The attached article and the ones that follow have more information on John Calipari, Derrick Rose, and the issues surrounding the alleged violations at the University of Memphis.
The player involved in the alleged SAT fraud seems to be Derrick Rose. That much was assumed to be the case in the information I had yesterday. What's new to me is that the guy who flew on the team plane and stayed in the team hotel was allegedly Reggie Rose, Derrick Rose's brother.
If Reggie Rose did not qualify for college, would he have looked for a school that might help out his little brother? A school that might arrange for everything to be taken care of? Make sure Little Pooh had a high enough score to play for one year... Not too much help, mind you, but just enough.
If the older Rose was in charge of Derrick's recruiting, how much was his own self-interest involved in the process? "Hey, man, if Derrick signs with us, you'll be in the mix, too. Go to all the games. Stay in the team hotel. We can work all that out. You won't get that kind of personal attention with the straight-laced guys over at Illinois."
Is there any wonder now why the decision to go to Memphis instead of Illinois was a "family decision?"
Note: I'm not saying that any violation occurred. But the allegations and charges flying here and there are very serious, and the optics of the situation raise a lot of questions.
What will be the impact of the investigation on Calipari, and Calipari's new school, the University of Kentucky?
5 comments:
Has the NCAA changed the rules yet so that the violations of a coach follow him or her to the next place of employment? I know there had been talk of this, and it seems only right. Otherwise, a coach could simply stay "one step ahead of the law" by going from job to job. UK has made a deal with the devil by hiring Cal., but I am afraid he is going to receive the "see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil" media treatment Pete Carroll has received at USC concerning the allegations of impropriety with his program.
It's getting interesting for sure. Cal is dirty and Kentucky could be in for a mess. Oh they will win and win big, but the cloud will be there.
It's funny how Cal is innocent. I mean, you can't not know what's going on. Especially in hoops. It's not like football with 85 scholarship players.
He was innocent at UMass too I'm sure. Kentucky is in desperation mode. Just like the Tennessee football program.
I know that Coach Kelvin Sampson was impacted so that restrictions imposed by the NCAA limited what he could do at Indiana, his new school.
Dave Bliss, not the former UGA player, but the one who used to be the coach at Baylor, is pretty much locked out of coaching at any NCAA school.
There can be "show cause" orders such that because of previous violations the NCAA makes the school expressly justify why they are hiring a particular coach who had caused trouble at another school.
You raise good points, though. UK, USC and some other schools seem not to get hit with the same kind of penalties as the rest of the world.
Thanks for the comment.
Bop:
You're spot on about the cloud following Calipari. He can claim ignorance about the alleged payments going to Marcus Camby while Calipari was coach at UMass.
But Calipari had to know who was riding on the team plane at Memphis.
How can other teams compete if a coach or a particular team is cheating? What will the basketball program be like at UK? Clean, like under Tubby, or scuzzy?
The Kentucky athletic department head had been looking like a genius for bringing Calipari in. I'm not convinced.
And the thing is, he basically got the Kentucky job because cheating went on. What I'm trying to say is had cheating not gone on, he wouldn't have gotten Derrick Rose. In turn, he wouldn't have made the run to the finals. Kentucky hired him because he wins and wins big. But he obviously cheats or turns a blind eye to cheating to get the players to be able to win big.
How can the ncaa not come down on Cal? They are saying he's not mentioned in the violations, but there is NO WAY he didn't know what was happening. Not in hoops. It's too intimate a sport because of the small numbers.
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