Mitch Barnhart spoke to Cat’s Illustrated today at the SEC Meetings and reinforced the fact that Kentucky does not want a four year deal with Indiana.
He also voiced his displeasure of handling these negotiations in public with Indiana and you can tell he he is not thrilled with the lack of professionalism by the Indiana administration.
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[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Verdana]”I think there’s an environment that we want to create when people come to Rupp Arena, and I would hope that we would be treated the same way when we go on the road,” Barnhart said. “Was it tough up there this year? Yeah, it was tough. It wasn’t easy. The court was rushed, and that’s OK. That’s happened to else before. It’s happened to us at South Carolina, … happened to us at Georgia. I mean, pick a spot. You beat Kentucky, people rush the court. That’s not a big deal to us.”[/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Verdana]But Barnhart admitted he’s “puzzled” by Indiana’s handling of the negotiations. Indiana announced the end of the series in a press release on May 3. The most recent publicity came via a letter – not released by Indiana, but acquired via open-records requests by multiple media outlets – from IU Athletics Director Fred Glass to Barnhart. [/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Verdana]That letter, dated May 25, arrived at UK on Wednesday, spokesman DeWayne Peevy said. Barnhart said sending a letter via the mail to discuss game negotiations is “sort of different than what I would normally do, but that’s OK.”[/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Verdana]The public nature of the negotiations won’t impact his approach, Barnhart said. [/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Verdana]”I hear what people are saying, but I don’t let it affect what I’m doing,” he said. “I’m going to go and make the best decision for us. They can do what they want to me personally; I will never take it personally. I’m going to move on and do what I think is best for our program. If people think that they’re going to win a public deal with me, I don’t respond to that well.”
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