Knight Takes Shot At Calipari, Coach Cal Fires Back

Bob Knight took a shot at John Calipari's University of Kentucky basketball program over the weekend, and on Monday, UK shot back.

At a speech Saturday in Wabash, Ind., portions of which were uploaded to YouTube, Knight, the former Indiana University head coach, took a shot at Calipari's 2009-10 UK team in answering an audience member's question.

Bob Knight again took aim at John Calipari with comments during a speech about the Kentucky basketball program.

CAPTION

By Tom Strickland, AP

"Kentucky, year before last, started five players in the NCAA Tournament games that had not been to class that semester," Knight said during the video, from a speech he gave at the Honeywell Center. "And that's that one-and-done philosophy that we have now." (Video of Knight's comments below)

In a statement posted to UK's website and released to The Courier-Journal on Monday, athletic director Mitch Barnhart called Knight's assertion "blatantly erroneous" and said that "the University of Kentucky, our student-athletes and their families take great offense" to Knight's words.

GAME ON!:  Do you believe Knight or Kentucky?

"Academic performance has always been a priority at UK and it's unfortunate that, although every starter from the 2010 season finished the spring semester in good academic standing, these myths exist," Barnhart said in the release.

One starter from that UK team, junior Darius Miller, still is in school. Another, Patrick Patterson, graduated in three years, earning his degree in 2010.

Three of UK's starters — John Wall, DeMarcus Cousins and Eric Bledsoe — were "one-and-done" players who spent one season in college before jumping to the NBA draft.

Calipari has said that all three of those players finished their classes. Wall posted on his Twitter account last May that he'd earned a 3.5 grade-point average for the 2010 spring semester.

Only one UK player in 2009-10, backup center Daniel Orton, withdrew from school to focus on the NBA draft.

On his Twitter account Monday, Patterson wrote that his degree and his teammates' GPAs "speak for themselves."

Cousins also went to Twitter to state his case.

"All respect Coach Knight but I went to my spring classes at UK and finished out strong good gpa even after declaring for draft."

This wasn't the first time Knight has taken a shot at Calipari.

In late 2009, Knight was also critical of Calipari, saying during a speech that he was surprised the Kentucky coach was still working on the sidelines due to his lack of integrity.

Calipari responded in 2009 by saying, "I don't agree with what he says but it doesn't change how I feel about him ... what I can tell you is I'm a big fan, respect him as a basketball coach, always have."