LEXINGTON — Kentucky athletics director Mitch Barnhart acknowledged a perception exists that his relationship with men's basketball coach John Calipari is strained — at best. The longtime AD pushed back against this Wednesday in an interview with LEX 18 News, a TV affiliate in Lexington.

Barnhart said he hires coaches to do their job, then tries to "stay out of their way." He admitted he could be around the men's basketball program more, and that he would "work at that" going forward.

"But, at the end of the day, I trust him to do his job," Barnhart said. "And we always want to make adjustments to get better. So let's put the notion of, 'No relationship' out the door."

Calipari simply laughed at the characterization of his rapport with Barnhart.

"There are so many things out there that aren't accurate, you can't defend all this stuff. You just have to let it go," he said. "And hopefully, people (with) logic look at it and say, 'Look, they've done a lot of good together.' There (have) been some really high highs and there have been been some low lows.

"But that's part of athletics and dealing with that and trying to get better, trying to figure out, 'How do we do this together? What do we need to do?'"

The interview with LEX 18 News came one day after Barnhart and Calipari had an end-of-season meeting to discuss the state of the program following a 23-10 campaign that ended last week with a first-round loss to 14-seed Oakland in the NCAA Tournament.

Barnhart said aside from himself and Calipari, two others attended Tuesday's meeting: Mark Hill and Rock Oliver. Hill is UK's director of performance and head strength and conditioning coach, while Oliver serves as the athletics department's executive associate AD for diversity, equity and inclusion.

Barnhart denied there was a specific agenda — or a checklist of demands — he insisted upon from Calipari to ensure the coach's return for a 16th season in Lexington.

"We've (just) got to go to work, all right?" Barnhart said. "So at the end of the day, we can say, 'Hey, we want to get better and we want to be (playing deep) in March.' We've got to find a way to build to get to that."

Calipari concurred.

"That's basically all we know," he said. "Let's grind. Let's go."

During Tuesday's meeting, Calipari detailed how he plans to shape the Wildcats' roster going forward, adding more experience following a season that had just two upperclassmen (seniors Tre Mitchell and Antonio Reeves).

"We had a skilled freshman group, but (toughness) was lacking. And we knew it," Calipari said. "We tried to outscore people. Offensively, I want to keep playing the way we played. Everybody enjoyed it — including me, including the players, including the fans, TV. Everybody was watching us. ... But you gotta guard."

Barnhart said one message he had for Calipari during their meeting: The hope that, whenever the time comes, they depart UK on a high note. Especially in light of the underwhelming postseason performances (2-6 in the NCAA and SEC tournaments since 2021) the past three years.

"Both of us want to exit well. ... Not a lot of people in our industry — in our enterprise of college athletics — get to exit the way you want to exit," Barnhart said. "And I want us to be able to exit well, and be able to say, 'We left it in a really good spot for the people that came behind us.'"

Reach Kentucky men’s basketball and football reporter Ryan Black at rblack@gannett.com and follow him on X at @RyanABlack.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Kentucky basketball: What Mitch Barnhart said about John Calipari