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The Dagger

Tue Oct 04 02:13pm EDT

John Calipari’s ignores geography to take a jab at Louisville

By Jeff Eisenberg

Scan a map of the state of Kentucky, and you'll notice the city of Louisville is still located where it has always been just south of the Indiana border.

Nonetheless, that didn't stop Kentucky coach John Calipari from refusing to acknowledge the University of Louisville as an in-state rival.

In an interview during this past weekend's campout for tickets to the school's Oct. 14 Big Blue Madness event, KSTV's Matt Jones asked Calipari if fans from any other school would spend three nights sleeping in tents for tickets to the first practice of the year. Calipari responded with a not-so-subtle jab that has not gone unnoticed among Louisville fans.

"It's a unique thing. There's no other state − none − as connected to their basketball program as this one," Calipari said. "Because those other states have other programs. Michigan has Michigan State. California, UCLA has all those ... North Carolina has Duke. It's Kentucky, throughout this whole state, and that's what makes this unique."

Calipari is obviously overlooking the large pocket of Louisville supporters throughout the state, but credit the man for knowing exactly how to stoke the fires of a rivalry. Louisville fans are already plotting retaliation or counting down the days until the Cards and 'Cats go at it again on Dec. 31.

The other program that should to be fuming is Morehead State, which defeated Louisville 62-61 in the opening round of the NCAA tournament, then printed T-shirts proclaiming "Yum, Tastes like Victory." Surely that should earn the Eagles some good will from Kentucky, right?

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