John Calipari May Or May Not Have Fired A Not-So-Subtle Shot At Mike Krzyzewski Today

by Alexandra Kuczynski-Brown | 5:39 pm, August 4th, 2011

Appearing on Memphis-area radio show “Sportstime with George Lapides” Thursday morning, Kentucky head coach John Calipari seemed to fire a not-so-subtle dig at Mike Krzyzewski‘s apparent imperviousness to NCAA phone-call rules.

The interview started out innocently enough, with Coach Cal going on about the state of collegiate athletics and his ideas for improving the system. Then, in the middle of discussing the issues affiliated with college basketball spanning two semesters as opposed to football, which is only one, he abruptly changed topics, suggesting the NCAA needs an outside board with subpoena power.

“Start a clean slate. Police each other, give it to league commissioners and schools to deal with. If it goes beyond that, there’s a board there that’s ready to deal with it. … You’ve got coaches being fired over phone calls and text messages. Some. Other guys can make phone calls and it’s not that big a deal.”

The last sentence could potentially be read as a jab at Coach K, who is being internally investigated for a possible recruiting violation. Just last week forward Alex Poythress told CBSSports.com that Krzyzewski spoke to him while he was in Orlando, Fla., for a tournament with his AAU team, and offered him a scholarship. NCAA rules probibit coaches from contacting recruits before they are finished with tournament play.

Calipari, for his part, denies that his statement was directed at the Duke skipper, tweeting later in the day: