Two SEC freshmen basketball players may not be eligible

Blitz, I think Tebow started that cult before the game.

Anyway, it's 13-13 with six minutes left in the third quarter.

 

dog, I hope you don't think that Calipari's reputation is based only upon Camby and Rose. Because the rumors have been flying about that guy being a cutthroat sleaze ever since his days as a Pitt assistant in the 80s when he (allegedly) falsely told a couple recruits that Lou Carnesecca had cancer to deter them from St. Johns.

Calipari might not get personally busted, but he's known as the master at riding the fine lines and violating the spirit if not the technical letter of the law. For example, his recruitment of Dejuan Wagner, which was procured by offering a fat salary job to Wagner's dad (who had no college degree at the time) and a scholarship to Wagner's no talent best friend. Everyone knows Calipari essentially bought Wagner, but he put the money in forms that evaded a technical violation.

And Calipari has long been known for his use of the sleazy influence peddling street agents, and seems to have a particularly special relationship with the most notorious street agent of all, William Wesley (aka World Wide Wes). It's widely known that Calipari's very best recruits at Memphis, including Tyreke Evans, Derrick Rose, Dejuan Wagner, and Chris Douglas-Roberts, were delivered through the William Wesley connection, yet nobody can explain what Wesley is getting in return for all these good deeds he does for Calipari. At the same time, Wesley appears to live a lifestyle commensurate with a jet setting millionaire, yet nobody can explain how he makes the money to live that lifestyle. And then there's also the question about the lifestyle of Calipari's players. Remember the report from that 04 robbery of an apartment occupied by a couple Memphis players, with something like $70,000 worth of mink furs and diamonds heisted. What was all that loot doing on a couple poor college players with no discernible income?

And I wouldn't be so sure that Calipari had nothing to do with Rose's SATs. Let's review the circumstances: Rose flunks the test three times in his hometown in Chicago, but then, only a month before he's due to enroll at Memphis, he inexplicably travels to Detroit to take his fourth and final chance test which turns out to be one he passed and also the one that, it turns out, was fraudulent. So why Detroit? Well, for starters, that happened to be the home at the time of none other than Cal's favorite street connection, William Wesley. Just a coincidence?

And, btw, Rose is hardly the first Calipari player with SAT issues. Are you familiar with the story of Robert Dozier--tested at the 4 percentile on his PSAT, then orally committed to Memphis and Calipari, then took the SAT and amazingly tested at something like the 89th percentile, then changed his mind and decided to go to Georgia, but Georgia's admissions noticed the ridiculous discrepancy between his scores and asked him to retake the test there, he then scores nearly 600 points worse under Georgia's supervision than the score he got when he was a Memphis commit, Georgia then concludes that he must've cheated on his qualifying exam and rejects him, he then runs back to Memphis where Calipari embraces him with open arms. Need I mention that BOTH Rose and Dozier were starters on the 08 team that went to the national championship game?

And, of course, there is the matter of Calipari's notorious tolerance of misconduct. That 08 final four team included something like 5 guys, including two startes (Dorsey and Dozier), who'd been arrested over the prior year (and in a couple cases for beating up women), none recieving much more than a slap on the wrist and excuses from Calipari. And the star of last year's team, Tyreke Evans, had once been the driver in a drive by shooting. And those are just examples from the last two seasons.

You're right that the guy's never been personally busted. But there's a fucking shitload of smoke with this guy, even if they can never find the fire.

 

Well said Stoney.

 

dog, if there's ANY truth to this crap in Lexington, that's three stops with suspicious goings-on under John Calipari's watch. A little too coincidental, don't you think?

Wall is from Word of God, a private-school machine in North Carolina which has some question marks surrounding it. You don't think the Big Four would let him out of the state because all four were stupid, did you? Understanding that sounds very pro-ACC, but not much different than a blue-chip guy from Kentucky getting away from Louisville or Lexington ...

 

Sam,

You're aware that the questions surrounding Wall's eligibility have nothing, zip, zilch, nada to do with Calipari, right? In fact, the questions UK and the NCAA are currently asking about the Wall/Clifton connection stem from a visit Wall took to Kentucky while Billy Gillispie was still the head coach.

And don't play it like the Big Four let the kid walk. Duke recruited Wall heavily 'til the day he chose Kentucky, and there was some late involvement from North Carolina in there as well, if I remember right.

I'm not trying to defend Calipari. As people on this thread have said, there's usually fire when there's smoke. But this situation has absolutely nothing to do with John Calipari. Nothing at all. All you have to do to figure that out is read the story.

 

I can't prove it, but Wall was probably upset that Roy Williams wasn't knocking on his door sooner. As for Duke, I was a little surprised Mike Krzyzewski bothered much.

Maybe this isn't all on John Calipari. But fact is, he and/or his staff doesn't do much in the way of character study. Didn't do it at Amhurst and didn't do it at Memphis. Think he's suddenly worried about that in Lexington?

 

That's not what you said. What you said was suspicious goings-on UNDER Calipari. Which this was not.

 

But Kentucky has two freshmen whose eligibility is under question. Not just John Wall.

And the head coach is now ... ? If John Calipari were really concerned with NCAA guidelines, this either would have been investigated internally and never made it this far, or Calipari could have chosen to go without them. The latter isn't going to happen with Cal - instead of doing his background work, he'll work with them now and ask questions only when someone else is holding his feet to the fire.

 

Who is the other freshman with eligibility questions at UK?

And Kentucky is doing it's background research. That's why the questions are out there now. I'm not sure what Wall being disappointed with NC not coming after him sooner has to do with anything, but whatever. The fact of the matter is that you were wrong. This didn't happen under Calipari, it has nothing to do with Calipari, and it doesn't reflect negatively on Calipari (except for the people who absolutely want it to). Is he supposed to have prior knowledge of an unofficial visit to UK that happened before he was even considered for the job? I'm not saying the guy is Mr. Clean, but at least give him a chance to screw up at Kentucky before you jump his ass.

Read the story, know what you're talking about. It isn't that hard.

 

A.) It's one freshman at Kentucky, at least in this story. If there's another, I know nothing of it.

B.) They've been investigating it internally for months, as mentioned in the article.

 

SM51 is just mad that Calipari said Jake Delhomme sucks.

 

The crawl below the WVa/USF football game tonight says Kentucky frosh Wall cleared to play after opener.
Guess that means he may miss one game - the opener.

More on Sidney later, I guess.

In other news that might be thread-worthy, Kentucky may not beat Mississippi State tomorrow ... and Georgia may not beat Florida.
Also, UConn or Kansas may not win the men's NCAA hoops crown this season.