It just goes on and on. I suspect as we get closer to the start of basketball season all these nay sayers will find other stories to write about besides all things UK. Let’s hope anyway. But, hey bring it on, because we in the Big Blue Nation can take it. Right people?

… as I implied last year, the worst is yet to come. Just wait until Calipari and UK start winning. It will be a free-for-all.

That said, I have utmost confidence that Sandy Bell and the gang are on the trail. I mean, if WE knew about Brian Clifton two years ago I sure as heck hope THEY knew when the kid verballed and then applied for admission, etc.

Note to handlers: YOU’RE KILLING YOUR KIDS’ CHANCES…

We will be okay. We will be okay. :-)
UK’s compliance dept. will not allow the NCAA to say he is eligible and then say maybe not, IMO

GO BIG BLUE !!!

let me remind you all, having watched Cal up close and personal here in memphis, no one, and i mean NO ONE loves to play the “no one loves us”, “no one believes in us”, “its us against the world,” and so on as much as Cal. He will use all this attention to get the kids focused on bball…..

Based on what I saw on ESPN’s ticker “Wall’s eligibility in question”, it made me think he wouldn’t be allowed to play, period, which scared the crap out of me. After reading about the allegations, I finally understood that his only “crime” was taking one too many visits to UK and questioning his coach’s involvement as an “agent” (and why does an AAU coach need to be an agent anyway?). Either way, he will not miss the entire season (based on these accusations alone), maybe only three or four games and that’s only if he doesn’t just have to pay his coach back for the trips to UK he took that were “unofficial”. In which case, “Well, ok, here’s your $200 bucks. Can I go make history now?”, not that big a deal.

This is just a case of the media over sensationalizing a story and making statements out of context just to stir up controversy. And in case you were wondering what games he might miss, here are our first four games: Campbellsville, Morehead, Clarion, and Miami of Ohio. Call me cocky, but I don’t think we’ll really need him for those first two weeks, NCAA. So, if it makes you feel better and it makes ESPN shut up then take away those four games, we’ll see your crying asses in the post season as SEC champions.

I believe to show the support ASOB has for the University of Kentucky basketball program, we should all throw in and help Wall pay back the money he may have gotten from his agent/coach. We could hide the moe=ney in a pizza box and have it delivered to Wall on some rainy evening under the cover of darkness.
I’m down for a dollar.
Any one else?

I’ll personally give him the money.

That’s not a violation, is it?

and to be honest, if UK knew there was an eligibility issue, I think they still go after Wall….3 games…truthfully, if I was Cal, I would have said it as soon as he declared, if I knew. I would have walked right up to the mike and said, ok….now that he has committed, we have to deal with this issue we found during his recruiting. We know what it is….it could mean a 3 game suspension, but we will deal with that if and when it happens. God Forsaken NCAA cannot distinguish between someone trying to violate the system and a kid trying to showcase his talent….maybe we should ban the AAU?

Despite all the rationalizations, the summer (!) of glory, Kentucky fans, broadly speaking, haven’t really faced up to the possibility that while Calipari has them imagining heights they haven’t yet climbed together, he also has the potential to leave their program wrecked again. Maybe they should consider this a reality check.

I don’t think that’s so incendiary. The fact is that Calipari does have the potential to put us in another “Kentucky’s Shame” type situation. That’s not to say he will, but I’m not on the “no way it happens here!” bandwagon. Sure, his name was never brought up in the UMass and Memphis scandals, but you can’t tell me those incidents didn’t leave a bad taste in their fans’ mouths.

Obviously, this particular situation has nothing to do with Kentucky or Calipari and has “Wall Only” implications, which are apparently minor. But I’m not sipping Calipari’s jamba juice just yet.

Down here, all of our AAU teams have to “raise money” to travel….we have tenderloin sales, pizza kits….pretty much anything they can do to raise money for their travel. Can any of that blow back on the kids that play???I mean, the kids do most of the fundraising, them and their parents, but coaches help too…..

on a point i mentioned in an early blog about prior relationships -

it is interesting that part of the mitigating factor was a relationship prior to 9th grade.

although it is a reach to assume the ncaa will be consistent in its decision making, the fact that clifton was associated with wall since 9 years old (i believe that is what i have read) should make this easy to resolve.

of course, there will always be some that say coach cal should have know who wall was befriending at age 9……

Okay. John Wall is an otherworldly talent, but let us not forget another guard who signed with UK. Eric Bledsoe could have gone elsewhere. In fact, his high school coach and others encouraged that. Instead, Bledsoe chose UK To me that speaks volumes about the young man’s drive and desire. Sort of a Randall Cobb type maybe?

has nothing to do with Wall’s guilt or Calipari’s actual record. It is that the NCAA has absolute say over all so the facts surrounding the case mean nothing. They could decide to punish Calipari because they do not like him or simply because. They could re-instate Wall and erase every game from the books years from now. It has happened and it will surely happen again. The only question is whether it does in this case and since facts do not matter there will be no way to know until it is too late.