By Paul Gotham
It’s one thing to lose – make sure you don’t lose twice.
Sage advice shared by many a coach.
In the past, the suggestion of such words offered perspective for young athletes. Losing a single contest should serve as an opportunity for learning. One needs to make sure to not lose respect through such a process – respect for the opponent, respect for the game, and respect for oneself.
On this day like so many other days, with sports stories swirling through the ticker, those words of advice need to find the ears of Coach John Calipari.
The Memphis Tigers’ 2007-2008 season faces extinction. Like a common advertisement delivered by the post man quickly whisked to the circular file, college basketball fans can dispose of the Memphis run to the NCAA finals. For John Calipari, this is not the first time through such an experience.
Followers can consider what might have been for those teams that lost to Memphis. There was the first round victory over Texas-Arlington. It didn’t matter. The Mavericks earned a sixteen seed and would have only fallen to someone else.
Then came the three-point victory over Mississippi State in the second round. Memphis promptly blew out the ‘Sweet Sixteen’ candles of Michigan State before eliminating Texas and earning a spot in the Final Four. UCLA posed little threat to the Tigers in a national semi-final decided by 15 points.
Maybe fans of those schools can seek the counsel of Central Florida, Stanford, Arkansas, and Georgetown. After all, those teams found themselves trudging through the manure of John Calipari’s University of Massachusetts Minutemen as they rode their horses into the 1996 Final Four.
Forgive me if I overlook those injustices.
I find it difficult to believe Coach Cal is “not implicated in either instance.”
Calipari made famous the mantra: ‘Refuse to Lose.’ As if he possessed some deep understanding of the virtues needed to inspire young men on a quest to become part of something larger than themselves.
Now, it seems impossible to separate Calipari from the allegations of a fraudulent SAT score, doctored high school grades, and paid trips for relatives.
Yet Calipari has conveniently left all of that behind as he now prepares his Kentucky Wildcats for the upcoming season.
Calipari and his fans can rationalize all they want. Hey! at least Calipari isn’t like that thug Michael Vick who killed defenseless dogs, lied to the Feds, and smoked pot.
No, Calipari didn’t do those things. All he did, in his dapper suit with a clean-shaven face, is lead a team of young men. And he led them to believe in another mantra: “It ain’t cheating unless you get caught.” Now, it seems Calipari has even figured out how to manipulate that adage. Calipari’s new motto reads: it ain’t cheating when you can run from the consequences.
Maybe, Calipari could consider the wisdom found on a wall of the Philadelphia Palestra: “To win the game is great . . . To play the game is greater . . . But to love the game is the greatest of all.”
Winning is NOT the most important thing; loving the game is what matters. For all those who came before him, Calipari needs to take responsibility for what he has done. From now on, all of us will wonder what could have really happened in the 2008 NCAA tournament.
Let’s hope Michael Vick is not like John Calipari. Let’s hope Vick can make good on his second chance.
Amen..
See my comments on Open Thread Thursday. Not only should John Calipari be held accountable – shouldn’t Derrick Rose be held accountable.
Shouldn’t Calipari’s mantra be: ” Do what it takes to get here. I’ll make you millions.”
Or should it be Gordon Gekko’s: “Greed is good.”
Good article, Casey.
Right or wrong … Looks like Kentucky is tired of loving the game and wants to go back to winning.
Lastly, it’s not just Calipari at Memphis … it’s the whole Athletic Dept there. It’s not the coach’s job to ensure that a player’s grades in H.S. and their SAT are legit … it’s the school’s job. Throw in the Admissions Dept as well for criticism here. This is an “institutional failure” and their controls need a major revamping. Or nothing will happen, of course, if the school is okay with taking these risks. It will be interesting to see what the school’s President does going forward. I’m not excusing Calipari here … all I’m saying is that his employer is just as culpable … if not more.
Wally – I don’t think anyone is disputing Memphis’ responsibility in this as a University.
I think it is the fact that Calipari seems to walk away from this with a free pass. This is the second University that Calipari has coached, where there has been recruiting “issues”.
Apparently Calipari is that good of salesman, that he gets 2 universities to sell their soul for the sake of winning.
Smitty —
Again, the school is bigger than the coach … and they hired him!!! If the school doesn’t seem to give a flip about NCAA ethics and standards, then they’ll get what they deserve. It’s up to the school to police it’s employees/coaches !!! And again, it should be up to the AD and Admissions Dept to check out recruits credentials.
Apparently at Memphis, Calipari acted in accordance with what expectations are there. Is he a saint? No. Eventually, the schools will learn … IF THEY REALLY CARE. Note: some schools are willing to take these risks and have very lackluster, if not non-existent, controls. How about USC and what’s been going on there with Reggie Bush … and the recently canned Tim Floyd???
And what are you gonna do to Derrick Rose at this point??? Give him a detention???
Detentions? No. But how about reimbursement for his room, board, and tuition while he used the facilities on the campus.
Okay. But isn’t that like a detention to a multimillionaire like Rose? I don’t think he’s gonna miss the $15-20k from his $15 million bank account. Furthermore, I don’t think Memphis Univ should be reimbursed … afterall, they screwed this up, too. Let the $ go to charity … or at least to the non-athlete scholarship fund.
Fair enough.
The next move – Calipari should be suspended without pay for a season. I can’t stomach the fact that some ‘Mr. Smith’ the compliance officer takes a fall for this. You don’t think Calipari tried to see what he could get away with?
Now I think you’re on to something. I’m all for punishing the coach, too … but only if you can essentially “prove” that he knowingly let this happen. Might be hard to do. The NCAA would have to establish some more rules and protocol for investigating rules violations, etc.
But still … you’re missing my point to a degree … I think the AD is the main person who should take the fall for something like this. He hires and “supervises” both the coach and the compliance officer. HE’s THE ONE that should be tarred and feathered. And if he doesn’t have a compliance officer it’s because he doesn’t care what the coaches do … and the univ should fire him and be put on severe probation.
Ok. But Calipari was there for a few years. He built up trust with the department.
Look at it another way – if you misappropriate some funds at work, is your boss going down?
Actually, yes, my boss probably would go down cuz it happened right under his nose.
At D-1 schools, this is the way IT SHOULD work: Coach or assistant identifies a kid he wants and notifies a “recruiting coordinator” or somebody up in the AD’s office who should work with Admissions, or on their own, to do a background/academic check on the player. If fraudulent test scores or grades are gonna be caught, that’s where it should happen. Actually, “should” might be too strong a word, cuz I don’t think this type of fraud is all that easy to catch. How would Calipari know about this??? Now, if you can show he knew about it, that’s a different story and he should be severely disciplined.
Now when it comes to cash payments, I will definitely put that more at the feet of the coach. Who made the payment(s) and what is that person’s relationship to the coach??? Still, cash payments could come from a booster or some other “renegade influence” without the coach’s or assistant’s knowledge.
You could have changed Calipari to Kaplan, the SAT prep guys.
I think a red flag should have gone up for everyone the minute he did well on the SATs. He failed the ACT – 3 times.
My problem with this thing and Wally – you are right – how can punish him. But Rose knowlingly committed fraud by having someone take the test for him. If he wasn’t eligible to play for Memphis, then what? He is Brandon Jennings? Goes over to Europe for a year or two and quite possibly, isn’t as a high a draft pick?
And the NCAA gave the okay on Rose’s eligibility. Now there defense will probably be that they are as good as what information the player and University give them. But then again – so is the University. Unless the University watches their recruits walk in and take the SATs – how are they going to prevent it?
Rose’s spokesperson released a statement basically stating that he was glad the NCAA found he did nothing wrong. Huh? Is he serious? His first comment should have been an apology to everyone that has an affiliation with Memphis.
Interesting fact – John Calipari is the only coach to have 2 Final Fours trips vacated because of recruiting violations. Waaay too much of a coincidence. I think he is very good at not having the finger point back at him.
Simon – 🙂 Great stuff. Helmet sticker!
Wally – don’t get me wrong. The university has to share responsibility. But Calipari should not be able to get away with this. Calipari and his staff started the recruitment of Rose. He should have taken a look at the kid’s academic record and noticed the warning signs. Instead, he chose to ignore those red flags and look at the kid’s talent.
As long as we, he American public, idolize and patronize sports, then what happened with Memphis has to become accepted as a part of the fabric of sports. I don’t know that punishment will deter; the stakes have become too high. People will just find a new way to “not get caught”. Is Memphis State to blame? Is their AD to blame? Is Calipari to blame? Is Rose to blame? I believe WE are to blame. You and me and everyone who makes sports such an important part of our daily existence. Punishment of individuals may hurt those individuals a bit, but it won’t deter others and it won’t rectify the wrongs done to all of those effected by the cheating. Punish? Certainly! But who? The guiltiest walk away unblemished for the most part and the innocent bystanders catch the brunt. Sports sucks! But I watch anyway!
Thanks to sidebars on The Bench I finally know why Pitino is having a bad week. They are ALL bums (except Coach K)!
🙂
This Blue Devil fan does not think Roy Williams is a bum.
They do in KANSAS!
Very true