{"id":81463,"date":"2025-01-22T15:30:00","date_gmt":"2025-01-22T21:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/listen-matt-jones-and-jay-williams-spar-over-medias-treatment-of-john-calipari-and-kentucky-fans\/"},"modified":"2025-01-22T15:30:00","modified_gmt":"2025-01-22T21:30:00","slug":"listen-matt-jones-and-jay-williams-spar-over-medias-treatment-of-john-calipari-and-kentucky-fans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/listen-matt-jones-and-jay-williams-spar-over-medias-treatment-of-john-calipari-and-kentucky-fans\/","title":{"rendered":"LISTEN: Matt Jones and Jay Williams spar over media\u2019s treatment of John Calipari and Kentucky fans"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last night, Jay Williams dropped an explative on Twitter in response to Matt Jones\u2019 comments that college basketball commentators, like Williams and Seth Greenberg, need to stop telling Kentucky fans how to feel about John Calipari<\/a>. Williams agreed to come on today\u2019s episode of KSR to talk it over. In the light of day, the discourse was much more civil.<\/p>\n

The conversation started with Matt playing the clip from \u201cCollege Gameday\u201d of Williams saying that Kentucky fans reacting to Calipari\u2019s struggles at Arkansas online makes life \u201cdifficult\u201d for Calipari. Williams clarified that he wasn\u2019t blaming Kentucky fans but simply highlighting their reactions to Arkansas\u2019 losses. He also admitted he was wrong when he challenged Kentucky fans by asking who they thought could replace Calipari when the news broke in April. <\/p>\n

\u201cMatt, I\u2019m okay with being wrong. Yeah, I was [wrong]. I talk on TV for four hours a day. We get it wrong. We\u2019re all human. I didn\u2019t know who Arkansas at the time. I didn\u2019t know who Big Blue Nation was going to replace John Calipari with. Mark Pope has been an incredible replacement. He\u2019s exceeded expectations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Williams went further, telling Jones that Kentucky Basketball is in a better place under Mark Pope.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has all the responsibility. 100% of it is John Calipari. Like, I\u2019m not living in the world of making excuses. I never said \u2014 I\u2019m not making excuses for Cal I mean, that comes along with the territory being John Calipari and missing the boat sometimes with the way things, rhythms and rotations, and how they\u2019re established. <\/p>\n

\u201cLike, I\u2019m not calling in to butcher John Calipari. He is no longer the head coach of Kentucky basketball. He has his own problems at Arkansas. He made that decision that\u2019s on him. I think Kentucky has gotten better. I think Mark Pope brings in a new energy. I think what he\u2019s done with all these transfers and the transfer portal, he\u2019s gotten these guys to buy in, which is significantly difficult to do in today\u2019s age. And I\u2019m giving all the praise and credit to Kentucky basketball for it. They deserve it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Williams was banned from Duke practices because of Coach K criticism<\/h2>\n

The most interesting part of the interview came when Matt asked Williams if college basketball announcers are too protective of high-profile coaches like Cal, to the point they accuse fans of running coaches off. Williams used an example from his own life as proof of his objectivity, telling Matt and listeners that he wasn\u2019t allowed to go to Duke practices because he criticized his own coach, Mike Krzyzewski.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t use the word attack. You can be critical, right? I criticize my own coach, Coach K, with grace now. I was not allowed to go to practices at Duke. I think if anything holds warrant to my character and how fair and objective I am to certain things \u2014 and I\u2019m not saying that your comment isn\u2019t right. A lot of coaches have friends. Cal has a lot of friends. He\u2019s very personable. Maybe that has inhibited some people of saying what\u2019s really been going on. But if I\u2019ve been able to criticize my own head coach, a place where my jersey hangs and I go back to all the time because I have a home in Durham, let\u2019s not question my objectivity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Interesting stuff. You can hear it all below.<\/p>\n

\n\n

Jay Williams admits he was wrong about BBN & shares why criticizing Coach K kept him out of Duke practices!<\/p>\n

pic.twitter.com\/SE82fZqnQ1<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Kentucky Sports Radio (The Show) (@KSRTHESHOW) January 22, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/span>\n<\/div>\n

The post LISTEN: Matt Jones and Jay Williams spar over media\u2019s treatment of John Calipari and Kentucky fans<\/a> appeared first on On3<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last night, Jay Williams dropped an explative on Twitter in response to Matt Jones\u2019 comments…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-81463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81463"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81463\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}