Mark Stoops offended at John Calipari “Basketball School” quote

There seems to be some beef among the Kentucky Wildcats' two biggest head coaches.

On Thursday, Kyle Tucker of The Athletic reported that John Calipari is demanding a new practice facility, with or without the support of Mitch Barnhart.

Within that report was a quote from Calipari, calling Kentucky a “basketball school”, which I believe most would agree with.

That is, unless you are Mark Stoops.

“This is a basketball school. It’s always been that. Alabama is a football school. So is Georgia. I mean, they are. No disrespect to our football team. I hope they win 10 games and go to bowls. At the end of the day, that makes my job easier, and it makes the job of all of us easier. But this is a basketball school. And so we need to keep moving in that direction and keep doing what we’re doing.”

In the quote, Calipari mentions that he means no disrespect to the football program, but Stoops certainly seems to have taken offense to the comments, with Stoops also noting that the football program has had more postseason success as of late with the hashtag “#4straightpostseasonwins.”

Followed by a retweet calling Calipari’s comments “insulting”.

Calipari has certainly given Stoops and the football program plenty of praise in recent years, and I am sure Calipari and Stoops will ultimately iron this out.

With that said, looking at Calipari’s estranged relationship with Mitch Barnhart and his willingness to go over him for a new practice facility, and now offending Mark Stoops, it is safe to say that he may not be the most popular person within the athletic department at the moment.

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