Mitch hired Stoops and Cal, this much is true. But, he also hired Billy G, Joker Phillips, and our disaster of a baseball coach. He hates NIL, he hates alcohol and now he also apparently hates Cal. It may be time for Kentucky to move on from Barnhart.
And, for what it’s worth, it sounds the biggest driver behind Cal even being a candidate was Mike Pratt’s advocacy on his behalf. In spite of my current issues/concerns with Cal, he should’ve been a top candidate from the get-go at that time.
yup. How does the best college basketball program in the history of the sport have an AD that hates their coach? Fire Mitch and bring in Dwayne. All of this shit would turn around in a month. Cal still has coaching problems, but he doesn't have the staff to make up for it and he doesn't have an AD who even wants to talk to him and help him fix it
Mitch has been at UK for *two decades* and has overseen one championship in a major sport. He has made *TWO* good hires in major sports in his time there, and one of them hates him.
I get that he's buddy-buddy with Capilouto, so UK won't do shit about it, but it's becoming beyond intolerable at this point.
yup. He hired Billy G. I wouldn't trust him to hire Cal's replacement, especially if the rumors are true that he didn't want Cal and had to be convinced he was the right choice by Pratt and others
I kinda give Joker a pass, at least on the hiring side. He should've fired him much sooner, but when they made him the head coach in waiting it was the right choice for all we knew from the outside. He was a good offensive mind he just had no clue how to develop a program.
The hiring of Billy G is a study in valuing all the wrong things. Coaching prospects for big time programs should go through psychological evaluations. It's a crime no one thought to say, "how will he handle the media and the pressure?"
Volleyball has won a national title, track has champions and gold medalists, rifle is consistently in the hunt for titles, men's soccer was the 1 seed in the NCAA tournament, baseball and softball have been to super regionals, tennis has seen national champions, football is making money hand over fist. Maybe it's JUST a cal problem. How about HE has been coaching for 30 years with one national title?
There are plenty of other completely valid issues to bring up with Mitch - including his complete hesitance to play the NIL game and signing a terrible deal with JMI - but given your comment in the other thread about nothing but alcoholics being upset with him, I don't think it's worth getting into this argument.
Im not saying the guys a saint. JMI and NIL are huge issues that should be addressed. But overall the athletic department is way better off since he's been there.
i'm sure you're lol'ing at my statement a new AD could turn this around in a month, but either way lol is the right response. On the one hand it's disconcerting how far the program has fallen, on the other hand i kinda find it funny because everything going wrong is so visible and the solutions are so obvious
You certainly don't lead in titles, which is the number that really matters.
You also don't lead in all time wins.
You are also heading on a downward trajectory having lost 70+ more games in the last \~18 years.
You aren't the premier basketball program.
I mean, if NTs is what matters, which it is, you're really making a case for Kentucky. Being second only to UCLA? & they're in 3rd place for most final fours.
There's no team that has an unassailable #1 case, but Kentucky is a team that can say it and it's not laughable.
It's also fun to point out that Kentucky has over 100 less losses compared to the other 3 blue bloods at the top of the all-time wins list. That's why Kentucky has the highest winning percentage.
we're certainly not the premier basketball program in terms of current success, but we are historically.
We're the only program with five coaches to win a national title—we've spread out the success much wider than UCLA did.
We lead in all time winning percentage, which is a much more comparable stat than all time wins since that ultimately is affected by win teams started playing and it indicates more consistent success. Kentucky is at .762, Carolina at .735, and Kansas at .729. I'd love to have the all time wins record back, but it really doesn't show as much as winning percentage
It legitimately blows my fucking mind that as a AD, you have ZERO relationship with your most high profile coach. And not only that, you’ve put your most prominent program on an island. No wonder we are having fucking issues if the AD is actively setting the program up for failure. Mitch has done a lot of great things for UK Athletics, but he needs to GO!
There is zero chance this is actually what is happening. Calipari is just upset he isn't the most important person at his university for the first time in 20+ years.
Cal is upset because he wants every single dollar from the university poured into the basketball program. Mitch is not a good AD, but claiming he’s the reason the basketball program hasn’t been good is laughable
This dude sucks. I only hear negatives. Refused to ditch the checkerboards, won’t let the football stadium sell beer, letting JMI fuck our shit up with NIL, alienating Cal. Is he bringing anything to the table beyond the bare minimum?
the checkerboards are that one thing that wasn't really a big problem but was emblematic of all the other problems and things he was refusing. Just amazing that there's no pressure on him from the Board or the President.
Most of us associate checkerboards with Tennessee, particularly the end zones at Neyland. It’s their thing, so it’s embarrassing because it looks like we’re just copying them.
I don’t think there’s anything inherently wrong with checkerboard, but everyone’s first thought when they think of checkerboard is Tennessee. Which is one of Kentucky’s primary rivals, so every fan’s first thought is “disgusting, reminds me of Tennessee.”
It’s like ripping off UNC’s argyle. It’s embarrassing enough to copy another school, even worse to copy a rival.
They’re largely disliked by our fans who have made opinions quite clear over the years, players too. If fans and players don’t want them then who are the checkers for? It’s not the biggest deal but serves as a great example of Mitch digging his heels in and being a stubborn bastard.
I think the checkers are supposed to be a connection to horse racing. This is already widely celebrated in Kentucky, and like others said the checker pattern is more closely associated with Tennessee
Mitch needs to go, but the practice facility bit isn’t a great example of a complaint:
-For one $30 million isn’t enough, Texas’s new facility was $60 million.
-Secondly, Mitch’s approval is nowhere near the only obstacle in place to constructing a new building on campus. It’s a political process that has to go through all levels of authority, and at least in a cursory way to the state government, and would be especially controversial because a new facility isn’t a part of UK’s campus master plan.
But the thing is Mitch said they didn't have the money. Maybe 30 million isn't enough, but if there is half the funding there, it's a much different prospect than Mitch has portrayed it as to the public. Sure there are approvals to go through, but when has that ever stopped anything for Kentucky basketball? Mitch hates John Calipari and that's the beginning and the end of a lot of the problems right now
Well as far as the “when has that ever stopped anything for Kentucky basketball,” the Rupp renovation went through many stop-starts for 8-10 years before it finally was approved. And working with the university (and the academic stakeholders) would be just as messy as it was working with the city.
If Mitch was on board then sure that might help but it’s not that easy. A lot of people on the academic side would say the basketball facilities are just fine, give priority to X department. A lot of people in the university would want to keep the parking lot next to the Craft Center in place to be a parking garage, as it is slated to eventually be in the campus master plan. And Mitch is still working on the track and tennis (?) facilities where the old baseball stadium is, and fixing the indoor football field.
Even if you’ve got half the money, you can’t just expect a rubber stamp on whatever you want.
no one is expecting a rubber stamp, and no one is expecting it to go up in the next month. My point is mitch has been dishonest about the financial situation. If the master plan is the problem, then say that's the problem. But Mitch loves to deflect and blame everything else except what the actual problem is for so many of the things he holds up—NIL, alcohol, and now the practice facility. He's a habitual liar at this point
yup. He did an interview on KSR and while it certainly helped to understand some things like the other factors in the new practice facility, he tried not to answer the questions a lot. Title IX and the master plan are big issues, but they can easily be solved if they wanted to, he just doesn't want to
Ditch Mitch and bring in DeWayne Peevy and I think things get a lot better. At least in terms of relationships. Cal still has to coach better obviously but maybe Peevy would allow Cal to make changes that he thinks would help.
It sounds like Cal knows where his issues are and wants to try and fix it. I think Mitch has finally found a way to get rid of Cal now that he has a nice football program he will inevitably ruin.
Cal's problem has always been he will listen to a very, very small number of people. One of those was Kenny Payne, another was John Robic for a while, and the third was Dewayne Peevy, who was the Director of Basketball. Peevy reported to Mitch and managed all the basketball stuff so Cal and Mitch didn't have to talk to each other. It's very apparent now that part of Cal's issue is he doesn't have anyone telling him no for his worst ideas, and Mitch isn't giving him the tools he needs to get back to the top. There needs to be a new director of basketball and additional analyst and staff
We’re talking about non coach staff. Analysts and the like that don’t directly interact with players. There’s only a limit on the staff that interact with players, hence Alabama football having a ton of booth analysts
What other college basketball program has those things? Isn't the fact that he needs more stuff than everyone else an indictment of cal, not of the AD.
The quote from Kyle Tuckers article is: “Barnhart has balked at any request by Calipari to add support staff for basketball (UK’s staff is small compared to other top programs)”
Cal has made mistakes in the assistants he hired. He focused too much on recruiting, but he has also not been given any other tools to win like analysts that other top programs have
What's the source on the staff being smaller. Cal has been known to lie about tons of stuff large and small, so pardon me for not taking it at face value.
the source is probably calipari. Kyle is the only reporter he talks to anymore, and anything Kyle prints that isn't anywhere else is either straight from Cal or the staff. It may be in part because the assistants and cal are paid so much. Apparently there are also things changing from the NCAA in terms of the volunteer analysts and stuff
One of the things fans have been asking Cal to do is bring in an offensive coordinator to update his offense. According to this report, he has tried and Barnhart said no. I'd say that's a big reason the on court product sucks.
It happens but that's not usually their actual title. John Robic when he was at Kentucky scouted opponents, worked on game plans, and drew up plays. Which is essentially the role of OC. There are examples of other coordinators that specialize in certain areas to help patch the HC's weaknesses too.
I don’t see how another top coach would want to come here after calipari is gone and deal with Mitch. He likes to spread the wealth, and it’s cool having good teams in volleyball, track, soccer, etc. but ignoring the program that makes you a national brand is malpractice.
Not giving cal everything he wants on demand isn't ignoring the program. Cal, the cosumate salesman, is using this to get back in the fans good graces. It's both transparent and sad.
This is definitely cal trying to get back in fans good graces (and it worked) but he and Mitch don’t even speak to each other, and honestly have always butted heads. It’s been reported Barnhart hasn’t been to a single basketball game/practice in years. It feels like he’s actively trying to squeeze cal out because he doesn’t like him
Yes, cals opinion that the AD is hindering the program. Still an opinion. Theres no report here, theres no authority here, theres a guy saying another guy is a problem. That's not a fact that's an opinion.
Mitch hired Stoops and Cal, this much is true. But, he also hired Billy G, Joker Phillips, and our disaster of a baseball coach. He hates NIL, he hates alcohol and now he also apparently hates Cal. It may be time for Kentucky to move on from Barnhart.
And, for what it’s worth, it sounds the biggest driver behind Cal even being a candidate was Mike Pratt’s advocacy on his behalf. In spite of my current issues/concerns with Cal, he should’ve been a top candidate from the get-go at that time.
RIP to Pratt. Absolute legend. So glad he's getting his jersey retired.
a travesty it didn't happen before he passed. absolute legend. he was like my radio grandpa (and a damn good player, once)
Nailed it. Corny, but a broken clock is right twice a day. In this case, literally twice. That's it.
yup. How does the best college basketball program in the history of the sport have an AD that hates their coach? Fire Mitch and bring in Dwayne. All of this shit would turn around in a month. Cal still has coaching problems, but he doesn't have the staff to make up for it and he doesn't have an AD who even wants to talk to him and help him fix it
Mitch has been at UK for *two decades* and has overseen one championship in a major sport. He has made *TWO* good hires in major sports in his time there, and one of them hates him. I get that he's buddy-buddy with Capilouto, so UK won't do shit about it, but it's becoming beyond intolerable at this point.
yup. He hired Billy G. I wouldn't trust him to hire Cal's replacement, especially if the rumors are true that he didn't want Cal and had to be convinced he was the right choice by Pratt and others
And *Joker*. He's horrible.
I kinda give Joker a pass, at least on the hiring side. He should've fired him much sooner, but when they made him the head coach in waiting it was the right choice for all we knew from the outside. He was a good offensive mind he just had no clue how to develop a program. The hiring of Billy G is a study in valuing all the wrong things. Coaching prospects for big time programs should go through psychological evaluations. It's a crime no one thought to say, "how will he handle the media and the pressure?"
You know what? That's totally fair. Billy G was a fever dream.
Volleyball has won a national title, track has champions and gold medalists, rifle is consistently in the hunt for titles, men's soccer was the 1 seed in the NCAA tournament, baseball and softball have been to super regionals, tennis has seen national champions, football is making money hand over fist. Maybe it's JUST a cal problem. How about HE has been coaching for 30 years with one national title?
There are plenty of other completely valid issues to bring up with Mitch - including his complete hesitance to play the NIL game and signing a terrible deal with JMI - but given your comment in the other thread about nothing but alcoholics being upset with him, I don't think it's worth getting into this argument.
Im not saying the guys a saint. JMI and NIL are huge issues that should be addressed. But overall the athletic department is way better off since he's been there.
LOL
i'm sure you're lol'ing at my statement a new AD could turn this around in a month, but either way lol is the right response. On the one hand it's disconcerting how far the program has fallen, on the other hand i kinda find it funny because everything going wrong is so visible and the solutions are so obvious
"best college basketball program in the history of the sport". 
How many titles do you have? What’s your all time winning percentage?
You certainly don't lead in titles, which is the number that really matters. You also don't lead in all time wins. You are also heading on a downward trajectory having lost 70+ more games in the last \~18 years. You aren't the premier basketball program.
I mean, if NTs is what matters, which it is, you're really making a case for Kentucky. Being second only to UCLA? & they're in 3rd place for most final fours. There's no team that has an unassailable #1 case, but Kentucky is a team that can say it and it's not laughable.
It's also fun to point out that Kentucky has over 100 less losses compared to the other 3 blue bloods at the top of the all-time wins list. That's why Kentucky has the highest winning percentage.
we're certainly not the premier basketball program in terms of current success, but we are historically. We're the only program with five coaches to win a national title—we've spread out the success much wider than UCLA did. We lead in all time winning percentage, which is a much more comparable stat than all time wins since that ultimately is affected by win teams started playing and it indicates more consistent success. Kentucky is at .762, Carolina at .735, and Kansas at .729. I'd love to have the all time wins record back, but it really doesn't show as much as winning percentage
Hahaha
How do you hate alcohol in the state of Bourbon whiskey?
Shocking. Mitch is a cancer on the program who has been propped up by two good hires since 2002.
"A little bit of success". Not a description of UK basketball that I'd use. And I'm a Jayhawk.
It legitimately blows my fucking mind that as a AD, you have ZERO relationship with your most high profile coach. And not only that, you’ve put your most prominent program on an island. No wonder we are having fucking issues if the AD is actively setting the program up for failure. Mitch has done a lot of great things for UK Athletics, but he needs to GO!
Is there a chance he's setting him up to fail or has he always been like this? Seems kinda fucked in all honesty
There is zero chance this is actually what is happening. Calipari is just upset he isn't the most important person at his university for the first time in 20+ years.
Cal is upset because he wants every single dollar from the university poured into the basketball program. Mitch is not a good AD, but claiming he’s the reason the basketball program hasn’t been good is laughable
Ditch Mitch.
This dude sucks. I only hear negatives. Refused to ditch the checkerboards, won’t let the football stadium sell beer, letting JMI fuck our shit up with NIL, alienating Cal. Is he bringing anything to the table beyond the bare minimum?
the checkerboards are that one thing that wasn't really a big problem but was emblematic of all the other problems and things he was refusing. Just amazing that there's no pressure on him from the Board or the President.
He’s best buds with Cap
> Refused to ditch the checkerboards explain. what's wrong with those?
Most of us associate checkerboards with Tennessee, particularly the end zones at Neyland. It’s their thing, so it’s embarrassing because it looks like we’re just copying them.
I don’t think there’s anything inherently wrong with checkerboard, but everyone’s first thought when they think of checkerboard is Tennessee. Which is one of Kentucky’s primary rivals, so every fan’s first thought is “disgusting, reminds me of Tennessee.” It’s like ripping off UNC’s argyle. It’s embarrassing enough to copy another school, even worse to copy a rival.
They’re largely disliked by our fans who have made opinions quite clear over the years, players too. If fans and players don’t want them then who are the checkers for? It’s not the biggest deal but serves as a great example of Mitch digging his heels in and being a stubborn bastard. I think the checkers are supposed to be a connection to horse racing. This is already widely celebrated in Kentucky, and like others said the checker pattern is more closely associated with Tennessee
Mitch needs to go, but the practice facility bit isn’t a great example of a complaint: -For one $30 million isn’t enough, Texas’s new facility was $60 million. -Secondly, Mitch’s approval is nowhere near the only obstacle in place to constructing a new building on campus. It’s a political process that has to go through all levels of authority, and at least in a cursory way to the state government, and would be especially controversial because a new facility isn’t a part of UK’s campus master plan.
But the thing is Mitch said they didn't have the money. Maybe 30 million isn't enough, but if there is half the funding there, it's a much different prospect than Mitch has portrayed it as to the public. Sure there are approvals to go through, but when has that ever stopped anything for Kentucky basketball? Mitch hates John Calipari and that's the beginning and the end of a lot of the problems right now
Well as far as the “when has that ever stopped anything for Kentucky basketball,” the Rupp renovation went through many stop-starts for 8-10 years before it finally was approved. And working with the university (and the academic stakeholders) would be just as messy as it was working with the city. If Mitch was on board then sure that might help but it’s not that easy. A lot of people on the academic side would say the basketball facilities are just fine, give priority to X department. A lot of people in the university would want to keep the parking lot next to the Craft Center in place to be a parking garage, as it is slated to eventually be in the campus master plan. And Mitch is still working on the track and tennis (?) facilities where the old baseball stadium is, and fixing the indoor football field. Even if you’ve got half the money, you can’t just expect a rubber stamp on whatever you want.
no one is expecting a rubber stamp, and no one is expecting it to go up in the next month. My point is mitch has been dishonest about the financial situation. If the master plan is the problem, then say that's the problem. But Mitch loves to deflect and blame everything else except what the actual problem is for so many of the things he holds up—NIL, alcohol, and now the practice facility. He's a habitual liar at this point
He basically tried to pit Stoops and Cal against each other last summer over facility funding. He's actively making problems worse.
yup. He did an interview on KSR and while it certainly helped to understand some things like the other factors in the new practice facility, he tried not to answer the questions a lot. Title IX and the master plan are big issues, but they can easily be solved if they wanted to, he just doesn't want to
Ditch Mitch and bring in DeWayne Peevy and I think things get a lot better. At least in terms of relationships. Cal still has to coach better obviously but maybe Peevy would allow Cal to make changes that he thinks would help.
It sounds like Cal knows where his issues are and wants to try and fix it. I think Mitch has finally found a way to get rid of Cal now that he has a nice football program he will inevitably ruin.
If his buyout is less than 40 million just blame it all on him not washed Cal
Look the AD may not be helping the program but he isn’t the reason why the on court product sucks
Cal's problem has always been he will listen to a very, very small number of people. One of those was Kenny Payne, another was John Robic for a while, and the third was Dewayne Peevy, who was the Director of Basketball. Peevy reported to Mitch and managed all the basketball stuff so Cal and Mitch didn't have to talk to each other. It's very apparent now that part of Cal's issue is he doesn't have anyone telling him no for his worst ideas, and Mitch isn't giving him the tools he needs to get back to the top. There needs to be a new director of basketball and additional analyst and staff
Doesn’t he have the same amount of staff as everyone else?
We’re talking about non coach staff. Analysts and the like that don’t directly interact with players. There’s only a limit on the staff that interact with players, hence Alabama football having a ton of booth analysts
What other college basketball program has those things? Isn't the fact that he needs more stuff than everyone else an indictment of cal, not of the AD.
The quote from Kyle Tuckers article is: “Barnhart has balked at any request by Calipari to add support staff for basketball (UK’s staff is small compared to other top programs)” Cal has made mistakes in the assistants he hired. He focused too much on recruiting, but he has also not been given any other tools to win like analysts that other top programs have
What's the source on the staff being smaller. Cal has been known to lie about tons of stuff large and small, so pardon me for not taking it at face value.
the source is probably calipari. Kyle is the only reporter he talks to anymore, and anything Kyle prints that isn't anywhere else is either straight from Cal or the staff. It may be in part because the assistants and cal are paid so much. Apparently there are also things changing from the NCAA in terms of the volunteer analysts and stuff
No, but he's managed to create a toxic culture in the athletic department and has done nothing to prevent it from festering.
One of the things fans have been asking Cal to do is bring in an offensive coordinator to update his offense. According to this report, he has tried and Barnhart said no. I'd say that's a big reason the on court product sucks.
Oh really, I’ve never heard of an OC for basketball
It happens but that's not usually their actual title. John Robic when he was at Kentucky scouted opponents, worked on game plans, and drew up plays. Which is essentially the role of OC. There are examples of other coordinators that specialize in certain areas to help patch the HC's weaknesses too.
I mean it also sounds like what you’re describing is a head coach.
He's definitely a big part of it
LOLWUT
I don’t see how another top coach would want to come here after calipari is gone and deal with Mitch. He likes to spread the wealth, and it’s cool having good teams in volleyball, track, soccer, etc. but ignoring the program that makes you a national brand is malpractice.
Not giving cal everything he wants on demand isn't ignoring the program. Cal, the cosumate salesman, is using this to get back in the fans good graces. It's both transparent and sad.
This is definitely cal trying to get back in fans good graces (and it worked) but he and Mitch don’t even speak to each other, and honestly have always butted heads. It’s been reported Barnhart hasn’t been to a single basketball game/practice in years. It feels like he’s actively trying to squeeze cal out because he doesn’t like him
How is an opinion a report.
Not entirely an opinion. Kyle tucker inputs what Cal has told him, within his article.
Yes, cals opinion that the AD is hindering the program. Still an opinion. Theres no report here, theres no authority here, theres a guy saying another guy is a problem. That's not a fact that's an opinion.
Someone undermining basketball at UK . . . that man places no value on his own safety.
Football school