Seems that former Indiana and Texas Tech head coach and sometime TV personality Bobby Knight just can't pass up an opportunity to rip John Calipari and the University of Kentucky, even if it means resorting to slander. His most recent effort apparently happened in Wabash, Indiana in response to a question that was clearly fishing for just such a reaction:
"Kentucky, year before last, started five players in the NCAA tournament games that had not been to class that semester. That's that one and done philosophy," said Knight.
What we know for a fact is that there was one player who quit going to class after the season was over -- Daniel Orton -- not five. We also know that John Wall had a 3.5 in the spring semester Knight says he didn't attend class, and the Patrick Patterson, one of the five he mentioned, graduated in only three years from Kentucky. We finally know that both DeMarcus Cousins and Eric Bledsoe left the school in good academic standing, and the three non-drafted players, Perry Stevenson, Ramon Harris and Mark Krebs, graduated from Kentucky.
Apparently, Mitch Barnhart has had about all of Bob Knight he can stand. He issued this statement to Alan Cutler of Lex 18 in response:
"The University of Kentucky, our student-athletes and their families take great offense to the blatantly erroneous comments made by Bob Knight that ‘Kentucky, year before last, started five players in the NCAA Tournament games that had not been to class that semester," "UK Athletics Director Mitch Barnhart said in a statement released to LEX 18 Sports.
The article goes on to describe Knight's anti-Calipari rants as largely situational. Patrick Patterson issued a tweet with his own brief thoughts on the matter:
Ha. I'm not even gonna comment on such #bs (excuse my French) think me graduating and teammates GPA's speak for themselves.. don't u?
Heh. Apparently Coach Knight either can't be bothered with facts, Patrick. They're just way too inconvenient to his argument, and the little crusade he is on. All I can say is, if none of the players drafted in the 2010 draft went to class last year, they must be very smart, indeed, considering their results.
UPDATE: A couple of relevant tweets:
The Sporting News's Mike DeCourcy: "How much incorrect information about Kentucky is Bob Knight allowed to disseminate before people stop listening to Knight about Kentucky?"
Gregg Doyel, CBS Sportsline: "Bob Knight is a bad guy. Great coach. Valued education. Didn't cheat. But a bad guy."
These days, you gotta have video. Watch it if you can stand it. A2D2 had this a long time before I did.