Monday, June 1, 2009
The Memphis/Calipari/Rose Brouhaha: Was It Inevitable?
During his one year in Memphis, Derrick Rose was renowned for his sweet tooth as much as he was his otherworldly skills on the basketball court.
Posted by Frank Murtaugh on Mon, Jun 1, 2009 at 9:16 AM
As dramatic as the news may be -- centered as it is around the Tigers' star of stars from a 38-win team that came a free throw short of a national title -- those surprised at the development have consumed more Kool-Aid than they should. Because this boils down to a central debate in modern college basketball: Can a young man who plays a single season of college basketball as merely a bridge to the NBA be considered a student-athlete?
While the likes of Dajuan Wagner, Shawne Williams, Tyreke Evans, and Rose are not cheating the University of Memphis by the letter of the law when they enroll for what amounts to a warm-up act for their pro careers, they are certainly cheating the spirit of the institution of higher learning they represent. Such manipulation has essentially been mandated by the NBA, with its recent adoption of an age requirement for potential draftees. But it remains the responsibility of individual basketball programs -- and above them, individual colleges -- to decide whether or not to play gamesmanship with the definition of "student-athlete."
However deep your rooting interest may be in Tiger basketball, could you have doubted corners were cut to accommodate the one-year wonders who played such an integral role in John Calipari's Tiger reign? Fair or unfair, Evans didn't lose any sleep last winter writing papers or researching a presentation. The system being played must be accepted or rejected on your own terms. But to be surprised at a cut corner finally catching up with a player and the program? A high school friend -- from Vermont, well beyond Tiger Country as we know it -- wrote me last week and described the NCAA's investigation of a former Calipari program as "inevitable." And it's the word I keep returning to as I reflect on the profound -- beyond credulity? -- rise of Memphis basketball over the last nine years. * What I do find befuddling is the timeline of events. And this goes beyond the four-month gap between the time the university was notified of the NCAA's concerns and the information going public. The SAT in question had to have been taken no later than the spring or summer of 2007. So a year and a half goes by before the NCAA calls into question that test? Remember the wisdom of Benjamin Franklin: "Three men may keep a secret, if two of them are dead."
It has the stench of a cover-up, one where information was withheld just long enough for the two figures closest to the flame -- Derrick Rose and John Calipari -- to have Memphis comfortably in their rearview. As for Franklin's rule, you have to assume this was more than a two-man game between Rose and his test-taking proxy. With the number of handlers Rose has had since he was in middle school -- primarily his older brothers -- this little secret was dancing in the heads of grown men who knew better. * In the October 2000 issue of MEMPHIS magazine -- a few weeks before Calipari coached his first game in Memphis -- the late, great Memphis Flyer editor Dennis Freeland wrote the following: "Calipari has brought his game to Memphis, a town that knows a little about charisma. It also knows about con artists, having seen its share of both. That's the Calipari conundrum: Is he smooth or is he slick? And, if he wins enough basketball games, will it even matter?"
You decide.
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Let's say for the sake of argument Calipari is dirt (however you define it). This conclusion about this guy is based primarily on two concrete events (one before this week) and a boat load of innuendo.
The first event, Camby taking money from an agent. How does that benefit Calipari? It doesn't. But he should have known! Really? How? No one would have known if Camby had not backed out of the deal with the crooked agent. My guess is (and I admit to hopeless cynicism) that this is not an unusual arrangement in many high profile programs including the Dukes, the North Carolinas, the Kentuckys and the Kansi (Kansases?). The only unusual thing is that it has come out.
The second, and most recent incident, Rose possibly having someone else take his SAT so he could qualify to play D1. This one does benefit Calipari very directly. But, this likely happened before the kid ever set foot on campus. He should have know or been suspicious!! Why, every major school has kids who barely qualify. Do they go back and look at the SAT security photos on all of them (maybe they should).
Kansas, North Carolina and Duke all showed interest in John Wall who was a borderline qualifier. Were they going to have someone follow him around and spy on him until he took his SATs? How would they know if he had cheated? And the biggest question of all, would they even care as long as he didn't get caught?
How would Self, Williams and Coach Mike at Duke police these two situations?
"two concrete events" -- hilarious.
These current charges are more serious than past issues to the degree that they can result in NCAA penalties. But in terms of the basic ethics of running a college sports program they are probably no worse than the long, long list of Calipari-era issues that were all generally well-reported at the time: diploma factories, package deals, reneged scholarship offers, a constant stream of legal or other disciplinary problems, the ubiquitous presence of Worldwide Wes, Shawne Williams' agent double-dip, the entirely opportunistic enforcement of program rules, sketchy recruitments, lack of athletic department control, etc.
The "shocked, shocked to see gambling going on in this establishment" reaction to the latest, entirely unsurprising chapter in the Calipari era is hysterical.
Let's get focused here.
I think folks are writing articles making it sound bad cause Caoch Cal is invovled. I agree that the AD could have handled this better. But to think Cal was behind what has happened. Is it too hard to say "I was duped" by Rose and 3 of his high school team mates.
We know that the NCAA letter does not say Memphis not CAl nor anyone associated with the program of doing ANYTHING. SO why say that is the case??? There is not indication that CAl nor Memphis have run a dirty program. The NCAA just did 1 year year look into all of Memphis' programs!!!!!
We do know several things --
A. Rose's AAU coach told the NCAA about Rose and 3 PLAYERS cheating on SAT. 1 player took Rose's and another player's SAT.
B. Rose and 3 players had their grade transcripts changed so that the could get into college.
C. Rose went to Memphis and 2 other players went to Univerisity of Wisc.
D. Memphis spent times trying ot see if there truth to the SAT alligations. The oculd not find any.
That is what I understand.
SO for Cal to be involved he would need to get with 4 players and get them or someone to break into a Chicago School system computer and change everyone's grade. Cal would need to get with 3 players and convinve one player to talk the SAT for 2 other players. Cal would have to make sure the NCAA and Memphis were duped into letting Rose play.
When one looks at the facts, one wonders why reporters keep saying ugly things about Memphis and Cal eventhough the facts do not remotely support the accusations.
Cal is clean and the nay sayers are jealous!!!!
Suggesting that Roy Williams and UNC "showed interest" in Wall with no more detail is overlooking the fact that John Wall was never offered a scholarship to Carolina because, I believe, the handlers were repugnant to the Carolina program and the risks did not justify the rewards. John Wall is a great player and no one knew it more than Roy since JW played in Carolina's backyard. I can not speak for Kansas or Duke but Carolina "policed" the situation by not getting involved. Some things are more important then an ability to play point guard.
Just doesn't seem right to punish the Tigers for an action that may have occurred before Rose was part of the the program. Seems like the people who administered the SAT are the ones who deserve some form of punishment. How is a college expected to monitor all the various locales that administer these tests?
Ta Da: Re punishing the Tigers: I think Branston got it right and this is what they're being "vacated" for: http://bit.ly/Yrail
Saying Cal is clean is like saying John Gotti was clean. Cal isn't stupid. He isn't going to arrange the deals. He is just happy that the envelopes (players) keep showing up. It'll be interesting to see how his protege at UMass does on the recruiting front.
NCAA: how's that investigation into Reggie Bush and USC going? just wondering...
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