Top Cats: Q&A with UK AD Mitch Barnhart on Cal's Decade in Lexington
Editor’s note: This is the final piece in our weeklong Top Cats series commemorating John Calipari’s dominant decade at Kentucky.
As part of our ongoing series this week on John Calipari’s decade as head coach of the Kentucky Wildcats, we caught up with the man who hired Calipari — UK athletic director Mitch Barnhart. Barnhart reflected on their decade together, his favorite moment of the Cal run, and his thoughts on his head coach’s legacy.
SDS: Does it seem possible to you that you’re 10 years into this incredible run?
Mitch Barnhart: The time truly has flown by. What has been remarkable about this run is how each season, on its face, has been so similar, yet how the journey each time has been so different.
Seasons begin with sky-high expectations and they always seem to end the same way: with us being right in the middle of things in March. That’s how it should be here. Yet the stories of each team and the players who make up those teams is what make this so special.
SDS: The rumor mill had Calipari as a strong candidate when you looked to replace Tubby Smith after the 2006-07 season, but obviously, you went another direction. What changed your approach with Calipari as a candidate for the job the second time around, when he was hired? Of course, Cal’s first Kentucky team was a phenomenal success, and this was coming off of four years at UK that had included two combined NCAA Tournament wins. Did you expect Cal to turn things around on the court that quickly, or were you approaching it more as a two, three, four year process?
John Calipari’s introductory press conference. Photo courtesy of University of Kentucky Athletics
Barnhart: When we hired John, it was clear we needed a coach who would reestablish Kentucky as what it is: The greatest tradition in the history of college basketball. I had no doubt he was that coach. What I didn’t realize was how uniquely suited he was and continues to be for being the coach at Kentucky.
He has embraced the platform that comes with this place in a way I’m not sure any other coach could. I believe that’s what paved the way for both our immediate success and the fact that he created something here that changed college basketball.
Mitch Barnhart on John Calipari
SDS: One of the columns we’ve run this week is a countdown of the best moments of the Cal at UK era. What’s your personal favorite?
Barnhart: Understanding what it meant to our university, our state and our fan base, it has to be the national championship in 2012 and all that followed.
From the celebration on the court to being greeted at our hotel in New Orleans to bringing the trophy back to Rupp and taking it around our state to visiting the White House to the players going on to achieving their dreams at the next level, that title brought together everything that has made John’s time at UK so special.
SDS: Of course, as the athletic director, you have a layer of access to the team and coaches that nobody else does. In 10 years, what has surprised you about Coach Cal? What have you learned about him that maybe the average fan wouldn’t expect?
Barnhart: John talks a lot about the care he has for his players. I think the best thing I can say about him is he backs that up every day with the way he treats them, challenges them and leads them.
John also cares deeply for the game of basketball. His thoughtfulness about the sport is something I didn’t fully understand until he came here. I think that comes from his belief in what the sport can do for young people and a responsibility he feels for protecting and advancing that.
SDS: What kind of impact has Calipari had on the other sports at UK? Where would you rank him compared with other coaches you have worked with on charitable contributions, fundraising, community involvement, civic awareness types of issues?
Barnhart: John cares deeply about our university and our athletics department. He wants everyone around him to succeed, even if that means taking time out at Rupp before a game to visit with a recruit from another sport. It’s a cool thing to see the relationships he’s built with the other head coaches here. I know he wouldn’t hesitate to help any of them.
John obviously does an incredible amount of charitable work himself and, just as importantly, he views it as his responsibility to pass along lessons about the power of servant leadership and sacrificial giving to young people. It’s a powerful thing to see them go on to live out those lessons when they leave.
SDS: Did you expect the hire of Calipari to be this wildly successful? Obviously, given the tradition of the program, you probably expected to win a bunch of games. But when you look at things like 26 NBA first-round draft picks under Cal compared with 23 in the entire previous history of the program, did you expect the kind of culture changing impact that Calipari’s hire has had?
Barnhart: I think the argument about the school with the greatest tradition in college basketball begins and ends with the fact that Kentucky has had five different coaches win national championships.
Adolph Rupp clearly started it all, but all of the coaches who have successfully followed have put their own stamp on this program, adding to its legacy in the process. I don’t think we started this with any other expectation than being fully ready to do everything we could to help John be the next coach to do that. Without a doubt, he has. He’s changed our program and college basketball in the process and he’s not done.
SDS: Several times early in his UK tenure, Coach Cal pinpointed 10 years as a possible length of his stay. He’s mentioned talking to Coach Hall, who suggested “about 10 years.” All that said, we’re a decade in and nobody seems in a hurry to go anywhere. What hopes and expectations do you have moving forward for Coach Cal at UK? Do you think 20 years is possible?
Barnhart: John talks often about being energized by what he can do for young people at Kentucky. I believe that energy is what allows him to continue to do this job in a way only he can. Kentucky is blessed to have him.
PREVIOUSLY IN TOP CATS:
How John Calipari revived Kentucky basketball, changed college basketball
Top 10 moments of John Calipari’s decade at UK
