Wednesday, May 27, 2009

How Thorny Will Rose Allegations Be for UK?


(Forgive the bad pun, I'm a little rusty.)

So I'm trying to watch some NBA action when my heart literally sank upon seeing the crawler: "NCAA alleges major infractions at Memphis for 20007-08 season." I was initially hoping that perhaps it would be involving Tigers football. Or baseball. Or anything but men's basketball.

No such luck of course....although that women's golf program must really be a bunch of renegades (!)

Naturally, I sprang to the interwebz to see what could be found. I'll admit I feared the worst.

Apparently, the main (or key) NCAA allegation concerns whether Derrick Rose cheated on his SAT exam. Per the early indications from Memphis's internal investigation, he has denied it. I would expect plenty of details to emerge later, and I would be very interested to see how Mr. Rose's score improved, when and where he took the test, etc.

Will there be shades of the Sutton-era Eric Manuel ACT fiasco? Somebody try to pull the old switcheroo?

Let me get this clear before commenting further...

Cheating: not cool.

I hate cheating, and cheaters in general. I hate BEING cheated. Nobody likes a cheater.

So it should go without saying that I want Kentucky to run a squeaky clean program. Period. I want it like that glassware you pull from the dishwasher when you use Calgon and it doesn't even show any streaks. No improprieties. No taint.

But we don't have very many facts yet. Certainly the NCAA report itself does not appear to name Coach Cal personally. It's way too early to paint a clear picture of how this will all shake out, and apparently his presence has been requested at a June 6th hearing before the committee.

As of this posting, there has been no comment from UK's administration or from Coach Calipari.

Now, having said all that-- despite my previously stated distaste for cheating-- I also try to give people the benefit of the doubt. And it's always wise to hear both sides of the story and weigh all the evidence before delivering any verdicts. So I would expect the NCAA to do a thorough job of investigating this situation, and I would expect the University of Memphis to do the same.

Everyone deserves their day in court, and I hope this entire episode results in a fair and impartial hearing for everyone involved. Justice should be served.

In the meantime, the haters will hate on. Kentucky will take a lot of heat. Rivals and critics will do their thing. Pat Forde was already taking a swipe on the four letter network's site. Not unexpected.

As it relates to UK and Coach Cal, I can say that I do feel better knowing that Memphis was supposedly notified of the allegations back in January, and they still made every effort possible to keep Calipari when Kentucky became interested. That tells me something.

More importantly, UK's Athletics Director Mitch Barnhart gave multiple reassurances that he and Sandy Bell in compliance had done their homework prior to extending a job offer to Coach Cal. They felt absolutely comfortable with the hire.

Still, there's no denying this is a thorny situation.