Paul Finebaum didn’t take it easy on Kentucky coach John Calipari for his “basketball school” comments during an appearance on McElroy and Cubelic in The Morning Monday.
The feud between the two UK coaches led to a response from Stoops on Twitter last Thursday, followed by a statement to UK media Saturday afternoon.
“I don’t care what anybody says about their program. That’s not my business. That’s not my lane,” Stoops said. “But when you start talking about my program and others that we compete against. Me? I don’t do that. I stay in my lane. So that’s in defense of my players, defense of the work that we’ve done.”
During an interview Saturday with Keith Farmer of LEX18 and BBN Tonight, Calipari did admit that he said the wrong thing.
“You know, I said the wrong thing,” Calipari told Farmer. “Mark and I will be fine. We’ll get back and talk about it. You know, I’m not real smart and sometimes it doesn’t come out the right way; that’s my Italian in me but we’ll be fine.”
However, Finebaum didn’t let an opportunity to slam Calipari pass by.
“This has been a public relations disaster and you can point to many different aspects of it, but you mentioned Mitch Barnhart first, what he needed to do was get on it immediately and put an end to it,” Finebaum said Monday on McElroy and Cubelic In The Morning. “Instead he went old-school AD. You guys know him. He’s considered the best athletic director in the SEC, but he’s still old school, meaning he’s not in touch with the minute-to-minute social media storm that was brewing out there.
“He waited too long and then I think at the end, you saw some personal grievances thrown on top of the fire. It’s well-known in Lexington that Barnhart and Calipari are not close friends. Calipari made a critical mistake and Mark Stoops sat there and said, ‘do I be a gentleman about this or do I punch back?’ And he punched back and put Calipari on the canvas.”
It took time but Stoops transformed the Kentucky football program to national relevance. The Wildcats have won 10 games twice in four years, including a streak of four straight bowl victories. Now the Wildcats will open the season ranked in the AP Poll (No. 20) for the first time since 1978.
“You can legitimately say that the football coach at the University of Kentucky, today, is more powerful than the basketball coach,” Finebaum said.
Finebaum decided to take things a step further, saying it’s Calipari’s worst moment other than blowing an opportunity at a perfect season in 2015.
“You can call it an unforced error, you can call it whatever you want. I’m calling it Cal’s worst moment,” added Finebaum. “Really other than blowing a perfect season with terrible coaching in the Wisconsin semifinal game. At Kentucky, every season begins with optimism – and I’m speaking basketball-wise. Every season begins with five-stars. And you don’t know what’s going to happen. So at the end of March or early April, maybe Cal wins the national championship. But more than likely he won’t and this is going to continue on.”
But Finebaum didn’t stop there. He believes John Calipari is no longer the best option for Kentucky.
“It is the biggest story in the SEC right now because it came out of left field and it came at a time where we should’ve been celebrating Kentucky basketball. They had the stage to themselves, four days in the Bahamas and Calipari blew it. Quite frankly, I don’t know where he goes to get it back. Just listening to our audience, and we have a lot of Kentucky fans that call in, they’re very mixed on him right now.
“I mean are you guys telling me you can’t find a coach better than John Calipari right now? Billy Donovan? I’m just throwing a name out there. A young coach who is up-and-coming? Take your pick. John Calipari is really no longer the best option for the University of Kentucky.”
