Why is Kentucky worse than Kansas or...

[djdan]

...Uconn or USC or any number of other high-profile schools in the court of public opinion? Don't get me wrong, I'm not necessarily trying to defend Calipari, but from the viewpoints expressed here and around the sportsworld, you would have thought that Kentucky was playing Milan High on Monday night.

This is the Kansas program that named Mario Chalmers' dad the "director of basketball operations" at the university in order to get him to commit. Where the basketball team rumbled with the football team. That's been placed on probation. That's had multiple arrests That's had a "no transcript" scandal with one of their highest profile recruits.

Just amazing to me how Calipari and Kentucky are considered such bad guys when clearly Self, Calhoun and any host of others are just as bad if not worse.

It's college basketball. Coaches and ADs cut corners. Always have and always will.

 

[armory]

Because Kentucky hasn't gotten caught. Yet.

Kentucky = Barry Bonds.

 

[MyMeloMyMan]

High profile college basketball fans pointing the finger at other high profile programs crack me up. We are all in the same game. No one's hands are clean when you are trying to land these top 5 recruits, 90% of the time.

 

[The Governor]

...Uconn or USC or any number of other high-profile schools in the court of public opinion? Don't get me wrong, I'm not necessarily trying to defend Calipari, but from the viewpoints expressed here and around the sportsworld, you would have thought that Kentucky was playing Milan High on Monday night.

This is the Kansas program that named Mario Chalmers' dad the "director of basketball operations" at the university in order to get him to commit. Where the basketball team rumbled with the football team. That's been placed on probation. That's had multiple arrests That's had a "no transcript" scandal with one of their highest profile recruits.

Just amazing to me how Calipari and Kentucky are considered such bad guys when clearly Self, Calhoun and any host of others are just as bad if not worse.

It's college basketball. Coaches and ADs cut corners. Always have and always will.

Not to mention Darrell Arthur and the Pump Brothers.

 

[PoppyHart]

Why do people feel like Kentucky has teflon. Were they not around for their probationary period in the late 80s? Relatively speaking, Kentucky was an even bigger program back then. Duke had not won a title, UCONN had not arrived, etc... Yet the NCAA didn't back off.

 

[jncuse]

Because

 

[TinyManInside]

Bill Self is no angel. His parting gift to Illinois was to self-report 32 recruiting violations before taking the Kansas job. He has openly flaunted the no contact periods. His assistant Kurtis Townsend was at the center of recruiting violations at Cal (93-97 - landed the school on 3 years probation), then Michigan (98-01 - landed the school on 4 years probation). Then there are the Darnell Jackson $5000 illegal inducement incident, the Chalmers dad's hiring, the Darrell Arthur eligibility incident, the Morris twins incidents.

As others have mentioned in this thread, no one has totally clean hands when it comes to running a top-50ish or higher college hoops program.

 

[BlackSquirrels]

Just amazing to me how Calipari and Kentucky are considered such bad guys when clearly Self, Calhoun and any host of others are just as bad if not worse.

It's college basketball. Coaches and ADs cut corners. Always have and always will.

djdan, I'm in complete agreement.

As long as people are keeping score, college coaches are going to skirt the rules. It's about winning. I don't understand the constant bellyaching. As fans, this is the game we chose.

 

[Ghost]

In all honesty I put Kansas and Baylor right up there with Kentucky myself, so I wasn't too concerned about who won.

I would put most other programs a rung below them - UConn/USC or whomever else. I think they all obviously work under the table a bit though - I'm not that naive. I don't even know that Kansas/Baylor/Kentucky are that much worse, but I pretend that's the way it is.

It's more fun to have bad guys.

 

[newmexicuse]

Because they are the same as Indiana - beat us in a championship game (though, of course, in that game they were legitimately better than us - still it hurts !!)

 

[jr4750]

Bill Self is no angel. His parting gift to Illinois was to self-report 32 recruiting violations before taking the Kansas job. He has openly flaunted the no contact periods. His assistant Kurtis Townsend was at the center of recruiting violations at Cal (93-97 - landed the school on 3 years probation), then Michigan (98-01 - landed the school on 4 years probation). Then there are the Darnell Jackson $5000 illegal inducement incident, the Chalmers dad's hiring, the Darrell Arthur eligibility incident, the Morris twins incidents.

As others have mentioned in this thread, no one has totally clean hands when it comes to running a top-50ish or higher college hoops program.

I have often wondered why we never seemed to be on those kids in HS. Weren't they from NJ? Besides the whole family connection, they fit the bill in terms of the type of forward that JB likes. Was it an attitude issue? I'm glad you brought this up, as I figured you'd be the guy to know this anyway...

 

[Sgt Cuse]

Kansas, UConn, UCLA, SU have the problems associated with big D1 programs. Academics, drugs, 18-21 year olds getting into fights. Most people are starting to realize- that stuff happens everywhere. You dig any big program and you will find it.

UK has become the one and done capital of the world. It is now branding itself that way. Telling NN he can come and do just what A Davis did. Openly and proudly promoting the one and done. It is starting to look like an NBA farm organization. It has very few if any program guys. There is an added disgust there.

If NN, Shabaaz, and Bennett go on an ESPN special and say they are all going to UK -how would anyone outside of KY be happy. It exposes the college game as a forced waiting period for several pros. UK is now positioning itself as the best at doing this. It's a different kind of ugly.

 

[OttoMets]

Has Bill Self gotten Final Fours vacated at Illinois and Tulsa? Has any other coach had Final Fours vacated at both of his previous employers?

That's why Kentucky's worse. They hired the worst degenerate currently in the game.

 

[orangefan13]

Uk went from NIT to 3 straight number one recruiting classes. The first of which took Cal 2 months to put together.

Has anyone ever recruited 3 straight number one classes? I think that says enough right there.
Even if Cal isn't cheating on some of these recent kids his tradition was built on cheating, Getting away with it which led to a title.
You can blame guys like Wall and Cousins taking money. Alot of UK being in the game right now falls on his first few classes with no violations.

Yes UK has great fans but this gives the perception their school staff would do anything to get ahead.
I know their fans were hungry for a title but come on.

 

[AlaskaSU]

Not to mention Darrell Arthur and the Pump Brothers.

not to mention asaulting students with beebee guns.

 

[rstone7727]

Kansas, UConn, UCLA, SU have the problems associated with big D1 programs. Academics, drugs, 18-21 year olds getting into fights. Most people are starting to realize- that stuff happens everywhere. You dig any big program and you will find it.

UK has become the one and done capital of the world. It is now branding itself that way. Telling NN he can come and do just what A Davis did. Openly and proudly promoting the one and done. It is starting to look like an NBA farm organization. It has very few if any program guys. There is an added disgust there.

If NN, Shabaaz, and Bennett go on an ESPN special and say they are all going to UK -how would anyone outside of KY be happy. It exposes the college game as a forced waiting period for several pros. UK is now positioning itself as the best at doing this. It's a different kind of ugly.

Well said, this is the problem I have with Kentucky. It's not so much the cheating for me but the fact they are removing the "student" from student athlete.

 

[jekelish]

They are far from the only school taking the "student" out of student-athlete, and it's foolish to believe otherwise. Just ask Fab Melo.

And speaking of Melo, before we get on them for the one and done stuff, we need to keep in mind the fact that we wouldn't have a title without a one and done, and we would have happily taken more one and dones like Anthony Davis, so that's also an absurd argument.