one-and-dones in the past with Reid Travis, Nate Sestina, Oscar Tshiebwe, Kellan Grady and now Antonio Reeves and Tre Mitchell.
“We’ve done it [before], but it takes us longer because anybody transferred wants to know if so and so is coming back or are they here? There’s not one answer to ‘How do you do this?’ What I think with the current environment — you can’t have like we’ve done. Five freshmen starting. We’ve done that before. I mean, if you have freshmen, they’ve got to be supplemented with some veteran, talented players.
“You know, when you’re 19 and you’re playing against a 26-year-old, there’s a big difference there. So I think we’re close to being what we want. We also know that we’ve got to get better.”
As soon as the interview ended, Calipari said that he was going to have those meetings with his current players. While he could see up to three of his guys being drafted in the first round this summer, most of his team has a decision to make whether they’re staying or leaving. After his conversation with Barnhart, those announcements may came sooner rather than later.