Kentucky Basketball: The Tie That Binds

I think it really struck me when something Matt Jones said made me think about how pathetic it is, this $1200 payment of rent. It really got me “right here.”

Bledsoe’s mother wound up defaulting on her lease, and owes one of her accusers $3,200 or something like that. Stuff like that bums me out.

As long as Cal recruits young men in difficult financial circumstances, this type of thing will be a risk. But I promise you, he will not stop.

cathartic not lethargic

One would think those things would be easy to notice. :-)

Same to you on Memorial Day.

It’s nice, hot and humid here in Kentucky, by the way. Just the way I like it. :-)

“If a kid is less privileged, it doesn’t mean he should be hung out to dry.”

Nor should he receive special treatment with regard to college eligibility. If you can qualify – on your own – you’re in. If not, there’s other opportunities out there. He went to college for one year. He could have played in Europe for one year, or prep school to figure it out, or a JC.

Bledsoe’s personal evironment doesn’t forgive the path his “handlers” (for lack of a better term)chose to get him into the NBA. And for the record, my comments have nothing to do with Bledsoe (I hear he’s a wonderful kid), Calipari, or UK. It has to do with a life philosophy. Help those that need help, within the confines of the rules, and to the extent that they will put forth the necessary effort within their means to warrant the help.

I liked the article better than the comments I guess.

I also know that his mom’s rent wasn’t getting paid b/c some missionary felt sorry for his family. He was chosen to be helped b/c he played basketball really well. There was a quid pro quo here. It does sort of strike at the heart of amature status and all. Of course, we could do the Olympic thing and just get rid of that dirty A-word altogether. I’m not even saying that tongue in cheek. But I think there is a little glossing over the reason for the season. This wasn’t a Toys for Tots gift. This was (if true) a gift by a coach or his HS booster to get a player that would win him a championship.

I have no idea if he made the payments or not. He denies doing so.

Whether it can ever be proven that he did, I have no clue.

Happiness is playing golf in Henderson, KY with another nephew and youngest son!

Thank God your nephew is well and safe. He does us all great honor with his service.

I’ve just got to swing at it.

Are you seriously using John Thompson as an example of what a coach should aspire to? The us against the world mentality? Per Wikipedia, 6.5% of the student body in 2008 was black. How many black non athletes were on the Georgetown campus during the Thompson years?

Black, white or green…..Thompson taught his kids to be thugs on the court. The championship against Villanova is the only time I’ve ever seen a kid GRAB another kid in a bear hug and fall down trying to make it look like he’d been charged…..who taught him that?

If the NCAA had to balls to shine the same spot light of scrutiny on Thompson’s program that they have on Cal’s……..maybe you wouldn’t be posting on this site.

Btw….just so you KNOW. I’m a 53 year old white guy with 2 black sister-in-laws and 5 black nieces and nephews that I love and would NEVER want to be around John Thompson.

… by UK compliance and twice by the NCAA.

Let me as this question. If a kid has "red flags", but the questions concerning them are all answered, should universities not offer him a scholarship even if he is qualified? I think that’s what I’m saying here.

Many kids have academic questions, but often they are answered to the satisfaction of the NCAA. Many of the kids with these kinds of questions are poor, and the reasons for their earlier academic difficulties can often be traced to their lack of paternal guidance. Bledsoe and Camby are classic examples of the kind of at-risk youth I am talking about.

There has been no rule-breaking by UK or Calipari.  That is a fact.  Yet you accuse him as though he engaged in some kind of unethical behavior.

Is it unethical to offer a qualified young man a scholarship, absent any knowledge other than academic questions which have been satisfactorily answered?  Calipari has not broken any rules, ever.  He is exactly like John Thompson in this regard.

So what is your problem, exactly?  Seems you don’t really have one, you just want to hate on Calipari.

If it is proven that Cal has anything to do with paying bledsoe’s rent he/uk should be punished.

that being said, if georgetown or uk or any school for that matter did not recruit kids of bledoes background, then there would not be enough kids to fill out the rosters of the major basketball programs.

living in memphis, i know of some bigtime football recruits who have had “help” with the basics (from rent to food to a bed to sleep on – one high school coach bought one kid a bed so he no longer had to sleep on the couch he had slept on his first 15 years of his life). maybe that is breaking the rules, but this coach did not try to influence his college choice and quite frankly compasion is compasion…

i am not condoning coach cal or uk boosters paying to get kids to uk. i also know its a slippery slope to start looking the other way when a high school coach helps a kid out. but to act like such “help” is the exception and not the rule is living in a fantasy world – also, to say these kids should be avoided at all costs is the type of ivory tower thinking that got us into this mess in the first place.

this is not a uk problem or a georgetown problem – it is much bigger than that….

Not because it mentions me and quotes my work, but because it is brave enough to look the problem square in the eye.

It should be required reading for everyone interested in this problem, rather than just bashing coaches for doing what they are paid to do. The coaches are part of the problem, to be sure, but the tendency is to isolate them as the bad actors instead of examining the social issues that are deeply woven into the fabric of college basketball.

Some threads are ugly, some are seedy, and some are just plain sad. But they are all part of the tapestry, and cannot be excised without changing it’s design.

Great. Essay.

But i would also argue that as long as kids of unlimited means are star athletes, there will always be parties around them that will either try to help out of true compassion or out of some self serving purpose.

it is not an easy issue to solve and it clearly has bigger implications for societt

… is your suggestion about a “more robust minor league.” I really do think this is a great idea, even though we are beginning to see Europe as a possible third way in lieu of that.

 I admit, that has problems as well, particularly for at-risk young men like Rose, Camby and Bledsoe, so it clearly isn’t a perfect solution.

And this paragraph is simply priceless:

A simple big broom is not the answer here. Stronger enforcement of recruiting and amateurism rules needs to work in tandem with rules and initiatives that help the NCAA, member institutions, and coaches fend off these interests from vulnerable prospects. Otherwise, the NCAA risks loading up a big gun to lay down the law, and shooting itself right in the foot.

If only some of the Basketball Focus Group would read this, and take it to heart …

This story does make a good point though. It is very clear that Coach C does heavily recruit questionable athletes. The problem is, it is against the rules and this is the 3rd time he has been caught. Unfortunately for your “kingdom”, his questionable tactics only took a year to catch up with him at UK. He was able to stay at Memphis for almost 10 years before “he had to take a better opportunity.”

It’s against the rules to recruit "questionable athletes?"  Maybe you can show me what rules forbid that.

Since you offered something marginally useful here, I won’t ban you outright.  But one more post of this tone, regardless of content, and I will consign you to /dev/null.  I don’t appreciate people from other teams coming on this blog and making mocking comments.  Read the community guidelines before you comment again, and fail to follow them at your peril.

pastner is recruiting the same kids…

Happy Memorial Day to you.

Welcome to ASoB!

See you have been reading for two years. Speak up more often!

we did. Twice!!

I think the issue is that the NCAA eligibility center is under a time crunch to get these players approved by the deadline. The "questions" don’t seem to arise until it is too late.

… that this was not the case with Bledsoe. He underwent the normal review, and then a special, more in-depth review by the eligibility center prior to being cleared.

The Memphis case, as I and others have explained, is quite a bit different. The red flags were all cleared in Bledsoe’s case up until an NCAA inquiry in February of which Kentucky was not notified. That was not the case with Rose — he had pre-season and in-season red flags pop up of which the University of Memphis was aware.

If that had happened at UK, Sandy Bell would have insisted Bledsoe not be played. That, I can assure you.

You made your point, and it’s a good one. Let’s move on. :-)

Doesn’t it? Third time’s a charm? :-)

could cost Eric a dime. The NBA doesn’t care anything about the NCAA. Chicago Bulls still took Rose and he is a millionaire

Had this information come out last May instead of this May… in all likelihood he would have sat out the first couple of games (which ironically… we might have lost without his heroics) and nothing would have been said going forward.

First is that Cal CLEARLY has a target on his back. His recruits, his methods, and everything about him at UK or any other NCAA school is going to bring extra scrutiny and attention from the NCAA and the media. Because of that you have ZERO room for error. You can’t simply hide behind the Clearinghouse or the letter of the law because, as the Derrick Rose situation has proven, the NCAA will ignore their own regulations when they deem it justified.

Two things – first, Calipari’s prominence is a fact of life we knew when we hired him, and so was his propensity to ignore the economic and social circumstances of his recruits.  Second, the NCAA had an excuse to ignore its finding of eligibility in the Rose case that is defensible.

As it is, the escape clause that basketball offers is not just from poor circumstances of birth but also from the individual obligation to learn and grow. Education is a huge part of that. The willingness to recruit players with a strong suspicion that things are not what they appear is a green light to others to provide a false appearance.

I disagree with your general application of this argument.  In some cases, it is so.  In others, it is not.  Just as some regular students drop out of school and never obtain their degree, some players will not return to college after their careers are over.

But surprisingly many do.

What’s wrong with saying, Hey Kid, no one can tell if you were really doing this work. No one can tell if you were sincere about educating yourself. You can still play ball, get a scholarship, and maybe some day be a pro. But you can’t do it at a school that guarantees enough exposure for a lottery pick.

I think the problem is that Calipari would never agree to such an arrangement, for good or ill.  This is what we signed up for, and this is what we will get.

… is an example of the combination of a very bad fan and genuine ignorance. He has been placed where he belongs.

for this excellent post.

Poor kids respond to their circumstance in a huge spectrum of fashions. Vastly more poor kids try and fail at leveraging themselves out of poverty with education than sports. Basketball prodigies try sports because they perceive that’s their competitive advantage.

In the end, we can happily say this of Eric leveraging his athletic skills to better his family’s circumstances: It worked.

Good luck to Eric and his family!