In the midst of an already-disastrous college basketball season, Kentucky head coach John Calipari went and found a brand new way to land himself in hot water.
During a recent game, Calipari stopped to speak to reporter Holly Rowe regarding what he said to his players during a first half timeout.
This is how he opted to do it:
— Joey Yanks (@YanksJoey) January 14, 2023
Needless to say, many fans didn’t take kindly to Calipari’s decision to touch Rowe.
The responses flowed in immediately, though some did stop to defend the Kentucky head coach:
Was not watching but… uh unless she asked for a shoulder rub mid interview… what is he doing???
— Judd Davis (@BamaJD) January 14, 2023
Don’t know the depths of their relationship. A bit personal but again Cal is a pretty emotional coach; he needs to keep his hands to himself.
He removed his hands quickly enough.— Marcelino Lake II (@mlake1963) January 15, 2023
Highly problematic. And if it had been a male reporter? Also highly problematic.
— Nate Wiener (@n8wiener) January 14, 2023
He was just excited to speak about the game. I don’t see anything wrong with that. They might be just cool like that.
— Remarkable1 (@unpleasant1) January 15, 2023
Nothing at all, Calipari was just overwhelmed, after the win, he’s being hammered from the KY fans and he’s excited, and all it was.
— Donald Sisk (@DonaldSisk11) January 15, 2023
OH MY GOODNESS!!!!!!Put him in jail! How dare he do that to her! He needs to go to some sort of sensitivity training! Give it a rest!
— dallasyankee (@dallasyankee1) January 15, 2023
This has been a season to forget for the Wildcats so far, and this most recent headache is just icing on the cake.
So far on the year Kentucky is 11-6 and sits ninth in the conference. Aside from one shining moment, Calipari has done an extremely underwhelming job getting his guys ready up to this point.
So will he face punishment for the Rowe incident? It’s hard to say.
According to Kyle Tucker of The Athletic, Caliapri and the school’s AD Mitch Barnhart don’t even talk anymore.
— Game 7 (@game7__) January 14, 2023
If things have gone that bad in their relationship and Caliapri remains head coach despite seemingly never-ending disappointments, it doesn’t seem like anyone has the power to reprimand him for anything anyway.
Based on recent history, the smart money points to Caliapri emerging from this incident unscathed.
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Jennifer Withers Hoey is a former Business Development Manager who transitioned to writing about sports. With valuable connections all over the West Coast, she has used those contacts to break some of the most interesting stories pertaining to the Portland Trail Blazers, Oregon Ducks, LA Lakers, LA Clippers, Seattle Supersonics (RIP), and more.
