Mark Stoops was asked about John Calipari’s “basketball school” comments Saturday during a press conference with UK media following the first scrimmage of fall camp.
“This is a basketball school; it’s always been that,” Calipari said Thursday in an interview with reporters in the Bahamas. “No disrespect. Our football team, I hope they win games, 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 doing what we’re doing.”
“I don’t care about anyone’s program, I stay in my lane,” Stoops said Saturday. “But when you start talking about mine, and people I compete against, I’m going to defend my players… Don’t demean and distract from what we’ve done to get to this point.”
Related: Mark Stoops: “This program wasn’t born on third base”
“This program wasn’t born on third base,” Stoops added. Noting how many people have helped Kentucky football build the program to where it is today.
The UK football coach also said that he and Calipari haven’t talked since the comments were made Thursday, which led to a response on Twitter from Stoops. Since then, the story has reached the national media.
Calipari responded with a statement on Twitter Saturday afternoon.
“I was told about comments Mark Stoops made in his press conference,” Calipari wrote on Twitter. “I reached out to Mark Thursday & will try again. Comparing our athletic dept. to others was my bad. I have supported Mark & the football team through good and bad. I will continue to support them & cheer them on.
“Now I’ll do what I’ve done for 30 years: Coach my team and block out the clutter,” Calipari added.
