John Calipari's comment that Kentucky is a "basketball school" have reportedly angered people within the university's athletic department, in particular football supporters trying to help the program gain a foothold in the SEC.
And especially football coach Mark Stoops.
Calipari made the comment this week while discussing his men's basketball program's need for a new practice facility (the current one opened in 2007). He made a claim that many objective observers might agree with but reportedly has angered some Wildcat backers.
"This is a basketball school. It’s always been that," Calipari said. "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.”
MORE: Mark Stoops calls coach out John Calipari on Twitter for 'basketball school' remark
Those comments drew the ire of Stoops, who responded in kind on Twitter. Per Matt Jones of Kentucky Sports Radio, Stoops — who has been at the program since 2013 and who has led the school to four straight bowl wins and two 10-win seasons — felt that Calipari undermined his efforts to build up the program.
"Stoops is like, 'I, for 10 years, have had to fight against that,'" Jones said on his show. "I’m friends with the staff, I asked them before this, what’s the biggest thing you have to work on? ‘Everywhere we go, they say Kentucky, isn't that a basketball school?’
"Literally, I’m not sure there’s a phrase you could say that would make Mark Stoops madder than that one.”
Calipari tweeted Saturday that he had reached out to Stoops, saying it was "my bad" to compare Kentucky's programs to other schools. His tweet suggests he was not successful in making contact.
Now I’ll do what I’ve done for 30 years: Coach my team and block out the clutter.
— John Calipari (@UKCoachCalipari) August 13, 2022
Jones claimed Friday that Calipari's comments angered more people than Stoops.
"This upset a lot of people in football, for real," Jones said. "Y'all can believe this or not, that’s fine. But there were some really upset people. Not just in the staff, but in the donor world. (Calipari) made a mistake and now he's got to fix it because they were really upset about it.
"The tweet, in some ways, was just the tip of the iceberg."
For now, the ball is in Stoops' court. Because Calipari, as he put it, seems to have put the incident behind him.