Friday, May 29, 2009

Give the Coach Cal Thing a Rest

I grew up in Mass. I was a teenager when I loved Marcus Camby, Lou Roe, Edgar Padilla and the rest. Who was the coach? Coach John Calipari.

He made the Final 4 and never looked back. At a time when Jim Calhoun, another Boston product from Northeastern, was making his name, everyone in Mass wanted to embrace the Italian out West. Soon he left, ending up at Memphis, and eventually a vacated Final 4 followed for recruiting violations (Camby accepting payment from an agent).

Coach Cal rocked it in Conference USA. In fact he went 219-65. Pretty f’n great by anyone’s standards. Clearly the conference wasn’t up to par with other major conferences, and Coach Cal clearly recruited faaaaaaar superior talent, but still, a win is a win. Remember even back to last year when he and his crew drew a #1 seed and made it to the finals, which they only lost due to Mario Chalmers.

Fast-forward. Today allegations of Memphis accepting a recruit who cheated on his SAT’s during the 07-08 season surfaced. In fact, they surfaced in January but are just reported now. Rumor has it the cheater was star player and future #1 draft pick Derrick Rose. (For anyone who has heard a Derrick Rose news conference, you are no where close to surprised!)

People will pretend they are offended. Competitors of Memphis will pretend they are pissed. Derrick Rose will deny as long as he can, and apologize emphatically once he can no longer deny. I promise this is the course of events.

What’s the real deal though?

#1 Coach Cal gets it, which is why he got the Kentucky job, recruit the best, don’t get caught, if you do, move to the next school before you are found out (I promise he’ll be more careful in the Bluegrass State)

#2 Derrick Rose cheated on his SAT’s. If the NBA’s age minimum wasn’t in place he never would have taken them and still have been a Top 5 pick. Still, I see a lawsuit from some smart person who realizes that their 1040 is bogus, because if Derrick Rose could cheat, who else could of, and therefore the percentile is bullshit.

#3 At the end of the day, the NCAA is the minors for the NBA, STOP TRYING TO BE SOMETHING ELSE!!!

#4 I recently read that when Mark Prior was a Senior at USC and picked by the CUBS he became one of 17 college graduates in all of baseball. 25 people per team, 32 teams, do the math. We need to stop holding basketball to another standard.

At the end of the day Derrick should not have cheated, Coach Cal should not have turned the other cheek, the NBA should have different rules, and who the hell cares.

I’m pissed someone cheated on the test. Other than that, let’s face facts. These people have unique talents like Einstein did at 13, only instead of the Theory of Relativity, they are Relative Every Time We Turn on ESPN. You know what I mean. Let’s slap Memphis on the wrist, let Derrick Rose go, leave Coach Cal alone and accept college basketball for what it is!!!

No comments: