Positives:

Barnhart brought UK in line with the rest of the SEC in all sports, as far as recruiting budgets, and coaches pay. Something Newton and Ivy failed to do.

He stuck with Brooks when EVERYONE with a keypad and a forum were calling for his head.

He hired a great baseball coach in John Cohen, and did all he could to keep Cohen from returning to his alma mater. The jury is still out on Henderson, but so far, he’s proved to be an able recruiter.

Barnhart was the impetus behind making Joker “coach in waiting,” which right now, looks like a great idea. Time will tell, though.

If you care about minor sports — He hired the current softball coach, who has put together the best team in UK history.

Barnhart was the impetus (and primary fundraiser) behind the Craft Center, which is the absolute best basketball practice facility in the country.

He smartly enlisted the help and advice of Mike Pratt in the latest basketball coach search, which resulted in the hiring of Calipari.

Negatives:

He didn’t really handle the whole Tubby thing very well.

He hired Gillispie. And some people think he didn’t handle the “Gillispie affair” very well, but I am NOT one of them.

Most of the vitriol for Barnhart comes from the old school UK folks, because he raised ticket prices, and got rid of some athletic department personnel who had been with the university for many years.

I don’t really care if people like Barnhart or not … he’s not perfect, but he’s the best AD UK has had in 40 years.

I think if Sypher had gone to the police initially and made some kind of complaint and an investigation ensued, then this would be a whole different saga playing out. For one, had this happened, Pitino would have had no grounds for calling the FBI and alleging extortion and he would simply be the subject of some type of investigation which no doubt the media would be all over.

Was that there have been allegations of sexual impropriety surrounding Pitino for the last 20 years. Seriously… who here hasn’t heard a rumor of Pitino and UK cheerleaders or that his mysterious “back problem” from a couple years ago was actually a secondary syphillis infection? Those rumors have been in the general public for years. You don’t have to be an insider to have heard that.

What the Sypher case brings to the table is a new allegation of sexual impropriety that has made its way into the legal system. The reason it has such staying power is because it plays on the old rumors that we’ve all heard before.

Someone could start a rumor about me that I beat my girlfriend and no one would believe it. If however, I had a history of getting in fights in public or being an obnoxious boor everywhere I go… that rumor would gain ground even if it wasn’t true.

A more recent example is the frequent allegations that Coach Gillispie was out on the town drinking and carousing non-stop. Nevermind that not one single cell phone camera ever seems to have caught him skinny dipping with waitresses at a hotel pool or staggering down Man O’ War Blvd, the fact that he had a previous record of an arrest for DUI was all the proof many people needed.

That’s what is happening to coach Pitino. This may very well all be a fabrication, but it has the sound of old familiar rumors that make the general public unwilling to drop the issue.

I think you are being unduly harsh to Tru in this instance. The lack of anything from the media out of Louisville and Lexington is deafening in its silence. These are the same media that crucified our last governor for sending emails that said “He’s a good R.” This is the same news media that chased Billy Gillispie down a hallway. If there’s one thing our state media has never been, its reluctant to chase a story no matter how thin. Tru’s commentary was fair and I think some questions should be asked about the way the story is being covered.

Your mileage may vary.

… even though he had NEVER broken any rules..???

There’s something going on here HozeQueen, not saying it’s all Rick’s fought, but the water is dirty and little Rick has been swimming in it…

about Calipari’s recruiting violation rumors, if I recall correctly..

How is that different then the Pitino rumors…?

Oh, I see how, You’re a Loserville fan, so it’s ok to post

You have to ask yourself..

…

why would UK open the program up to curiosity and scrutiny with this hire?

but a Pintino rumor…OH GAWD NO…. NEVER…

What a joke

He loves targeting me as well, I’ve come to notice.

We don’t sit around here patting each other on the back. We engage in heated discussions all the time. Speaking only for myself, I’ve been involved in heated discussions with daniel81 over John Wall’s recruitment and with Forty over Gillispie-bashing all in the last two weeks.

What we don’t do, however, is call into question each other’s motives and ethics. Our discussions are in no way a hug-fest—we fight, we tussle, we disagree. For the most part, however, we don’t TRY to provoke each other, and we don’t personally attack each other.

You’ve been doing a lot of that lately.

… I never objected to you disagreeing. I objected to the obvious mischaractarization of my post as a “rumor.”

Quit changing the subject, and feel free to apologize for your transparent attempt to raise a strawman, as well as the unfair attacks on my comments.

… That the allegation was of some sort of sexually-related impropriety, as reported by Fox 41. Whether or not her allegation is a fact is another matter. If you haven’t seen the Fox 41 report, do a Google search. It is out there.

We have a winner.

How is this classified as a fact? Has it come from her? Has it come from the FBI? Has her lawyer mentioned it? Again, link me into this well of knowledge.

Any allegations about SEXUAL impropriety is rumor at this point. In fact, all the allegations that she has are rumors right now. The only reason we think it was sexually related is because of a cropped photo in the CJ, and other rumor-mongering going on.

Fact: she has allegations to make that no one will air, and even her own attorney won’t let her spew them.
Fact: they aren’t even allegations until they are public.

Difficult to follow everything in Chicago, but here is my source:

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/news/story?id=4161358

She only lies to the FBI, but all her other allegations (or from your view, facts) are positively true. Sure. Right.

… and utterly irrelevant. I am not at all convinced that Rick Pitino committed a crime. In fact, I am convinced he did not commit a crime.

But that doesn’t mean he didn’t do anything wrong.

was = what

… my post the other day was not to discourage rational thought or analysis of the facts, but the passing of rumors and making absurd claims that are not remotely supportable by facts. I have re-read my comments in that FanPost, and there is no way one could rationally characterize it the way you have. I will quote the relevant passage below:

Also, I highly recommend avoiding rumor-mongering. This Pitino thing is ripe for that, and I have seen at least one Fanpost dedicated to rumors there. I think we should have more respect for our former coach than to do this, and I strongly discourage passing rumors about him. If it becomes a distraction, I will place this topic off limits, so please use good judgment on all subjects, but particularly on this one.

My reference to distraction was that of rumor-mongering, and as I strenuously pointed out above, there are no rumors in my comments. Period. The end.

Moving along. I respect that you may think me heavy-handed, but please understand that is part and parcel of how I work. I fully admit that the way I run my blog is not for everybody, and I won’t “lighten up” when someone accuses me falsely. I have a real problem with that, if my self-defense troubles you, I can only say that it isn’t meant to. I would note, not that it matters, that I did not kick him off when he stopped doing what I found offensive. I threaten to kick people off all the time, and most of the time, I am forced to follow through. I don’t have to tolerate a deliberate mischaracterization of my work, and I reserve the right to take any action I deem necessary to defend both my reputation and my my blog. What I am saying is, you’ll just have to take me as I am, and I make no apology for that.

I understand where you are coming from with respect to Forty, but I frankly think your comments are misplaced. You may object all you want to Forty if he mischaracterizes your comments. It is a fact, though, that you could not respond like I did. You simply don’t have the weapons to do so. Sorry, but again, that’s the way it is. Hoze and I have a long history to which you are simply not privy, and that’s fine, you don’t need to be.

Your comment does not “piss me off,” at all, you have been most rational. But I must tell you, I don’t need your permission to ban you or anyone else when I deem it appropriate and necessary. And as far as talking about basketball, please note there is another post above which has nothing at all to do with this, and many fanposts. You chose to bring this disagreement, not I.

Just so we have that straight. :-)