Over the weekend the state of Kentucky was devastated by a tornado that killed dozens of people.

Kentucky Wildcats head basketball coach John Calipari appeared on “The Paul Finebaum Show” Tuesday to promote a telethon to help those in his state who lost everything in the storm.

Calipari promoted UK Athletics partnership with WLEX-TV to host a telethon – “Kentucky United for Tornado Relief” – on Tuesday from 4 to 8 p.m., with proceeds going to the American Red Cross to benefit victims of the tornadoes that hit Western Kentucky. If you like to help please call 833-510-0030.

“This is devastating, we all knew it was bad and we saw the pictures, but when they put the picture of the 2-month-old baby who was alive when they took the picture and said later she died, if you didn’t get emotional over that, or the thought of it being your own child, that’s when you understand it was real,” Calipari said. “It wiped out 1,000 homes, which means that electricity and heat and everything for everybody in Mayfield and Dawson Springs and Bowling Green. Look at this, it’s like a bomb went off. Looks like Beirut. What we’re doing is trying to hold people over. This thing is going to be 10 years, maybe longer. But right now, we’ve got to keep people alive, and that’s why we do these telethons.”

Kentucky plays Ohio State on Saturday. Calipari shared that Ohio State coach Chris Holtmann said he would donate $50,000 to relief efforts.

“I get a text from Chris Holtmann last night that they want to help,” Calipari said. “He grew up in Nicholasville, Kentucky. He said ‘My wife and I want to do something.’ So I said let’s talk tomorrow. So this morning, I hit him with a text and said my wife and I are doing x amount, if you and your wife want to do $5,000 or $10,000, that’s fine. If you don’t, that’s fine. He texts me back and says, ‘Well, we’d like to do 50, will you call me?’” Eight seconds later I had him on the phone, yeah, if you’re going to give 50,000 to our people, in our state, yes.”

Calipari continued to say that Holtmann said, “We’re together, we’re with your program, we are with your state, until Saturday when we’re your opponent then we’re going after each other.’ … So my hat’s off to Chris Holtmann, talks a lot about the man.”