Connect with your Facebook Account

• Contact

Basketball Articles

17

Memphis Indiscretion May Lead to Kentucky Headache

Posted by Trips Right on August 20th, 2009 under Basketball

More on cheating from ESPN. I like the trend. Anyway, this is in no way a shocker to the folks that were paying attention. John Calipari, neck tats, and entrance test shenanigans go together like peanut butter and jelly. Throw in the cess pool that has always been Memphis basketball, and an NCAA investigation was a matter of when and not if.

As for vacating wins, that is merely a flesh wound to outlaw programs like Memphis, Oklahoma, UNLV, etc. If you want to hit them where it hurts, take away scholarships, TV appearances, and money in general. Am I naive enough to think that will happen in this case? No. But there is precedent of an NCAA investigative cloud following a coach from one program to another. Someone get Kelvin Sampson on the horn. Collect, if possible.

I’ll be interested to see if the same happens here because the two situations are eerily similar. A rather successful, yet slimey coach leaves a mess at a stepping stone school to go coach the creme de la creme of traditional basketball powerhouses. Both Sampson and Calipari were/are charged with bringing said powerhouse back from the dead. Both coaches have ridiculous recruiting classes for their new school. You can take this to its logical conclusion.

al
A Second Time Would Be Unforgiveable.

The one difference is that Indiana had zero history of cheating in its basketball program. Kentucky’s ethical resume on this front, is, well, checkered to say the least. Remember the Eddie Sutton and assistant Dwayne Casey recruiting scandal centered around cash payments to Chris Mills?

The investigation and resulting probation gutted Kentucky’s talent base causing players such as Chris Mills, Sean Sutton, Rex Chapman, LeRon Ellis, Eric Manuel and Shawn Kemp to leave the program over a two year period. Additonally, the team was banned from television appearances or post season play and the team had its scholarships reduced. Enter Rick Pitino and the four holdovers, or Unforgettables, that helped resurrect the program with the help of Jamal Mashburn.

I have a hard time seeing John Wall, Demarcus Cousins, Daniel Orton, and Eric Bledsoe sticking around for more than a year even if Calipari is Pete Carril clean. What happens if the Scantrons Hit the Fan? If rumors of Calipari recruiting/grade fixing transgressions are validated by NCAA gumshoes showing up at Rupp arena, who knows how fast this recruiting class starts looking for an exit strategy. A strategy rolling on $20,000 rims in all probability.

Will something happen to the Wildcats this year? I doubt it. But the blue grass version of the Fab Five better have been recruited squeaky clean. Their grades better not be Balogunned. And if I’m Coach Cal, I get rid of the pinky ring for appearance sake. We’ll see.

al
Mills landed at Arizona where Josh Pastner got his start. How’s that for full circle?

Article Tags:

, , , , , , , , ,

More from this Barker


Share This

  • StumbleUpon

17 Responses

  1. CloseToJumping said:

    August 20th, 2009 at 7:15 am

    Yeah, it looks like a whole bunch of nothing. The NCAA bears the teeth of a 90 year old woman.

  2. Betty White said:

    August 20th, 2009 at 7:54 am

    “Yeah, it looks like a whole bunch of nothing. The NCAA bears the teeth of a 90 year old woman.”

    They have a vagina like mine, too.

  3. moral victory said:

    August 20th, 2009 at 7:58 am

    so if the bone thugs vacate those wins, does that mean Texas goes to the final four and is new champion sicne Kansas illegally hired “big shot” chalmers dad and paid a couple of other guys?

  4. SydneyCarton said:

    August 20th, 2009 at 8:01 am

    *bares the teeth, you donkey.

  5. Steve Nebraska said:

    August 20th, 2009 at 8:04 am

    I thought Shawn Kemp couldn’t make grades at UK, and that’s why he left.

  6. Trips Right said:

    August 20th, 2009 at 8:45 am

    Shawn Kemp could have “made” the grades if there wasn’t so much heat.

    The precisely my point wrt wall, cousins, orton, etc.

  7. HenryJames said:

    August 20th, 2009 at 9:02 am

    Kemp was too busy helping his kids with their homework.

  8. Trips Right said:

    August 20th, 2009 at 9:11 am

    Kemp would have been better served to be nicknamed “The Rain(coat) Man”

  9. Cincohorn said:

    August 20th, 2009 at 9:11 am

    The NCAA will absolutely prohibit Calipari from twittering for one full hour on a random Tuesday from 1 am to 2 am. They’ll then deliver the death penalty to the University of Rio Grande to really show everyone they mean business. We’ll see if anyone will dare mess with them after that.

  10. HenryJames said:

    August 20th, 2009 at 9:20 am

    They’re currently going all passive aggressive on OU.

  11. Cincohorn said:

    August 20th, 2009 at 10:34 am

    OU is just stinky snatch to the NCAA. They really want no part of that carnival.

  12. horn in exile said:

    August 20th, 2009 at 2:55 pm

    Kemp had too many holes in his raincoats

  13. srr50 said:

    August 20th, 2009 at 3:20 pm

    Kentucky has been buying players since Adolf Rupp, and the NCAA has ignored it generally unless they were too stupid to be ignored (See ripped open Fed Ex letter).

    The NCAA knows exactly who they are and how they relate to the big time programs that keep the NCAA in business and flying first class.


    “Forget it Jake, it’s Chinatown.”

  14. Rex Walters said:

    August 20th, 2009 at 3:22 pm

    Nobody would pay me to go to Kansas.

  15. GingerBalls said:

    August 20th, 2009 at 4:27 pm

    “sicne Kansas illegally hired “big shot” chalmers dad”

    Borderline unethical you mean? I could see that argument. Illegal, hardly.

  16. RansomStoddard said:

    August 20th, 2009 at 6:23 pm

    Agree that UK has historically been the dirtiest program in college bb.

  17. Pancho Claus said:

    August 21st, 2009 at 5:48 am

    Does this mean we made the Final Four in 2007?

Leave a Reply

Follow Us

Related Articles

Hot Forum Topics

Activity