Mitch Barnhart and John Calipari discussed their relationship after confirming the head coach will return to Kentucky.
Despite a first-round loss to Oakland, Barnhart announced Tuesday that Calipari will stay with the Wildcats next season. Discussing the decision, CBS Sports insider Matt Norlander claimed the athletic director and head coach have a poor relationship.
Both men disputed that idea when conducting an interview together on BBN Tonight.
“That’s a little bit of the misinformation out there,” Barnhart told Keith Farmer. “I say this jokingly and seriously. He’s been married 40-plus years. I’ve been married 40-plus years. We know how to manage relationships. And I think we’ve been together for 15 [years], so we’re sort of semi-married.”
Calipari playfully asked Barnhart if he’s ever argued with his wife. He answered “just occasionally” before conceding that they don’t always agree on everything.
“That’s part of this deal,” Barnhart declared. “This notion that we have no relationship and stuff like that is garbage. The way we’ve gotten through 15 years has been pretty good.”
Barnhart acknowledged that they’ve had ups and downs, and things “haven’t gone exactly the way we want it to.” Although he doesn’t like to interfere with any of his coaches, Barnhart said he could work at making himself more available.
“But at the end of the day, I trust him to do his job,” Barnhart said. “We always want to make adjustments to get better. So let’s put the notion of no relationship out the door.”
Calipari said there are too many inaccurate statements floating around to defend against them all.
“There’s been some really high highs and there have been some low lows,” Calipari said. “But that’s part of athletics, and dealing with that and trying to get better.”