[Navajo4life]

CHARLOTTE -- Kentucky coach John Calipari denied that his program is under NCAA investigation and that he and NBA MVP LeBron James had discussed a package deal for Calipari to coach him in the NBA.

Calipari was defiant in rebutting charges that there is an NCAA investigation into the men's basketball program.

"It's not true," Calipari said. "It's not true. When you're coaching at Kentucky, you're held to a different standard and like in politics there is a core group that absolutely loves you and everyone else is trying to unseat you in any way they can -- anything to trip you up, that's what it is.

"If you're not up to that, then don't coach at Kentucky," he said. "If you are faint of heart as they come at you, there's no way to defend everything, then you march on."
Calipari said that four players graduated [seniors Ramon Harris, Mark Krebs, Perry Stevenson and junior Patrick Patterson] from this past season's team but he did admit the grade-point average has to rise. The Lexington Herald-Leader reported the GPA of the team in the fall was a 2.025 in the fall, the worst since 2002. The spring semester GPA was 2.18. Four freshmen left Kentucky after one season for the NBA draft. One of them, John Wall, is expected to be the top pick in the draft and told ESPN.com last month that he did earn a 3.5 GPA in the spring semester.

"We have to improve our GPA, which we will since we just got there," Calipari said. "We won a lot of games. At Kentucky, they want everything. They want it all -- all As, all wins by 20 and wan the highest GPA. Don't coach at Kentucky if you can't accept that."

Calipari wouldn't address the specifics in the transcript of former freshman guard Eric Bledsoe. The New York Times reported last Friday that there was the potential academic fraud and payments made during Bledsoe's high school career in Alabama. If those allegations were investigated by the Alabama High School Association and if he were ruled ineligible, then the NCAA Eligibility Center could reopen his initial-eligibility case.

When asked about the story, Calipari said: "Stop, there's nothing there. I'm not going to talk about it."

When asked how Calipari can change the perception that he's always in the midst of a chaotic storm, he said: "As long as I'm at Kentucky, you've got to be able to take the shots or don't stay at Kentucky. To be the coach at Kentucky and get what I get, you can't be a 35-year-old coach whose never been fired. I've been fired."

Calipari added that he has reminded his family that not everyone loves their father.

"If you're family can't deal with the scrutiny then this isn't the right place to be coaching," Calipari said.

Last week, Calipari and his wife Ellen donated $1 million to Streets Ministries, payable over five years, to help underprivileged children in Memphis.

"When we left, we left a lot of friends in Memphis, Tennessee and a lot of people were angry that I left and that's fine and I understand that," Calipari said of taking the Kentucky job in April of 2009. "We left a lot of friends but we also left some causes that we felt very strongly about."

Calipari said the first payment on the donation was made in December.