Pat Forde writes tough column on UK AD for Calipari hiring

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Forde does a nice job of laying it right out there. ... Kentucky has chosen to dance with the devil, so to speak. They'll win big under Calipari, no doubt about it. At what (if any) price?. ... we won't know that until a few years down the road.
 


Wow that was really tough. Can't say I didn't smile and hope some it comes true but that is neither here nor there.
 

I echo that, wow. Forde is a talented writer and he makes some strong points. However, simple truth is that UK and Calipari are a good fit, baggage and all.
 


Yikes....Seems Forde is about as much a Calipari fan as I am :D

Certainly, there are things about Calipari that are, ahem, interesting. I'll give the guy this, he knows how to use NCAA loopholes like a champ. But I seriously doubt most fans in Kentucky will care whether there are ethical issues with Calipari. All they want to do is win, which is all Calipari wants to do as well.

In that way, they're a perfect match.
 

Give it 5 years, and KY and Calipari will be in such deep doo-doo that the penalties will be so deep that the New York Yankees will have to abandon all of their World Series Titles of the last decade!!!!!
 

There's no question......

that this "worldwide," guy is delivering the one and dones to Calipari. Now he is in a power conference where the other members will take great exception to this recruiting "advantage."

They may some great success, but eventually his ruthlessness will catch up with him just like Kelvin Sampson. He has enough enemies out there who will not let him run amok without doing some whistle blowing.

And he nailed it one the A.D. Barnhart is out of excuses. Winning big, whatever the cost, is the only thing that can save his ass now.

He sold his soul for temporary gains.
 

Kentucky Media

I would not count on Calipari's stuff catching up to him in Lexington. For the excrement to fly on a big time sports program, there needs to be a lot of media cooperation to make it happen. When the media is strong, the likelihood in Kentucky is they would turn their heads away from Worldwide Wes, skipping class, and new cars. In the downsizing of the print world in particular, this is even less likely. Without the Pioneer Press, Clem might still be the coach here.

I remember one academic person commenting on the Gopher scandal who said the difference between the Kentucky media and fanbase and ours is that we really cared about the academic issues and scandal, and they wouldn't. Perhaps Kentucky and Slick Cal are a perfect match.
 



Holy Man said:
I would not count on Calipari's stuff catching up to him in Lexington. For the excrement to fly on a big time sports program, there needs to be a lot of media cooperation to make it happen. When the media is strong, the likelihood in Kentucky is they would turn their heads away from Worldwide Wes, skipping class, and new cars. In the downsizing of the print world in particular, this is even less likely. Without the Pioneer Press, Clem might still be the coach here.

I remember one academic person commenting on the Gopher scandal who said the difference between the Kentucky media and fanbase and ours is that we really cared about the academic issues and scandal, and they wouldn't. Perhaps Kentucky and Slick Cal are a perfect match.
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You do know the LHL won a Pulitzer Prize for it's reporting on the scandal at UK in the 80's.

Funny story:

When Tubby was at UK and Rondo was a soph Jerry Tipton did some "undercover" work ( i.e. hid in the bushes outside of Wildcat Lodge where the players live) and tried to drum up a story as Rondo was driving around in a brand new, fully loaded SUV.

It was a car leased in the name of Derek Anderson (former UK player and a close Rondo family friend. He and Derek's son are close) and well within the NCAA rules according to Compliance. That kind of stuff happens at every program.

I understand people's views. Kentucky has been caught cheating in the past and paid for it in a very public way. But these types of things happen at every program in the country. WWW steered players to UofL in the 80's. He's close to a number of coaches like Jim Boheim and others. It only seems that UK is the one to pay the price for past transgressions.

Roy Williams has more NCAA violations than Calipari (who has ZER0...the NCAA gave him and WWW a clean bill of health. That was one of the holdups with Dr. Todd.), Rick Pitino had to be disassociated from the University of Hawaii for multiple infractions during the 70's.

Like Jason Whitlock pointed out in an article: If you have problems take them up with the NCAA. UK has an outstanding academic support system for athletes. The C.A.T.S. Program is mandatory for all student-athletes.
 

The Truth said:
I understand people's views. Kentucky has been caught cheating in the past and paid for it in a very public way. But these types of things happen at every program in the country. WWW steered players to UofL in the 80's. He's close to a number of coaches like Jim Boheim and others. It only seems that UK is the one to pay the price for past transgressions.

Roy Williams has more NCAA violations than Calipari (who has ZER0...the NCAA gave him and WWW a clean bill of health. That was one of the holdups with Dr. Todd.), Rick Pitino had to be disassociated from the University of Hawaii for multiple infractions during the 70's.

Like Jason Whitlock pointed out in an article: If you have problems take them up with the NCAA. UK has an outstanding academic support system for athletes. The C.A.T.S. Program is mandatory for all student-athletes.
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Your post makes it seem as though you're missing the point. I've seen nobody claim that there are currently bad things going at UK. While I'm not so sure about BG, I'd be willing to bet that immediately before him, everything was run quite cleanly. And frankly, when it comes to past transgressions, gopher fans can't be throwing stones. We've got plenty of our own, for which we paid quite dearly. The only point about past transgressions is that UK, like the gophers, is likely to be watched a little more closely than some other schools.

And we all know that Cal has no recorded NCAA offenses. But as Forde says, he walks right up to the line between gray and unallowable. It's sort of like walking on the curb. You can do it most of the time, but when you're tired or preoocupied, you slip. THe NCAA cannot say anything about a coach other than the actually recorded offenses. TO say anything beyond that would create huge lawsuit potential, and they're smarter than that. So of course Barnhart can say that he talked to the NCAA and they gave him a clean bill of health. They couldn't say anything else. But you can bet that internally, the NCAA is very aware of how close Cal has come to trouble, and what a fine line he's walking. And the betting here is that if Cal does slip off that curb, the NCAA is very likely to notice.
 

Jim V2 said:
Your post makes it seem as though you're missing the point. I've seen nobody claim that there are currently bad things going at UK. While I'm not so sure about BG, I'd be willing to bet that immediately before him, everything was run quite cleanly. And frankly, when it comes to past transgressions, gopher fans can't be throwing stones. We've got plenty of our own, for which we paid quite dearly. The only point about past transgressions is that UK, like the gophers, is likely to be watched a little more closely than some other schools.

And we all know that Cal has no recorded NCAA offenses. But as Forde says, he walks right up to the line between gray and unallowable. It's sort of like walking on the curb. You can do it most of the time, but when you're tired or preoocupied, you slip. THe NCAA cannot say anything about a coach other than the actually recorded offenses. TO say anything beyond that would create huge lawsuit potential, and they're smarter than that. So of course Barnhart can say that he talked to the NCAA and they gave him a clean bill of health. They couldn't say anything else. But you can bet that internally, the NCAA is very aware of how close Cal has come to trouble, and what a fine line he's walking. And the betting here is that if Cal does slip off that curb, the NCAA is very likely to notice.
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And the point I'm trying to make is that a lot of the top coaches walk those same lines. In this business you have to these days and it has everything to do with money. The only way to clean up the game totally is to remove the money from it.
 

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