Mitch Barnhart is showing UK athletics about more than Kentucky Wildcats basketball

Throughout his tenure at Kentucky, Mitch Barnhart has just been based solely on the hiring of John Calipari. A lot of fans do not understand that Barnhart is doing much more than that, and it has nothing to do with Kentucky Wildcats Basketball.

The folks over at KY Kernel through out a fantastic article, which explained the entire situation.

“He has a tremendous motivation to have the kids in all 22 sports that the university offers to have that championship experience,” said UK rifle head coach Harry Mullins. “We all want to win, but he gives us the resources to continue to move forward.”

That quote says it all. Barnhart isn’t just about basketball, he thinks of UK athletics as a whole. Barnhart established the “15x15x15” goal of reaching 15 championships and achieving a top-15 ranking in the Directors’ Cup by 2015. His formula is what he uses to have success at the University of Kentucky.

Mitch Barnhart may just be the best guy to ever take over AD at the University of Kentucky. Nowadays with the economic challenges, Barnhart has found a way to supply every athletic team with the supplies they need.

“We’ve been smart about how we budget, we’ve not been crazy,” Barnhart said. “All the programs have things that are important to them, but they haven’t been over-the-top. We’ve had steady growth in our programs, so we’re not putting ourselves at risk.”

The point is, we need to be more thankful that we have a guy like Mitch Barnhart. He has done an inspiring job. We will have him for much longer, after he signed a contract extension. Kentucky Basketball is not the only thing for Kentucky Wildcats Athletics. We need to realize that there are more things than just basketball, and Barnhart understands that.

Another thing Barnhart is known for is his ability to hire great coaches. He obviously hired John Calipari, but he also hired Craig Skinner for volleyball, and Matthew Mitchell as the Women’s Basketball coach. He has also extended contracts for the likes of Calipari, Mitchell, and Gary Henderson, who is the UK Baseball coach.

As Kentucky Wildcats Athletics keeps rolling, expect Mitch Barnhart to have much more success and to make great decisions. There isn’t anyone that could replicate Barnhart’s  success at UK. It’s obvious that we have the right man for the job.

GO CATS!