That wasn't much of an apology considering he told bold faced lies. And coming from a man who took every opportunity during his coaching career to chastise the media for not getting their facts straight his "apology" comes off as disingenuous.
Blaming college kids for doing what's best for them and their families isn't something I subscribe to. Your complaints should be directed at the system itself and not the individuals. A lack of a one and done rule isn't going to stop elite coaches and schools from getting top talent year in and year out. The more cynical part of me believes that's where most of the complaints truly arise from. "Man, these kids would go to Hometown U and play for us if it weren't for UK, UNC, Duke, etc stockpiling these kids".
If anyone here can honestly say they'd have turned down a multi million dollar contract doing something they love after one year of college I'll tip my hat to you.
As someone mentioned to me last week, Calipari, Rick Barnes at Texas and Self(to some degree), are turning the NCAA into an unpaid NBA development league. It is impossible to turn Calipari into anything other than the slimeball he is and the same with the guy at Texas and his personal development program at the "Academy" in Las Vegas without a single teacher. (Basically a program a Texas booster sponsors as their equivalent of a junior hockey program.)
You really can't make up what corrupt slicksters these guys are.
It is too bad Knight was not more careful with his facts, but his general assertions are completely correct.
That's just an absurd statement on every level. Calipari thinks the rule is stupid and has said so publicly but he can't do anything but work with it instead of against it. I hate to break it to you but Tubby Smith, Coach K, John Calipari, Roy Williams, etc aren't getting paid millions of millions of dollars to crank out doctors, lawyers and engineers. They're getting paid to win games. Maybe that's a cynical viewpoint but it is a valid one.
People cite the baseball rule all the time. What they fail to mention is that in probably 75% of the cases kids forgo the draft and commit to college not because they value education or their experience of playing college baseball but because they don't like their draft position or the money being offered. And the college baseball coaches loathe the rule themselves. They lose tons of kids every year at the last minute because they get an 11th hourd deal done and go off into the farm system with their signing bonus.
You can't have your cake and eat it too. If you want kids to value the college experience, graduate and stick around you're going to see a game akin to Division II or Division III. What people need to wrap their heads around is that kids don't pick up a basketball and go "Man, I hope I get good enough so I can go to Minnesota or Purdue and get a degree in Civil Engineering". They grow up wanting to be LeBron or Kobe or KG or Jordan or Derrick Rose and play in the NBA. I know NAIA kids that even though they're playing small time college basketball still harbor aspirations of playing in the NBA even though the chances of them ever making it are almost zero.
It's not just an easy question to look at and say "This is automatically wrong. These kids should be forced to do this or that because it makes my team and the game better" Hell, I wish it did for purely selfish reasons. But that's not the way it works nor should it.
Guys, please don't listen to this guy. He has an agenda. I have a feeling that he was not recruited by Tubby at some point. He defends cheaters like many KY fans would do. Here is my evidence that this guy is full of crap:
Vanderbilt University had a coach named C.M Newton (Later, he became AD at UK and hired Pitino and Tubby). This coach had a player who was a friend of mine when I was in Nashville:
Charles Mayes
Degree: B.A. Chemistry
Graduate School: Vanderbilt Medical School[/B]Occupation: Physician
Coaches used to produce doctors and Lawyers but people like Calamary changed everything.
Coach Knight is 100% correct about this.
Go Gophers