[Strikeout King]

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I'm sure Cal was fine with playing at Rupp

University of Kentucky basketball coach John Calipari tweeted early last season, “I’m the originator of playing anytime, anyplace, anywhere.”

Beyond the fact that he’s rewriting (not retweeting) history a bit with that claim (Denny Crum, among others, has more right to that trademark), Calipari now adds an asterisk with his unwillingness to continue a home-and-home series with Indiana.

Anytime, Anyplace, Anywhere*

*Except Bloomington, Ind.

On Thursday IU athletic director Fred Glass released a statement saying the two-year contract between the rivals won’t be renewed because UK wants the games at neutral sites and IU wants to keep them in Assembly Hall and Rupp Arena.

It’s a silly standoff. Compromise, people. Play a couple of years at neutral sites with a 50-50 split, then a couple on campus. Mix it up. Keep everybody happy. It’s not rocket science. (Wait, can they play on the moon? First game in space, anyone?)

“We have a strong belief that this series should be played on campus,” IU coach Tom Crean said in a release.

UK athletic director Mitch Barnhart said of Calipari, “I don’t think he was really thrilled about going back to Bloomington, to be honest with you.”

The insistence on neutral courts doesn’t make it look like he was too thrilled about playing the Hoosiers in Rupp Arena next season, either. Calipari hasn’t lost in Rupp, and now he’s walking away from a game against a top-five visitor. I’m not doing that math, but you can bet plenty of IU fans will. Refuse to lose? Get ready for the “Refuse to play” T-shirts.

The onus of this is on Calipari, because IU was willing to bring its team and lofty expectations to Rupp Arena next season, and because, well, this is college basketball, and even if players no longer need to hang around campus very long because of online courses, it is nice to play a game on one every once in a while.

But this needs to be said for Calipari: The three-weekend stretch of Louisville, Indiana and North Carolina is more than most college programs dare to take on. And he has not ducked big games during his career.http://www.courier-journal.com/article/2...t|Sports|p

Zaga read the BOLD!