Bruce Pearl sets up t-shirt night for Kentucky so John Calipari doesn't "get his feelings hurt"
Bruce Pearl is poking the bear two-and-a-half months before Kentucky comes to town.
John Calipari loves talking about being every team’s Super Bowl — and it’s true. This game is circled on everybody’s calendar whether they’re willing to publicly admit it or not. Coach Cal knows there is money to be made selling t-shirts because they always seem to be around when the Wildcats play on the road.
“Every game we play is a Super Bowl, t-shirt night. I’m going to get into the t-shirt business,” he once said. “Every game we go to is white out, blue out, black out, it doesn’t matter.”
Shocker: Auburn will do the same when it hosts Kentucky on February 17. But maybe not for reasons you’d expect. Pearl says the Tigers will have t-shirt night with the Wildcats in attendance to avoid pissing Coach Cal off.
In his words, Calipari “gets his feelings hurt” when it’s not t-shirt night. So they’re doing it to sell their AUTLIVE shirts — Auburn basketball’s fight against cancer. AUTLIVE raises awareness of cancer prevention and detection, with t-shirt sales and donations raising money to benefit cancer patients and their local hospitals.
“It’ll be a great season for AUTLIVE, we’re selling (shirts) early now as stocking stuffers, things like that. We’ve just got a few more home games to sell them,” Pearl said this week. “I think the Kentucky game, too. I just love doing them for Kentucky because if you don’t do it for Kentucky, John Calipari gets his feelings hurt. If it’s not a white out or a blue out or a black out, and you do it for somebody else, it pisses him off.”
Calipari is 8-6 vs. Pearl in the head-to-head rivalry since he took the Auburn job back in 2014. This won’t help Coach Cal’s desire to make it 9-6.
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