Poor, Sweet, Innocent John Calipari

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it, George Santayana

Alas, the tragedy...

For the second time in his career, poor, sweet, innocent, master strategist John Calipari will have a Final Four appearance stricken from the NCAA record books. It breaks my heart to see such a fine man have to suffer through this embarrassment again. Why do bad things happen to goodf people. My heart goes out to him and...

Enough with the sarcasm... Kentucky - if you weren't before - you're now officially on notice. This is what the man does. He shows up, pours a mean glass of kool-aid, blinds his potential detractors with tainted win after tainted win, then gets the hell outta Dodge before the poo hits the fan. He's very, very good at what he does. He's now the only coach to have two Final Fours stricken from official record books. This is of little surprise to me, having suggested its feasibility the day after their (now no-longer existent) game against Kansas.

Yes, I know Calipari wasn't implicated in the Memphis scandal, just I like I know he wasn't implicated in the UMass scandal either. Like I said, he's very, very good at what he does. He was a desperation hire by Memphis in 2000. The Tiger program needed a big pick-me-up after the Tic Price Experiment went horribly wrong. The fans were desperate to field a winner, so they sold their soul to bring in Calipari, despite the turmoil that UMass was mired in because of him. Memphis AD R.C. Johnson basically turned his back and served as Calipari's "yes man" for 10 years.

Sound familiar? The Wildcats are in need of a big pick-me-up after the Billy Gilispie experiment failed to pan out. Big Blue fans are desperate to field a winner and broke the bank to bring in Calipari. While there's no way Kentucky AD Mitch Barhart will bend over and take it from Calipari like Johnson did, he knows that Kentucky has to win and win big. Given Calipari's history, is there any reason to think this scenario plays out differently? I have no doubts that he'll win big at Kentucky, but at what cost to the university? Two schools have suffered due to his... ahem... oversights, why not a third?

I hope it doesn't work out that way. Kentucky is the flagship program in the SEC and one of the Royal 5 programs in the country (along with Indiana, North Carolina, Kansas, and UCLA). They serve as something of a barometer for the SEC as a whole. When they're mediocre, it weakens the SEC as a whole. But when they're winning, it greatly increases the national perception of the conference.

After such a pitiful showing last year, the SEC needs a big pick-me-up. Just not one that turns out to be such a bummer when you realize the dirty truth.

I see your true colors shining through

Kentucky head basketball coach John Calipari is back in the news today as allegations of major violations have surfaced at the University of Memphis regarding "knowing fraudulence or misconduct" on an SAT exam by a player on the 2007-08 team. This should come as a surprise to absolutely nobody based on Calipari's track record. The school received the letter of notification on January 16th, making it look more and more like the Kentucky job came along at the perfect time for him.

Geoff Calkins has a fantastic piece in this morning's Commercial Appeal, with a couple of great opening sentences:

John Calipari is one of a handful of college basketball coaches to take two different schools to the Final Four. Before long, he may be the only one to have both of those appearances vacated from the NCAA record books.

He's got a great point, and one that I made more than a year ago:

John Calipari’s only other appearance in the Final Four has been stricken from the record books thanks to a fantastic watch that Marcus Camby was given. Though Calipari successfully weaseled his way out of that, the UMass program is just now righting itself from his tenure there. In my opinion, this appearance has at least a decent chance of disappearing too.

So, for those of you scoring at home, here's a brief recap for you: Calipari - complete with his reputation for being a snake oil salesman - led the University of Memphis to the Final 4, bolts a season later and - shockingly - allegations of major violations surface regarding his star player form that team. This just more than a decade after he led UMass to a Final 4 and bolted shortly thereafter when major violations surfaced regarding his star player. Kentucky - you're officially on notice.

Which brings up some more questions. Did Calipari let UK know about these pending accusations? With UK's somewhat sordid history with NCAA violations, would they have risked the hire if they knew about them? Calipari's always been a "Just Win" type of guy, and it may have landed another of his former programs in trouble again. A Sea of Blue offers a very nice summation here, and has this advice to UK fans:

So embrace that hate, Big Blue Nation, and take pleasure in the loathing. I know I will. It is fun urinating on the schadenfreude of others, and watching them contort themselves into a tizzy to create self-deluded hopes of NCAA sanctions to come. It makes me laugh out loud to see logic tortured to the point of screaming agony. Parsing Coach Cal's occasional cryptic tweets just adds to the aura of suspicion. Have fun with it.

Calipari will most likely skate through this unscathed. He's a master of his devious craft and he almost certainly had the proper procedures in place to disassociate himself from this incident as much as possible. He'll plead ignorance here just like he did in Amherst and the NCAA won't touch him. His ignorance plea will be an outright lie - just like in Amherst - but he's established himself as quite the NCAA cash cow, and that means he won't be touched. (Let's call it the USC Principle.)

You can Never go Home Again, but I Guess you can Shop There

After finally succumbing to the withdrawal pains inflicted by years of not breaking some sort of NCAA rule, the man that they call "Kang" made a trip back to Starkville over the weekend. And though it appeared on multiple occasions that he interacted with players - which everyone knows is a violation of NCAA bylaw 11.7.2, limiting schools to one head coach, nine assistants and two graduate assistants working with players - both he and Mullen swear it didn't happen.

In his usual post-practice meeting with reporters, Mullen smiled and laughed when asked if Sherrill's presence violated the limitations on coaches.

"No, because he was coaching me," Mullen said. "I don't think there's any limitation of coaches that can coach your coaches."

Asked if he was sure that Sherrill did not interact with players, Mullen was emphatic.

"No, I was coaching the players," Mullen said. "He was sitting there telling me what to tell them."

...

Reached on his cell phone later as he was returning to his Germantown, Tenn., home, Sherrill said he "wasn't coaching them. I was trying to coach the coaches how to coach them."

Good to see he's never strayed from the "Deny 'til you die" philosophy that landed multiple schools on NCAA probation under his watch. It also makes me wonder if Mullen is so unqualified for a HC position that he has to solicit the advice from a person who compiled a mediocre 75-75-2 overall record and a 43-59-1 SEC record. As a bonus, every message board certainly has their share of idiots, but some are just more quotable than others:

After all these years of trying to get Sherrill they still have not given up. Who made up this story about Sherrill? They should be added to the lawsuit! JWS has endured enough false accusations. He has never cheated. You can't prove one instance where he ever cheated. JWS and Croom are among the top five most ethical coaches the SEC has seen in the last 20 years. JWS was the most winningest coach for MSU that I can remember.

I'll leave it up to you to form your own opinions about that.