In his first public comments since the Enes Kanter ruling, Kentucky men’s basketball head coach said he respectfully disagrees with the NCAA’s decision.

“I respect the NCAA’s decision,” Calipari said after UK’s season-opening win over East Tennessee State. “I don’t agree with it, but I respect the decision because it’s a hard decision.”

Kanter was ruled permanently ineligible Thursday by the NCAA for “receiving benefits above his actual and necessary expenses while playing for a club basketball team in Turkey.”

UK will appeal the decision to the Division I Student-Athlete Reinstatement Committee at the end of November.

“Enes Kanter is like my son or any of your sons out there,” Calipari said. “He got nothing from anybody except his dad, and his dad did not do anything wrong. His dad did all the things he thought were going to make sure his son stayed an amateur. No one can argue the point that this kid wanted to be an amateur, and so did his father.

“Now, if they did some things they didn’t know were wrong by our rules, maybe. But they didn’t do anything wrong. And I feel bad. So we’re looking at the appeal and thinking that, you know, common sense, people will look at this in a common sense way and say, ‘You know what, the kid deserves better than this.’ “

One thing is for sure: The Kanter case is creating precedent in college basketball.

“Educational expenses, we’ve never seen this before,” Calipari said. “They’re things they haven’t seen. I respect what they’ve done, I just don’t agree with it.”