UK athletic director Mitch Barnhardt has said that Kentucky must return to championship level, that the fans deserve it. 

 

Does this mean anything? Putting pressure on Cal? Coaching change?

Can you say “Smokescreen “

What was the context?

44 minutes ago, TheDeuce said:

What was the context?

“I’ve been here 20 years at Kentucky and I’ve lived and worked alongside what I consider the greatest fan base in America,” Barnhart said on the UK Healthcare John Calipari Show Monday evening. “There’s no place that we go that there is not an incredible, incredible following of Kentucky fans. We go to the Classics in Vegas or we go to Madison Square Garden, we go to Chicago, it doesn’t matter where we go, there’s an amazing number of people in blue and white there. That’s the reason why, number one, we’re invited to participate in a great number of those because they want our folks to come. The second reason is that we’ve got a program that is built for March and built for championships. That is something we take great pride in."

 

It’s built for March and built for championships, but the results haven’t followed in recent years. Kentucky won the SEC regular-season championship in 2019-20 before COVID-19 canceled the SEC and NCAA Tournaments. Since then, though, just one SEC Tournament win and zero NCAA Tournament victories. The worst season in Kentucky basketball history followed by the worst NCAA Tournament loss in school history.

“We won the SEC championship three years ago, and then the COVID tournament hit and knocked us out, we didn’t have a chance to play it. We’d love to have seen that team continue on,” Barnhart said. “But at the end of the day, we’re built for championships. That’s what this program is all about. It’s about winning SEC championships in the regular season, it’s about SEC titles in the tournament, it’s about championships in March and in early April. Deep, deep runs, that’s what we’re built for. We’re supposed to do those things and we fell short of that this year.”

Barnhart says it is Kentucky’s responsibility to go on deep runs and hang banners in Rupp Arena, a standard that has not been met in recent years.

“To our fans that have been unbelievable — we had an incredible following in Tampa and an incredible following in Indianapolis,” Barnhart said. “I had literally hundreds of people walk up and say, ‘I bought these tickets so long go hoping we’d be here.’ And we disappointed. Our responsibility is to make those deep runs and create those great memories in a good way, in a positive way for our program and our fan base, to hang banners in Rupp Arena. We all want that.”

Now, it’s the program’s job to do what it is designed to do: play championship-level basketball.

 

This is what he said last night on Cal's talk show. 

43 minutes ago, TheDeuce said:

What was the context?

Final few minutes of Calipari's radio show on Monday.  Barnhart appeared and spoke, which I don't think is a normal thing.  

He said, "We have built the foundational pieces of Kentucky athletics and specifically Kentucky basketball to layer upon layer give us an opportunity to celebrate championship-level performance," Barnhart said. "We need to return to that. Our fans deserve that. I am deeply disappointed, as they are, that we didn’t have a chance to experience that this year."

He continued, ""We have a responsibility to the tradition, the rich tradition, the history of this program to make sure that we make runs in March and we provide those memories that everybody wants to cling to," Barnhart said. "We’ll work diligently to get that done. I lead the department in that way, and our coaches believe that and they carry that banner."

Eh, I don’t read too much into that. That’s what he should say. 

Was this the same radio show that Cal didn’t show up for? Or wouldn’t answer any questions?

Personal opinion...this is Barnhart's way of telling the fans, "I hear you."  I even think he agrees with those who are really disappointed, at best, and calling for Cal's head, at worst.  This is his acknowledgement of that.

But the gaudy buyout Cal has?  Even if Barnhart wanted to do something, he couldn't.  And I don't think he wants to do something anyway.

Just now, nikeman49 said:

Was this the same radio show that Cal didn’t show up for? Or wouldn’t answer any questions?

No, he was on the show with Tom Leach and answered a lot of questions.

Just now, Randy Parker said:

No, he was on the show with Tom Leach and answered a lot of questions.

From Ky fans calling in?

Just now, nikeman49 said:

From Ky fans calling in?

I don't think so.  I believe Leach was asking questions that fans had sent in because they had to pre-record the show because of Cal being out recruiting this week.

As an aside, there would be no way in hell I would ever take phone calls from Kentucky fans. "Where's Richie?"

2 minutes ago, bugatti said:

As a aside, there would be no way in hell I would ever take phone calls from Kentucky fans. "Where's Richie?"

No kidding.  From any fans, for that matter.  

9 minutes ago, Randy Parker said:

Personal opinion...this is Barnhart's way of telling the fans, "I hear you."  I even think he agrees with those who are really disappointed, at best, and calling for Cal's head, at worst.  This is his acknowledgement of that.

But the gaudy buyout Cal has?  Even if Barnhart wanted to do something, he couldn't.  And I don't think he wants to do something anyway.

Agree with this.

7 minutes ago, Randy Parker said:

No kidding.  From any fans, for that matter.  

Absolutely not. Especially now we have more experts than ever.