Calipari is "all ears" on request for Rupp Arena name change

John Calipari’s Wednesday press conference was held so he could speak about the new hire of Bruiser Flint and the departure of DeWayne Peevy, but the topic of Rupp Arena also came up in the conversation. It was Cal’s first time in front of the media since UK’s faculty within the African American and Africana Studies program requested the university change the name of Rupp Arena, and the Courier-Journal’s John Hale seized the opportunity to get Cal’s thoughts on the request for change.

“That, from what I understand, they were talking about a lot of different things,” Cal responded. “This is another chance for us to listen and learn. Some people will agree, some people are not going to agree. I would tell you again, for me personally, knowing the family, knowing Herky (Rupp) like I did–what’s out there that tells me it’s something different?

“I’m all ears and I’m going to listen, but here’s what I do know. The university is doing stuff going forward–diversity issues on our campus, they’re dealing with– (that is) very important for us. What we’re doing in the minority leadership initiative, we are taking the front position in this, the lead position; as this thing goes and grows, Kentucky is going to be the lead in what we’re doing and be the program that’s going to say, here are the best case scenarios in this and how we do it.”

Hale also asked if Calipari had heard anything from his players regarding Rupp, to which Cal said, “No, I haven’t heard anything on that side.”