Comments on: RTC 09-10 Class Schedule: Kentucky Wildcats

By: keb

keb — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 04:46:20 +0000

tallguy and brian,
both of your assertions are entirely speculative and not based on facts.

By: Brian

Brian — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 03:53:30 +0000

Didn’t read tallguy’s comment before I posted but he pretty much sums it up. I agree with him.

By: Brian

Brian — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 03:51:18 +0000

I don’t believe Calipari didn’t know about Rose. I believe he knew about it and may have encouraged it. With regards to investigations, anything can be covered up. The NCAA likes to go after the little guys and hammer them (see SE Missouri recently). The NCAA wouldn’t touch Kentucky, Memphis, or any other school like that with significant penalties because they bring in too much money and that would stop if anything ever happened. That’s just the way it is. The NCAA is the true culprit here. They act like they care about the rules but either fail to enforce them or look the other way when big time people and programs are involved.

Calipari’s association with William Wesley (Worldwide Wes) is what really needs to be investigated. Coach Cal is a great coach (one of the top 5 in the country) on the floor but he plays the “game” just like most big time coaches off the court (Calhoun, Boeheim, Pitino, etc). That’s the true dark side of college basketball, one which we all turn a blind eye to because we like the sport and don’t want to believe it. Similar to steroids in baseball, except coaches cheat to get recruits. It will all blow up one day and Calipari won’t be the only coach to be exposed. We don’t want to believe it but it’s the cold hard reality of big time college athletics. It goes on everywhere, in basketball and football.

By: tallguy

tallguy — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 23:16:15 +0000

“This unfair punishment of Memphis really irks me. How on earth can you monitor whether someone has cheated on an SAT if the SAT people can’t monitor it?”

Well, to start, when your star player, after failing three times to get a qualifying score, makes a trip to Detroit to watch a Pistons game and take the SAT the next day, it should set off warning bells. That Cal’s good friend World Wide Wes is based in Detroit only adds to the shadiness.

“The only reason the wins were vacated was due to the ETS invalidating a test score due to lack of response from the student in question”

Do not try and pull the “he didn’t get the mail” excuse, his lawyer was also sent a letter asking for clarification and it was also ignored. Rose knew the ETS wanted to hear his explanation, and his silence confirmed his guilt.

Basically…Cal knew that something was up, but either ignored it to get a player, or actively participated in the fraud. Either way, he made sure to keep his hands clean, and lined up another gig before the news broke. He’s dirty, and UK will rue the day they hired him.

By: billT

billT — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 19:41:56 +0000

Brian, you do realize that Calipari reported Camby to the NCAA don’t you.

By: Rob

Rob — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 19:39:36 +0000

This unfair punishment of Memphis really irks me. How on earth can you monitor whether someone has cheated on an SAT if the SAT people can’t monitor it? However they should be punished for the plane ticket thing…actually somebody should be fired for that…somebody has the job where they check reimbursement for plane tickets. That is no accident. And yet Calipari also gets blamed for this nonsense. And Camby…dang. You know when you recruit the best of the best, they are often looking for that paycheck and will do ANYTHING to get it. Now Calipari is gonna have to monitor his players more than any other coach in basketball, for crap that he was never responsible for.

By: Big Dave

Big Dave — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 19:34:57 +0000

All of this hollering about Cal is nothing but making excuses BEFORE you even play. There will be No such case in Lexington. Every recruit will be inspected under a microscope. Not to mention that the Memphis this was nothing but a shame that Cal nor the school knew nothing about. Hell, the NCAA Clearing House cleared the kid to play. So Brian, you might want to be looking for another excuse, this one will get old after a while.

By: zhayes9

zhayes9 — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 19:13:58 +0000

chrimsun- Agree to disagree on UF. Boynton has a chance to be a stud, but overall I see a team of role players. Tennessee handled them in Gainesville last season and Tennessee returns most of their talent. To me, it comes down to UT or Miss St for the most difficult road game. The Vols have tons of talent- Smith, Chism, Tatum, Prince, Maze- and, if they make any sort of commitment to defense, they can knock off Kentucky.

As for the Calipari discussion, both sides have a point. Bottom line: Calipari has been the head coach for 2 teams with vacated Final Fours. That’s embarrassing. It may not be directly his fault, but the head coach has to be the fall guy. He didn’t encourage Camby to accept gifts or Rose to cheat on his SAT, but as the head coach it happened on his watch. I know Brian, he’s a fair guy and probably was just making a light-hearted joke. He doesn’t hate Kentucky. With all of the high-profile names likely to shuffle into Kentucky during the Calipari era, it wouldn’t shock me if something like this happened again, even if Cal isn’t directly responsible.

By: Boyd

Boyd — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 18:47:03 +0000

Brian,

Any program risks having seasons vacated due to players’ indiscretions before they reach the collegiate level. The fact that you are endorsing “guilt by association” for two isolated instances just shows that you don’t really know much, or care to know much, about the details in the various cases and would much rather simply place blame on the coach.

However, if you want to slander someone’s name make sure you know the facts.

The fact is, the NCAA screwed the pooch on this issue…they admitted that they do not believe that the school or Calipari cheated. The only reason the wins were vacated was due to the ETS invalidating a test score due to lack of response from the student in question, based upon the “strict liability” doctrine. Memphis also conducted their own investigation, and could find no evidence of wrongdoing.

It looks more and more like the NCAA and Memphis were innocent and duped by a kid that they, and other schools, were still recruiting. And the NCAA, being accountable to no one, punished Memphis simply because they had no one else to punish.

If this scenario were to happen to UK in the future, my hope is that the NCAA would simultaneously conclude on the Duke ineligibility case (Maggette’s endangered amateur status) and the Kansas ineligibility case (Arthur had high school grades changed). What I see right now is an NCAA organization that applies punitive measures inconsistently with no accountability for their actions.

Calipari’s past is clean…he has never been charged with any wrongdoing. Not sure if you realize that.

By: Martin

Martin — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 18:43:30 +0000

Brian, I am a Kentucky fan, and I understand that your comment was not a knock against UK. However, there is a reason that Coach Cal hasnt been named in either of the incidents. Is it really his fault that Camby accepted gifts? Or that Rose cheated on his SAT before he had ever set foot on campus? Is it Coach Cals fault for recruiting these young men? They were going to go somewhere, and would have probably made the same bad decision. In Rose’s case, he wouldve lost wins to whatever school he was going to. The NCAA has had plenty of players violate rules resulting in lforfeiting of wins, and there usually the good ones (at least those seem to be the ones getting caught). Coach Cal recruits good players so it just happens he had two of them. Maybe he will recruit another poor decision making star recruit. Maybe wins will be forfeited. I certainly hope not. Frankly I dont believe it will happen, simply because I think Coach Cal and his crew are going to be extra careful making sure that their players arent doing anything wrong and another situation doesnt happen again. Should he have been doing that in the first place? Yes. Does that mean he is the one that made the violation or is at fault? No.

By: Brian

Brian — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 18:05:27 +0000

I have no doubt Kentucky will win big. Might even with a national championship. But I also have no doubt that 5-10 years from now those wins will be taken away. He’s done it at 2 schools already, why not make it 3? I like Calipari as a coach but it’s hard to ignore his past.

From your post I get the sense that you think I’m a Kentucky hater or a fan of a team like Louisville or one of your other rivals. I’m anything but. I don’t follow Kentucky basketball aside from the national stuff, I’m not even from the area. I follow a team in another conference who hasn’t played Kentucky in years.

By: Clam

Clam — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 17:54:16 +0000

Brian, did you really cook up that little gem and think that it was clever, original, and hurtful to Big Blue? UK fans have been hearing that since before Cal was hired (due to Camby at UMass) and our skin is pretty think, particularly when it comes to unoriginal, uninspired moron-level put-downs. Big Blue is going to win big with Cal, and while your line of thinking will undoubtedly help you lick your wounds after a thrashing, it won’t phase UK fans. Believe what you want and prepare to get dominated.

By: chrimsun

chrimsun — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 17:12:02 +0000

Hmm…. Florida on the road concerns me more than Tennessee. UTs talent is simlilar to last year. We handled them at home no problem. On the road, we had a miracle scoring game by meeks, but we should not have a problem getting 54 points from our new players, and of course Patterson will contribute more points as well. I think we match up much better with UT this year than last. Florida at Florida could be a difficult one. It is a smothering, tough atmosphere and the Gators match up to UK better than Tennessee.

By: Derek Forrest

Derek Forrest — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 07:14:44 +0000

UK News: Rush The Court » Blog Archive » RTC 09-10 Class Schedule: Kentucky … http://bit.ly/uqGvx

By: Brian

Brian — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 04:53:43 +0000

How long until UK makes the final four and the wins are revoked?