'Not who we are': Kentucky AD Mitch Barnhart opens up on John Calipari vs. Mark Stoops
These are unique times in the Big Blue Nation. On Thursday, comments made by John Calipari on Thursday became viral when Mark Stoops quickly struck back on Twitter with two tweets to defend his program.
There appears to be a fire in the University of Kentucky athletics department.
Stoops met with the media for the first time on Saturday following Kentucky’s first scrimmage of fall camp. The head coach adamantly defended his program and is not backing down from the comments made on social media.
Kentucky Director of Athletics Mitch Barnhart also took the podium at Kroger Field and talked to reporters for over 40 minutes about a multitude of topics. The most pressing issue is dealing with this public spat between the two highest-paid employees on campus.
Mitch Barnhart is not happy with the latest development.
“Comments in an interview created — in my judgment — an unproductive and unfortunate situation,” Barnhart said in his opening statement on Saturday. “I can assure you I have talked to both coaches, and they are extremely competitive, and that’s what I want them to be. I’m glad they’re competitive and they’re proud of their programs. Like all of us, they want their students and their teams to be successful. At the same time, I know all of our coaches in our entire department understand the privilege we have in this university of representing this this university and this state.”
“We compete, we educate with the understanding of how privileged we are to be here and the importance and the honor and integrity that must be present to everything that we do for our university, for our state, and for our students that look to us. We all have an incredible heart and love for this university and this state.”
Barnhart was not happy with how things transpired and typically likes to handle situations like this in-house. However, the toothpaste is now out of the tube. The University of Kentucky has a feud that must be dealt with. Barnhart does not want what just happened occurring in his department.
“As adults, we’re responsible for leading young people,” Barnhart said. “What we are doing today is laying a foundation for generational leadership. For today and for the future, adults are supposed to teach the children. However, what occurred this week is not who we are. It’s not who we want to be. And I’ve communicated that directly, and we will continue to work our way through that.”
There is some work to be done, and it starts with communication. Calipari and Stoops have not yet spoken to each other. The former states that the latter isn’t picking up the phone. Stoops confirmed in his press conference that a conversation hasn’t happened between the two coaches. Mitch Barnhart told the media that a conversation between the two parties will occur when the Calipari returns to Lexington once the Bahamas trip ends on Sunday. However, the athletic director is ready to get the games started so everyone can leave this kerfuffle in the past.
“I believe we’re ready to move forward,” Barnhart said. “Together as a department and as a family. To be clear, we aren’t a football school and we aren’t a basketball school — we’re both of these and much more. We’re a university with an outstanding athletic department.”
But there is some obvious animosity in the Kentucky athletic department. Some fires need to be put out, and they better be put out fast.
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