John Calipari reacts to Mitch Barnhart retirement announcement

On Tuesday, longtime Kentucky athletic director Mitch Barnhart announced plans to retire in June after 24 years leading the Wildcats’ athletic department. On3’s Pete Nakos confirmed the news earlier Tuesday morning.

Arkansas head men’s basketball coach John Calipari — who occasionally butted heads with Barnhart throughout his 15 years in Lexington — addressed the news of his former boss’ retirement in a X/Twitter post later Tuesday afternoon. Calipari wished his former boss well.

“I just heard that Mitch Barnhart is retiring,” Calipari posted Tuesday afternoon on X/Twitter. “I wanted to say even though Mitch and I didn’t always see eye to eye he did a good job and I wish he and Connie well in retirement.”

Calipari, widely considered one of the most polarizing coaches in Kentucky history, is among the winningest coaches in Wildcats history and ranks second all-time with 410 wins, behind only legendary UK coach Adolph Rupp. Calipari also led Kentucky to the 2012 national championship, four Final Fours, and 32 total NCAA Tournament wins across his 15-year career in Kentucky.

Of course, he also created plenty of controversy during that time, and admittedly, “didn’t always see eye to eye” with Barnhart. But the pair both dispelled any notion they didn’t get along in a joint March 2024 interview on LEX 18, a TV affiliate in Lexington.

“There are so many things out there that aren’t accurate; you can’t defend all this stuff. You just have to let it go,” Calipari told LEX 18 in 2024, via the Louisville Courier Journal. “And hopefully, people (with) logic look at it and say, ‘Look, they’ve done a lot of good together.’ There (have) been some really high highs and there have been some low lows. But that’s part of athletics and dealing with that and trying to get better, trying to figure out, ‘How do we do this together? What do we need to do?'”

Barnhart, who is the 10th athletic director in Kentucky history, has been in the position since 2002 after previously serving as Oregon State‘s AD between 1998-2002. Having served so long, Barnhart will go down as one of the school’s most successful ADs and is responsible for hiring many of the Wildcats’ winningest head coaches across multiple sports: Mark Stoops in football, Nick Mingione in baseball, Craig Skinner in volleyball, and Calipari in men’s basketball.

Of course, Barnhart also had his fair share of misses along the way. That includes Joker Phillips (football), Kyra Elzy (women’s basketball), and Billy Gillispie (men’s basketball).

Kentucky president Dr. Eli Capilouto later revealed Barnhart will remain at Kentucky but transition to a new role. He will serve as the university’s first executive-in-residence of the UK Sport and Workforce Initiative.

“This initiative will be part of a workforce effort that I mentioned in my remarks recently to the Board of Trustees and that I will be announcing more details about in the coming weeks,” Capilouto said in a release. “After thoughtful discussions, I am gratified that he has agreed to stay on and write another new and exciting chapter. Mitch will be the first executive-in-residence of the UK Sport and Workforce Initiative.  This initiative will be part of a workforce effort that I mentioned in my remarks recently to the Board of Trustees and that I will be announcing more details about in the coming weeks.”

— On3’s Daniel Hager contributed to this report.