According to longtime reporter Dick Gabriel, John Calipari asked Kentucky to counter an offer he received from Arkansas and UK administration passed.
“Calipari going into that meeting with Mitch Barnhart didn’t have much leverage,” Gabriel said during a segment on KET. “Mitch had the leverage. But now, when you’ve got somebody else in your corner who is a viable candidate for your services. I mean, you know, if it was a junior college that came to hire him, no, but this is Arkansas. A powerful school with deep, deep pockets and all kinds of booster money out there…Tyson chicken and Walmart. They come in and say, we want you and we’ll do what it takes to get you. That’s leverage.
“Calipari, as I’m told, said, ‘here’s what it’s going to take to keep me’ and UK said, ‘I don’t think so.'”
Check out Gabriel’s full piece here
