Tuesday, August 25, 2009

One Last Calipari Post... I Promise

I just want to have one follow-up to my John Calipari post from last week. As regular readers know, I don't like to get into these off-the-court stories... if you want that stuff you can read Deadspin. But on this issue I feel like my opinion is one that you don't hear anywhere else.

What prompts my follow-up is this article by Dick Vitale. Now, I'm usually a big Vitale fan. Yes, he does overhype the ACC a bit, but he overhypes everybody. I love his energy and passion for the sport. But his one downside is his overhyping, and the fact that he never - ever - criticizes anybody. American sports announcers in general are too afraid to criticize players and coaches, but Vitale is the worst. He would never make a negative comment about John Calipari's personal character, and that's the flaw of his article.


Looking at the Derrick Rose case in a vacuum it's easy to come to Vitale's conclusion that the punishment was too harsh (although as Vitale's ESPN colleague Dana O'Neil points out, it wasn't much of a punishment in any case). I mean, hey, the NCAA said he was eligible! How was Calipari supposed to not trust the NCAA!

Of course, we don't know all the facts yet, and it is certainly suspicious that after failing the SAT miserably three times, Rose passed in his fourth attempt by travelling 300 miles to a city that is home to the most infamous figure in amateur basketball who also happens to be a good friend of Calipari. But even if Calipari was completely innocent in this particular case, I still don't buy Vitale's argument.

As I said in my post last week, the NCAA needs a "for the good of the sport" clause like baseball has. They are so strict with so many obscure rules that it's baffling that they look the other way with regards to obviously dirty coaches like Calipari. Calipari is one of those coaches who knows how to push every boundary just far enough that he'll never get in trouble, but he's just bad for the sport. He constantly brings in kids with questionable academics. He brings in kids with major legal problems and sketchy pasts. He hires coaches and relatives of top recruits to do odd jobs at the university.... He's not the only coach that does this, but he's probably the worst. When a player like Tyreke Evans or Lance Williams comes out of high school, you can always count on the John Calipari type coaches to be the ones in the mix. And even the kids in his program who don't come in with problems.... Calipari isn't the type of coach who cares if his kids are missing class or failing exams. As long as it doesn't affect his won-loss record, he doesn't care. That's not what college sports are supposed to be about.

If a coach with impeccable credentials, like Gary Williams or Bruce Pearl, was involved in a case like this I'd be more likely to give them the benefit of the doubt. They don't get involved in kids like Derrick Rose. John Calipari deals with enough sketchy recruits that eventually one is going to bite him. Basically, he had it coming.

The NCAA should have stepped in, for the good of the kids and the game, before this happened. He shouldn't be able to get away clean from this.

1 comment:

ervinsm said...

Bruce Pearl you say...