In a conversation this week about the facility situation for Kentucky basketball, and his desire for improvement in that area, UK basketball coach John Calipari ignited a firestorm.
Whether it's a justified firestorm or a typical overreaction will depend on your point of view.
As part of a longer answer, Calipari made the comment that Kentucky is a basketball school and needs to invest in the program to ensure that legacy continues. But in the process he mentioned wishing the best for football and hoping the program wins 10 games in a way that seemed to be held in contrast to the supposedly higher standards for the basketball program.
Cats Illustrated writers Jeff Drummond and Justin Rowland share their thoughts in this Take Two feature.
Jeff Drummond: I don't know if this is as big of a deal as its being made out to be, but I don't think it's a nothingburger, either. When your head football coach and his right-hand man take time out of a busy camp schedule to address something like this publicly, it's an issue. Vince Marrow will have some fun and poke people he disagrees with on Twitter from time to time, but we typically don't see Stoops jump into the fray. And that led to several current and former players chiming in to various degrees of "fire."
From my perspective, bringing two other SEC football programs into the discussion — Alabama and Georgia, programs that Stoops & Co. sometimes go head-to-head against on the recruiting trail — and suggesting that those are “real” football schools gave the impression that Calipari thinks, as he likes to say, Kentucky football is just for “funsies.” Give us your funding, UK, we are the “big show.” It may not have been intended that way, but that’s how a lot of people heard it
When the dust settles and John Calipari likely clarifies his statements, I think he'll concede that he was wrong to bring the football program into his push for improved basketball facilities. While it's true that UK has historically been a "basketball school" -- arguably THE basketball school -- it shouldn't be used to create division with other programs at a school where Mitch Barnhart has worked hard to put almost all of his programs on a strong trajectory. The whole incident is unfortunate. The timing was poor -- UK Football is gearing up for an exciting season, and UK Basketball just showed us a glimpse of greatness in the Bahamas. Just an unforced error by Cal in my book.
Justin Rowland: I don't think there's an all-out war between the football and basketball programs or anything like that, but I am fairly convinced that on at least a couple of issues in college athletics, or at Kentucky, the coaches at the programs haven't seen completely eye to eye. That doesn't equate to hostility or any unhealthy competition beyond the comments and the response on social media today, but perhaps that contributed to some of the way things played out. These struggles over resources are not unique to Kentucky.
It's almost surprising that a Kentucky football coach would respond so forcefully to the basketball coach at the school, based on the perception nationally but really the reality historically, and that's a sign of how recent history has played out. Basketball certainly has had more critics while Stoops is unquestionably popular at Kentucky. I think there is real substance behind the scenes to what happened today and the conversation is fascinating. Being real, Kentucky probably will always be thought of as a "basketball school". When people around the country hear that applied to Kentucky they probably don't bat an eye. Whether you like that or not, it's probably true. That doesn't mean the football program isn't now respected for its accomplishments. But you can understand why the coaches would bristle at that given how far they've taken it from where it was and wondering about the basketball program's achievements in recent years. It was no mistake that Stoops cited four straight postseason wins in his response; not four straight bowl wins, but "postseason" being perhaps a veiled reference to UK not winning a tournament game in its last three tries.
Ultimately, I think Calipari is right about basketball needing facility updates. But he shouldn't have brought football into the conversation in that context. I also don't think the facility issue has contributed to any struggles in recent years. They're still loading up on elite players. But he's probably right about updates being needed.
Mostly, this never should have become a public thing.
