NASSAU, Bahamas — It’s no secret that John Calipari wants a new practice facility, but Kentucky’s coach went fully on the offensive Thursday morning. Following a film session in his hotel suite, Calipari unveiled an ambitious plan: He wants to build that facility in the center of campus and make it a grand, multi-use structure that also houses a sports science department, nutrition center and an interactive museum of the program’s rich history. And he’s not going to wait any longer for athletic director Mitch Barnhart to greenlight the project. If necessary, he’ll raise the money himself, and says his 50-some NBA Draft picks who’ve earned more than $2 billion as pros will contribute.
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“This state deserves that,” said Calipari, who had to end practice early last week when the roof at UK’s Joe Craft Center, built in 2007, sprung a leak. That wasn’t the first time. “Everybody should be behind this. Our administration. Look, our baseball facility might be the nicest in the country, and I’m happy about that. Our football facility, we spent $200 million. Soccer, unbelievable. Now, the track — I love it. And now, I would say, the administration should be like, we’re doing this. How about the state? If this is the University for Kentucky, and it’s the basketball program for the state, which it is, how about the state says, ‘We’re in. We’re gonna invest.’ I’ll tell you right now, Anthony Davis gave $350,000 on a text to me (for flood relief). Do you know what our former players would do? They just gotta see it: What is it? So it’s the next challenge that we all have.”
Calipari pointed to what school president Eli Capilouto has done to transform the university’s campus by spending billions to build modern dorms, dining facilities and a palatial student center, among other massive infrastructure upgrades. He pointed to the complete overhaul of facilities for just about every other sport on campus. Calipari now believes it’s time to do the same for basketball.
“And the reason is, this is a basketball school. It’s always been that,” he 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.”
The aforementioned statement was quickly rebutted after publication by Kentucky football coach Mark Stoops, who has taken UK to six-straight bowl games and, as he noted, won the last four.
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• RELATED: It’s John Calipari vs. Mark Stoops after the Kentucky basketball coach steps in it
Basketball school? I thought we competed in the SEC? #4straightpostseasonwins https://t.co/xUoKmUeonH
— Mark Stoops (@UKCoachStoops) August 11, 2022
Calipari’s new talking point, certainly as it relates to this passion project of his, is University for Kentucky, not of Kentucky. There really isn’t a full-fledged museum of UK basketball anywhere in Lexington. Many of the program’s historic treasures, in fact, are stuffed in storage in the bowels of Memorial Coliseum.
“This basketball program is for Kentucky,” he said. “And what a basketball facility that’s 20 years ahead (looks like) includes the history of this program. Where do you find the history of this program? What, do you go in a book and read it? How about (we build something) where people from east and west can come and there’s the history of this program. Interactive. How about players interviewed about their experiences here, their recollection of their time. Anthony Davis, John Wall, DeMarcus Cousins — there’s 50 of them! — where you could see them talking about their experience, where you go to the wall and press their picture and they talk. They will give to something like that. These kids will.
“Why wouldn’t the state come in and say, ‘We’re in. We’ll earmark.’ Because this is the basketball program for the University for Kentucky and everybody can enjoy this and come see it and be on campus and look at what it is. I think you would have people give to it. That’s one thing people in this state will give to: men’s basketball. Oh, they’ll give.”
Calipari is no stranger to raising money on his own for projects he’s too impatient to wait for someone else to build. In 2012, with just a few phone calls, he rounded up several million dollars to upgrade the locker rooms at Rupp Arena.
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“They showed me the locker room. It smelled like urine. Pee! That’s what it smelled like. You know why it smelled like pee? The circus was in there the week before,” Calipari said Thursday. “Do you know what elephants do? They pee. How about a giraffe. Did you ever see a giraffe pee? It’s five minutes. So now all of a sudden, you figure out that the entire building had one unit that heated and cooled everything, including the locker room. So if it was 90 degrees in that arena, it was 90 degrees in that locker room. One-oh-five? Do you know what pee does at 105? And I went in and said, ‘We can’t do this.’ Now when people go in, they say there’s not a better locker room. How many years ago did we do it? That locker room will be fine for another 10 years.
“I want this, whatever we do, 20 years, everybody’s still talking. Building it the right way, we can do it, and we can raise the money. But you’ve got to get started, and you’ve got to have champions for men’s basketball. Who are the champions? Can’t be just me. When the university stands and says, ‘We need to do this,’ this thing will get done right away.”
Notably, this does not sound at all like a man who has immediate plans to walk away from coaching the Wildcats. Wouldn’t a huge project like that take years to complete, since architects haven’t even drawn it up yet?
“Well,” Calipari said, “I hope it’s done in a year, two years. I do. I’m just that guy. When we did the locker room, I did it on the white board. And then the architects went and drew it up, and it literally got done in eight or nine months. With the funding, it’ll move.”
(Photo of John Calipari: Kim Klement / USA Today)
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