Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Beginning of the End or Just the End of the Beginning?

Hope everyone enjoyed their Memorial Day weekend. I for one went to the Outer Banks, NC for the first time and had a fabulous time. Now back to the swing of messing around when one should be working.

Apparently the NCAA has begun investigating the recruitment of Eric Bledsoe (though from the article it seems most of the problems occurred in high school. Still one wonders how much of stuff like this can Calipari take?

So I guess what I'm wondering is do you guys think that something like this is going to start sticking to him soon or does he just continue to dominate recruiting with shady background stories and nothing ever being connected to him directly? I guess time will tell.

3 comments:

VandyTrey said...

The investigations and accusations will never effect Cal in recruiting the types of players he already recruits. Players that are raised and trained in the AAU circuit are already familiar with special favor by the time they get to the College level. In most cases, they expect it. So it will never effect Cal from the standpoint of the players. Now on to Bledsoe. Was Cal directly tied to the Bledsoe transcript issue and any alleged cheating? Probably not, but the simple fact of the matter is, when you play lie with pigs, you get muddy. Cal is a shrewd and calculating business man. He plays the seedy underbelly of the AAU circuit better than anyone. He has all the connections he needs in people like WW Wes as well as now being (cleverly) indirectly involved in media branding and player agents at the pro level with Lebron's company. Guys like Bledsoe, who are looking for the quickest way possible to the pro's.. who think money will solve all their problems in life, will always choose Cal.

This is really long, sorry.

Now the question seems to be, how long will the NCAA let the NBA use it for a Developmental league? How long will the NCAA let the NBA set standards for the college game, and how long will the NCAA let recruiters like Cal make a mockery of student atheletes and the college game. The NCAA has the power to stop what is happening, by instituting just a few simple rules. 1. If you are on scholarship to a school, you MUST stay 3 years. If you sign up, you ARE a STUDENT athlete. 2. Teams as a whole must maintain a certain cumlative GPA. And an athlete must complete a certain number of hours towards his major. If not, that school loses scholarships. You put these rules in place, so that the people coaching, and playing, and the players being offered scholarships, are people that understand they are making a commitment to be a student. It also keeps recruiters like Cal.. and under the table agents like WW Wes from using the NCAA as a clearinghouse to the pros.

Do I believe anything unethical happen in the Bledsoe case? Yes, where there is smoke, there is fire. Do I believe Cal is dirty? Yes, where there is smoke. The shame of it is how UK fans don't care what he is doing to the name of the school, as long as he lands some players. But Teflon Don won't be around forever, and that will catch up to them, whether they think so now.. or not.

Anonymous said...

Milt Wagner was given $500k to do a non-existant job for two years at the University of Memphis... one year before his son, Dajuan Wagner, decided to sign. Cal also gave a scholarship to a D II type player that was Wagner's high school teammate, because Wagner claimed he'd go wherever that teammate went.

B'MoreDore said...

Maybe it's just me being overly optimistic that justice will finally be served, but I think the NCAA has had enough of this bull. Check out this article (I found it on a U of L website, hahaha); the writer apparently has longstanding sources very close to the situation (e.g., he predicted Barnhart being hired as UK's AD 6 months before the actual event, before the old guy was even fired). Even on KSR there was mention of there being another investigation with Cousins.

http://score.leoweekly.com/2010/05/31/next-to-jump-ship-at-kentucky/