John Calipari or Derrick Rose?
May 29th, 2009 at 10:44 amBy Chris
I’m sure the blogosphere has been waiting for my response on the Memphis basketball allegations — something that started as a investigation into the Memphis’ women’s golf program — concerning Derrick Rose (not named, but let’s be serious here) and John Calipari. By now, you’ve heard most of the details, and if you are like Pat Forde, you’ve decided to use this situation as a way to further whatever doubt you have about the former Memphis coach.
If you are in Forde’s court, keep in mind he openly lobbied for UK to hire either Travis Ford or John Pelphrey — and when you consider his ties to the University of Louisville and Rick Pitino, Forde’s stance becomes much more understandable. Nevertheless, if Forde wants to rain on Kentucky’s parade at the expense of John Calipari, that’s certainly his right.
Perhaps I’m being naive, but if the allegations are true, doesn’t it reflect on Derrick Rose a lot more than it does on Calipari? When you consider the fact the NCAA Clearinghouse, well, cleared Rose to play, I’m not sure what other course of action Calipari was supposed to take. Name me one coach in NCAA Basketball who wouldn’t play a NCAA-approved Derrick Rose and I’ll name you a coach who doesn’t want to keep his job.
The university apparently feels good about its response to the charges. There has been speculation that if a player cheated on his SAT and rendered himself ineligible that the Tigers’ NCAA-record 38 victories and 2008 Final Four appearance could be vacated. However, if it’s not proven Memphis had reason to know the player was ineligible — indeed, the NCAA clearinghouse had certified the eligibility of that season’s freshmen — it would be hard to justify that action. The coaches were told the kid could play, so they played him…
…The only good news for Calipari in all this is the NCAA pretty much turned over the tables in the Tigers basketball program once it entered the door to check on women’s golf. If this is all there was to find, the basketball program was being run reasonably well.
In light of the news about Rose’s alleged grade change, it looks more and more like this falls directly on the player, as opposed to the coach. Of course, once the coach’s name is considered, all of that goes out the window. A lot of people who follow college basketball want to believe Calipari is dirty, and news like this simply fuels their fire.
And that, much like Pat Forde’s perspective, is their right. I will say this, however, considering the uber-recruiting class Calipari has coming in, it would be really wise if all the players checked out academically.
